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Posted: 1/12/2021 11:24:35 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The thing many dont know about big trucks is you can't just "force it" into gear. You push the clutch in and try as hard as you want to ram it into gear....it wont go until the tranny speed and motor RPM match the speed you are going. When I was in driving school, instructor bored, "1800-2000 is your friend" into our heads. We started on the yard with an old single axle Ford, then moved to a Peterbilt with a 13 speed for the road training. I pretty much meshed with the rig, and the Pete shifted buttery smooth at 1850RPM. I was one of the few who didn't grind gears during the overnight haul portion of the class. When I landed my first OTR gig, they were using Volvo tractors with Eaton Super-10's. Those were easy to shift, just finicky going up hills. Most rigs will have the shifter pattern on the dash. Just don't jam it into H-R(High side Reverse) the first time you back it up. 
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Posted: 1/12/2021 11:45:01 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I know. I had to ask an old coworker who had driven before why that was because I had never seen one with a trans like that before. 2 stick 6spd Mack weren’t bad. Triplex and quadraplex were from what I heard. They we’re mostly gone when I got my license. |
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Posted: 1/12/2021 11:54:35 PM EDT
[#3]
Driving a truck is sometimes surprising, imagine going down a logging trail, 12' wide at best corners ever 100' in mud or snow with 80Klbs of log behind you.
Then you catch something in your peripheral vision, and realize it's you're log load trying to pass you. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 12:07:38 AM EDT
[#4]
If it's been sitting any length of time, odds are you'll hafta wait to build up air pressure to release the brakes. Most trucks leak air while sitting. And, contrary to what you see in the movies (James Bond), the air pressure is for releasing brakes, not applying them.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 12:09:26 AM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If you happen to find one with an automatic transmission you should be gto. If you get one with manual shift you will do better on foot. About 20 years ago I hopped in a bobtail/no trailer, ten speed semi. Manual, half the gears in low/switch to high and run through the rest. I had no cdl and no experience. I rook a couple spins through a empty parking lot and within 3 minutes I was crusing through small town Arkansas. If a machine has wheels or tracks and I can get it started I can figure out how to drive it. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 12:19:43 AM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Most trucks are auto, so no problem. If it's a manual you may be able to drive it, but it's gonna be ugly. You'll run over some curbs and possibly roll over a sign or hit a pole turning, but you'll work that out after a little bit. You won't be backing it up successfully. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 12:21:05 AM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If you're just starting to learn I think the proper method would be to double clutch your shifts rather than trying to float gears right off the bat. I try to double clutch most of my upshifts unless I'm being lazy. I almost always have to float gears when engine braking, one foot on brake, one on throttle when coming to a stop. It takes some practice to kind of just know what gear you need to shoot for at what speed. A 13 or 18 speed makes things a little trickier since you're dealing with a splitter and unless you're loaded just don't bother trying to use it for a while. One piece of advise I'd also mention is you have to slow yourself down mentally. You're not in your car or pickup anymore and can't dart in and out of traffic. Don't worry you're not accelerating to the speed limit immediately. [color=#ff0000]The people behind you will just have to deal with it. [/color] Come around you and cut back in front of you. Fixt. @defender And then probably come to a complete stop to make a left turn. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 12:30:46 AM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Whatcha got? I'm looking for a backup truck 2010 Freightliner Cascadia. 956k miles. 455 DD15 bottom end done at 620k, head gasket at 750k or so. Clutch at 800k, tires are Michelin X Lines with 50k at the most. Aluminums all around. New seats. 5th wheel rebuilt at 750k or so. New radiator and overflow tank and all new hoses. SS 1/4 fenders. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 12:50:08 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryThanks, that was interesting. I’d like to drink a beer with that dude. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 1:14:51 AM EDT
[#10]
Back in the day I owned a few different trucks. One had one of the first automatics they made (I think).
