Well today was quite an......experience, lets just say. For the past week and half I have bitching to my instructors that I haven't really pulled a 53' trailer like I wanted to. I wanted to pull the 53' trailer on the new city driving routes so I would be challenged.
Well ask and you shall receive, maybe more than you really want. Today I got my wish. I was assigned a 53' trailer, with the same Non-turning Peterbuilt truck and took the most challenging route assigned, K route. I now realize that I should have tried this new route with a 48' trailer first, but that wouldn't be like real life, so my stubborn ass told myself, and never did.
Well to keep the post a reasonable length, I needed to button-hook nearly EVERY turn on K route. Of course it wouldn't be an interesting post if I left out the fact that I didn't come to that conclusion till after I hit 2 curbs and just barely missed a stop-n-go light on a median after miss-judging just how tight a turn was. It was bad enough to go over the curb with trailer tires but it is really embarrassing when both your my steer tires and my trailer tires go over the curb. I don't think my fender spot mirrors appreciate the learning experience however, as as I clipped a No-U-turn sign with it. A motorist waiting for the light going the other way got a good laugh out it, but I was not very happy with myself. On one turn even making a VERY WIDE button-hook turn (that really left my trailer too far out from the curb to the point where a car could have gotten past) I still could not negotiate the turn without my trailer tires going up and over the curb.
Pretty piss poor driving if I do say so myself. I really shouldn't beat myself up about it bad as it was basically the first time I have been able to pull a 53' trailer in tight turn city traffic without an instructor with me warning me about a turn, but I am still pretty disappointed in myself. I will be driving that route again on Monday till I can properly gauge these type of turns.
It doesn't really help that my truck has the worst turning radius of all the trucks at school, but that is no excuse. On one hand I am kind of kicking myself for pushing my instructors to add some real difficulty as it has had a direct relation to my embarrassment, but on the other hand I will be a better driver for it, and now is the time to learn these things. It would really suck to go for my road test for the company I will drive for and do as poorly as I did today simply because of the lack of practice.
So the lesson for today is, Don't let embarrassment stand in the way of learning.
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