So today was day number 2 out in the road. Learning to drive a big truck has pretty much been a two steps forward one step back wards ordeal for me. Which means that progress is being made it's being made slowly, but it is being made. I would like to thank everyone here for there on going support special thanks goes to ABFer, Grocery Thrower, Double R , Lazlo and Moneyman as well and Sugarfoot for showing up in the likes notifications.
Today I pretty much got my behind handed to me on starting the truck to roll from a stop. I have little to no manual car driving experience and I stalled the truck about 4 times today, one of those times was at an intersection it was out in the country, but I did have some cars behind me, I wanted the truck to be in 3rd gear and literally thought it was, but instead it was in 5th and my stars are very rocky I do not have a good feel for the clutch yet and tend to pop it and when you pop the clutch and your in gear 5 and not gear 3 it's no good. Now if I was in low gear I would just let the clutch out slowly and that would be it then shift up through the
gears, but we start out in third gear and today I was way over thinking it and my starts were rough that was my big step backwards today.
Now there was the customary missed gears and all that jazz, however my up shifting today especially this afternoon was in my opinion better, once I got the wheels moving I actually was able to run up through all the gears fairly okay. Was able to get on route 2 which is the non turnpike version of I-90 and I shifted on to the highway from gear 3 all the way up to 10 fairly well.
So the two steps forward were I was not jamming gears this afternoon and I was actually shifting through the gears upward okay. Clutch neutral clutch gear, go up to 1500 rpm or where you can hear the turbo start to kick and clutch neutral clutch gear again, then our trucks are 10 speeds so once you hit gear 5 flip the splitter up and go 6,7,8,9 and then 10 if you have to.
When I was on route 2 I shifted up to gear 10, but usually I stick around in gear 9 as my top gear.
The only time I run into gear 10 is if I am on a major interstate road and need to run at like 60 miles an hour or whatever. Usually 60 is fast enough (I don't think our trucks at school go any faster any how), Ohio's speed limit is 70 for everyone, but 60 is fast enough in a big truck especially for me driving, actually from what Mr.Grocery Thrower has said, him and I could have a small 2 truck convoy on the highway, he could set the pace in his Sysco truck and I would follow I wasn't going a mile over 60 so were pretty much set perfect for each other, it would be a fun little convoy ha-ha
Now if I was in my bus I would go right up to 70 no problem. Especially if I was in a newer MCI or Prevost with the Detroit 60 Series and the Allison automatics those big time buses like the MCI 4500s which are like the work horses those, things are very powerful and are built like a 1994 Chevy Impala SS where you hit the pedal and the speedometer keeps going up.
There is a guy in my class who drives the big buses for a living and he actually likes the bus business has no desire to leave it, just wants to pull a trailer with his buses and because of that needs to up grade his CDL to an A, he said those MCI's you put them in drive and they pretty much do there thing he said the company he works for got bought out by another bus company said they have the brand new top of the line MCI buses at his new company nothing older then 2013 said those buses cost $600,000 a piece. He told me what company he works for and I looked them up and there nice buses for bus line haul work they are absolutely top of the line, those MCI buses are really very nice pieces of machinery very expensive to buy, even used there a fortune.
The one thing though today that I learned and it really helped and Moneyman said it yesterday is you have to figure it out on your own and do your own thing. The instructor told me today "We can't let shifting distract us from what is going on out side." It pretty much is just like that, what's going on out side of the truck is more important then fighting with the shifter. Like turns and railroad tracks, I will not will not shift gears when cornering no shifting during corners and that makes total sense you need to be watching the road in front of you and the trailer especially the trailer I have my eye on the trailer the whole time.
As for down shifting I did the best I could today, but when conditions dictated and they did come up I said "Forget it." I clutched to the floor and eased on the break, like maybe I down shifted a couple gears, but was having trouble getting into a proper gear and said "Forget it at this point stopping is more important." So I would just bring it to a stop at the light or the stop sign and then shift it into third and start over from the top, that's really all you can do. The bottom line is at that point getting stopped is priority over fighting with the shifter, which is what I would do. So that kind of took an edge off of things.
Any how I have my bus retest tomorrow, I do not care about it as much, which is good, because that means I am confident and I have this tendency to stress and way over think things, and nothing good has ever come of that. That is my biggest problem in the truck is over thinking.
Alright that's enough this post is to long as it is and that is one nice thing, they let us drive the truck for an hour then switch to someone else, which is good, because a green person like me needs a break to let everything sink in, take a break watch someone else drive and cool your jets and then give it another shot later.
Even doing backing maneuvers in the yard there is only so many times you back the truck up through the cones, after about the 4th time backing through the cones you don't do any better and need to get out and take a break and let someone else go.
Any how that's all I got, I'm going to go do a mock bus pre trip just for the heck of it, catch you on the flip side.
Mike
P.S.