It was an eaton-fuller 10 speed and you still used the clutch to start and stop. We used to refer it as the "eaton-fuller hope it shifts". If there was ANYTHING wrong it would not shift. Low voltage or something, whatever. My BIL had one as well, one time coming from CA it got stuck in 9th gear. He was the type of guy that just wanted to get home so he just kept going in 9th gear, fully loaded as long as he could. He got to to some of the hills coming out of St. George Utah going northbound and his little Detroit couldn't quite make it. I had a Volvo 770 with a 13 speed, I liked that truck. Duel 150's was nice. On a different subject, what I found amazing with trucks was the difference 200 pounds of torque did. One truck I had had 1650 when I bought it. After a few months I turned it up to 1850. The difference was astounding going up hills. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 1:39:12 AM EDT
[#11]
 Bill Murray semi truck |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 1:44:47 AM EDT
[#12]
 Grabbing Gears |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 3:23:37 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryI'm less worried about the dicks she's sucked versus the dicks he's sucked. Poor condescending bastard, a good shave would be in order. The lady in this video presented more testicular evidence than the dickhead filming/selfie-ing it. These clickbait assholes are lesser than the common corner hooker during happy hour. At least a professional lady would leave you with a mild grin. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 3:44:39 AM EDT
[#14]
I had never driven one before the day I took my CDL test and I passed it. It’s not that hard but you do have to know a few things. If you have zero knowledge about them it isn’t going to be pretty.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:15:20 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I had never driven one before the day I took my CDL test and I passed it. It’s not that hard but you do have to know a few things. If you have zero knowledge about them it isn’t going to be pretty. Yeah it's not as hard as some of these guys are making it out to be depending on what other experiences you've had. There are lots of people who can double-clutch who've never driven a truck, probably lots more people who have the mechanical aptitude to grasp the how and why immediately. First stick I ever drove had no sychros. I trained on a double tanker truck with the fire dept. It was always full of water. That was the last rig people would qualify on though. We still had manuals on most of our engines back then. Most guys did pretty well but the guy who'd train you was also our diesel mechanic and he made sure guys understood exactly what was happening mechanically before they got behind the wheel. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:19:38 AM EDT
[#16]
Quoted: And just start it up and take off? I mean, is it something an average joe with no experience in a big rig can do? If there were a shtf situation and my only option was a big rig, is it something I would be able just hop in and drive off? |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:30:36 AM EDT
[#17]
New autos are gonna be pretty easy. They've been trending trucks more and more toward a car like experience for years. If it's a manual, a straight 10 is pretty easy to figure out. Shift through five gears, flip switch and start over. I prefer a Super 10 to a straight personally, split each gear on the way up and move the stick half as much. Then there is the 15, some of which have a horseshoe shift pattern . Can be driven like straight 10 in most all circumstances. 9 speed has 5 low side gears and 4 high side. 13s and 18s are just 9 speeds with additional splitter boxes. You can split the high side only in a 13 (5+4+4=13), and you can split everything in an 18 5+5+4+4=18). 13s and 18s would be an absolute bitch to figure out on the fly. Very easy to get lost in the splits when you're unfamiliar with it.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:41:46 AM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The FBI can answer this question best. Could a person get training there? If so inclined.  Asking for a friend. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:47:52 AM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: New autos are gonna be pretty easy. They've been trending trucks more and more toward a car like experience for years. If it's a manual, a straight 10 is pretty easy to figure out. Shift through five gears, flip switch and start over. I prefer a Super 10 to a straight personally, split each gear on the way up and move the stick half as much. Then there is the 15, some of which have a horseshoe shift pattern . Can be driven like straight 10 in most all circumstances. 9 speed has 5 low side gears and 4 high side. 13s and 18s are just 9 speeds with additional splitter boxes. You can split the high side only in a 13 (5+4+4=13), and you can split everything in an 18 5+5+4+4=18). 13s and 18s would be an absolute bitch to figure out on the fly. Very easy to get lost in the splits when you're unfamiliar with it. When I forget how easy it is for me, I remember driving school, lo, these many years ago, and I reiterate, I see the chances of a complete neophyte getting the truck moving as not very high. Seriously. Out of 17 people, I and one other guy didn't kill the truck the first 37 times. If OP has some equipment experience, I'd giv hime much better odds. Other posters have mentioned the latest class 8s with auto trannies, and then he'd be able to get it moving, at least. Probably trailing a modicum of damage in his wake. Most trucks at a truck stop are not new and it will be a good while before trucks with auto are anywhere close to the majority. If you can't drive manual, you won't be well placed for a job with anyone but the yuge like Swift, Hunt, England, Knight, et al for a long time, because almost all the small guys with the good jobs get their rigs from the biggies used. