Today in truck driving school was a pretty fun day. We actually got out of our classroom hell today (not that the information is bad, just my ass is sore from sitting on those hard plastic chairs for 8 hours) and got to use the shifting simulator, get a Pre-trip Demo from some of the phase 3 students, and learn and do some work with our log books.
We started with the log books, (log books are what professional truck drivers use to keep track and monitor their hours of service, or more simply, how many hours we have been driving and working but not driving, how many hours we spend sleeping, as well as how much time we are off work. Yes, we have to account for ALL of our time even when we are not driving a truck and even on our days off.) pretty basic and simple stuff on how to do and actually making our daily logs. That was not problem, it will get more involved next week when we do our weekly totals, and get into split sleeper berth time, as well as the rules on the 70/80 hours per week rules as well as the 34 hour restart. But that doesn't happen till Monday, so I will deal with it then.
The next thing we did today was to start practicing on the shifting simulator. Now I really didn't think that shifting was going to be that big of a deal for me as have driven a manual transmission cars for several years, and figured that shifting a standard 10 speed transmission and double clutching wouldn't be that big of a stretch. Boy was I wrong!
My first attempt was disastrous! The simulator told me I was grinding nearly every gear. I felt like I had never driving a stick shift or even a car before. Now before I get too far ahead of myself let me give you a little info on shifting a 10 speed transmission. First to put it in gear you have to push the clutch all the way to the floor, after that you NEVER push the clutch down that far while moving. So while moving your only pressing the clutch down about half way to make your shifts. Now for those of you who may not know what double clutching is, it is basically just like it sounds. You have to push in the clutch (remember only half way down, not all the way) and shift from say first gear into neutral, then let the clutch all the way out, push the clutch in again (same as before only about half way down) and then shift into second gear, then let the clutch back out to complete your shift. Sounds easy right? NOT!! Firstly, every instinct in your body is to push the clutch all the way in, it feels soooo wrong not doing so. So much so that I had to adjust the seat position so I couldn't put the clutch all the way in and still stay in the seat to keep from doing it. While shifting into your next gear you have to wait on the engine RPMs to drop to the "sweet spot" (around 1000 - 1200 rpms) before trying to put it in gear or your grinding the gears. It is just really awkward. But overall upshifting is NOTHING compared to downshifting.
Downshifting is going to be my big shifting problem area. When you downshift, it is the same shifting procedure as upshifting, the only big difference is you have to accelerate the engine rpms to drop into your next lower gear! So it would go like this. 10th gear, pressing on the brake, clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out, clutch in, accelerate, shift into 9th gear, let clutch out. Sounds simple, but try getting your brain to let you press the accelerator when your supposed to be slowing down all the while shifting and double clutching! That is going to be the hard part. my brain just doesn't like to let me press my foot down on the gas peddle when downshifting. But I will get it, it might take some time and a few clutches and transmissions, but by golly I will get it. Thankfully, everyone in class performed about the same as I did there first time on the simulator, and we all got a good laugh at ourselves in the process.
The last thing we did today was our Pre-trip demonstration which a few of the phase 3 students gave to us. There is 183 items on the pre-trip inspection that we have to know, name, and identify to pass the CDL test. It is allot of stuff to remember but once I get a sequence down of doing it I shouldn't have any problems. It is just a bit overwhelming.
Tomorrow I hope will be a better day in the simulator. I have a feeling I will be spending much of my free time there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
And this is partly the reason I would likely never want to drive such a beast :-P
So does this mean that once it becomes second nature to you I get to do all the car driving to save the transmissions in our cars?
You are so not funny!
Post a Comment