On a much lighter note and this is something that has never happened to me before, I was driving my pick up truck home from school today and I was coming up to a red light and my left foot involuntarily kicked for the clutch. My pick up truck is an automatic and that was the first time that has ever happened to me. After it happened I said to my self "Did you really just do that?" I thought it was pretty funny and maybe a sing of some kind of progress ha-ha.
Today I pretty much got my behind handed to me on starting the truck to roll from a stop. I have little to no manual car driving experience and I stalled the truck about 4 times today, one of those times was at an intersection it was out in the country, but I did have some cars behind me, I wanted the truck to be in 3rd gear and literally thought it was, but instead it was in 5th and my stars are very rocky I do not have a good feel for the clutch yet and tend to pop it and when you pop the clutch and your in gear 5 and not gear 3 it's no good. Now if I was in low gear I would just let the clutch out slowly and that would be it then shift up through the
gears, but we start out in third gear and today I was way over thinking it and my starts were rough that was my big step backwards today.
Now there was the customary missed gears and all that jazz, however my up shifting today especially this afternoon was in my opinion better, once I got the wheels moving I actually was able to run up through all the gears fairly okay. Was able to get on route 2 which is the non turnpike version of I-90 and I shifted on to the highway from gear 3 all the way up to 10 fairly well.
So the two steps forward were I was not jamming gears this afternoon and I was actually shifting through the gears upward okay. Clutch neutral clutch gear, go up to 1500 rpm or where you can hear the turbo start to kick and clutch neutral clutch gear again, then our trucks are 10 speeds so once you hit gear 5 flip the splitter up and go 6,7,8,9 and then 10 if you have to.
When I was on route 2 I shifted up to gear 10, but usually I stick around in gear 9 as my top gear.
The only time I run into gear 10 is if I am on a major interstate road and need to run at like 60 miles an hour or whatever. Usually 60 is fast enough (I don't think our trucks at school go any faster any how), Ohio's speed limit is 70 for everyone, but 60 is fast enough in a big truck especially for me driving, actually from what Mr.Grocery Thrower has said, him and I could have a small 2 truck convoy on the highway, he could set the pace in his Sysco truck and I would follow I wasn't going a mile over 60 so were pretty much set perfect for each other, it would be a fun little convoy ha-ha
Now if I was in my bus I would go right up to 70 no problem. Especially if I was in a newer MCI or Prevost with the Detroit 60 Series and the Allison automatics those big time buses like the MCI 4500s which are like the work horses those, things are very powerful and are built like a 1994 Chevy Impala SS where you hit the pedal and the speedometer keeps going up.
There is a guy in my class who drives the big buses for a living and he actually likes the bus business has no desire to leave it, just wants to pull a trailer with his buses and because of that needs to up grade his CDL to an A, he said those MCI's you put them in drive and they pretty much do there thing he said the company he works for got bought out by another bus company said they have the brand new top of the line MCI buses at his new company nothing older then 2013 said those buses cost $600,000 a piece. He told me what company he works for and I looked them up and there nice buses for bus line haul work they are absolutely top of the line, those MCI buses are really very nice pieces of machinery very expensive to buy, even used there a fortune.
The one thing though today that I learned and it really helped and Moneyman said it yesterday is you have to figure it out on your own and do your own thing. The instructor told me today "We can't let shifting distract us from what is going on out side." It pretty much is just like that, what's going on out side of the truck is more important then fighting with the shifter. Like turns and railroad tracks, I will not will not shift gears when cornering no shifting during corners and that makes total sense you need to be watching the road in front of you and the trailer especially the trailer I have my eye on the trailer the whole time.
As for down shifting I did the best I could today, but when conditions dictated and they did come up I said "Forget it." I clutched to the floor and eased on the break, like maybe I down shifted a couple gears, but was having trouble getting into a proper gear and said "Forget it at this point stopping is more important." So I would just bring it to a stop at the light or the stop sign and then shift it into third and start over from the top, that's really all you can do. The bottom line is at that point getting stopped is priority over fighting with the shifter, which is what I would do. So that kind of took an edge off of things.
Any how I have my bus retest tomorrow, I do not care about it as much, which is good, because that means I am confident and I have this tendency to stress and way over think things, and nothing good has ever come of that. That is my biggest problem in the truck is over thinking.
Alright that's enough this post is to long as it is and that is one nice thing, they let us drive the truck for an hour then switch to someone else, which is good, because a green person like me needs a break to let everything sink in, take a break watch someone else drive and cool your jets and then give it another shot later.
Even doing backing maneuvers in the yard there is only so many times you back the truck up through the cones, after about the 4th time backing through the cones you don't do any better and need to get out and take a break and let someone else go.
Any how that's all I got, I'm going to go do a mock bus pre trip just for the heck of it, catch you on the flip side.
Mike
P.S.
On a much lighter note and this is something that has never happened to me before, I was driving my pick up truck home from school today and I was coming up to a red light and my left foot involuntarily kicked for the clutch. My pick up truck is an automatic and that was the first time that has ever happened to me. After it happened I said to my self "Did you really just do that?" I thought it was pretty funny and maybe a sing of some kind of progress ha-ha.
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