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:56:30 AM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When I forget how easy it is for me, I remember driving school, lo, these many years ago, and I reiterate, I see the chances of a complete neophyte getting the truck moving as not very high. Seriously. Out of 17 people, I and one other guy didn't kill the truck the first 37 times. If OP has some equipment experience, I'd giv hime much better odds. Other posters have mentioned the latest class 8s with auto trannies, and then he'd be able to get it moving, at least. Probably trailing a modicum of damage in his wake. Most trucks at a truck stop are not new and it will be a good while before trucks with auto are anywhere close to the majority. If you can't drive manual, you won't be well placed for a job with anyone but the yuge like Swift, Hunt, England, Knight, et al for a long time, because almost all the small guys with the good jobs get their rigs from the biggies used. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: New autos are gonna be pretty easy. They've been trending trucks more and more toward a car like experience for years. If it's a manual, a straight 10 is pretty easy to figure out. Shift through five gears, flip switch and start over. I prefer a Super 10 to a straight personally, split each gear on the way up and move the stick half as much. Then there is the 15, some of which have a horseshoe shift pattern . Can be driven like straight 10 in most all circumstances. 9 speed has 5 low side gears and 4 high side. 13s and 18s are just 9 speeds with additional splitter boxes. You can split the high side only in a 13 (5+4+4=13), and you can split everything in an 18 5+5+4+4=18). 13s and 18s would be an absolute bitch to figure out on the fly. Very easy to get lost in the splits when you're unfamiliar with it. When I forget how easy it is for me, I remember driving school, lo, these many years ago, and I reiterate, I see the chances of a complete neophyte getting the truck moving as not very high. Seriously. Out of 17 people, I and one other guy didn't kill the truck the first 37 times. If OP has some equipment experience, I'd giv hime much better odds. Other posters have mentioned the latest class 8s with auto trannies, and then he'd be able to get it moving, at least. Probably trailing a modicum of damage in his wake. Most trucks at a truck stop are not new and it will be a good while before trucks with auto are anywhere close to the majority. If you can't drive manual, you won't be well placed for a job with anyone but the yuge like Swift, Hunt, England, Knight, et al for a long time, because almost all the small guys with the good jobs get their rigs from the biggies used. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 4:59:40 AM EDT
[#21]
If I had a penny for every time I've seen a truck doing impossible things in a movie, I'd have 87 cents. In the movies, trucks are more resistant to wrecking to immobility, even bobtails. In real life, it's 87x easier to wreck a truck such it that it won't move. Depending on where the truck a noob is climbing in is parked, it's very possible he could get it permanently stuck, without assistance to get free, in ten feet or less, in a parking lot.
I got stuck once in MS, 18" off a gravel lot truckstop, after a week of heavy rain, bobtailed. Locked in both axles, and 0x0=0. I was stuck there for 36 hours because I didn't want to call roadside. Fortunately I wasn't pressed for a load. So I just did a 34. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 5:04:10 AM EDT
[#22]
Quick walk around pre-trip, fire it up, let the air pressure build up (if needed), clutch, gear, push the parking break, let out the clutch, right foot to the floor, let up a little when grabbing gears (no clutch need once you're rolling). You'll be on the road in well under 5 minutes if need be.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 5:07:12 AM EDT
[#23]
And it's not so much driving the tractor. How the brakes work, how the fifth wheel works, dumping the bags to get under a trailer and making sure the kingpin latch is engaged, All that shit. It's not hard, but it's not intuitive either, if you've never been told.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 5:08:53 AM EDT
[#24]
OP, what is a glad hand?
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Posted: 1/13/2021 5:29:25 AM EDT
[#25]
I'll find out in about 10 minutes. Wish me luck.
 Attached File529 miles back to Houston today. Should have it sorted out by then. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 5:57:10 AM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If it's been sitting any length of time, odds are you'll hafta wait to build up air pressure to release the brakes. Most trucks leak air while sitting. And, contrary to what you see in the movies (James Bond), the air pressure is for releasing brakes, not applying them. The air pressure is for releasing, and applying the brakes. Also for the splitter. Fuller 9 speed in the truck I'm driving today. 4x3 in my personal dump truck. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 6:03:45 AM EDT
[#27]
lol. two tranny yokes in two years. please PLEASE push the big yellow diamond when you let your foot off the clutch
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Posted: 1/13/2021 6:15:07 AM EDT
[#28]
If truckers exercised on their breaks instead of sleep and eat fast food, maybe they wouldn't be so fat.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:13:54 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Most trucks are auto, so no problem. If it's a manual you may be able to drive it, but it's gonna be ugly. You'll run over some curbs and possibly roll over a sign or hit a pole turning, but you'll work that out after a little bit. You won't be backing it up successfully. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:16:59 AM EDT
[#30]
No. It's not a terribly steep learning curve, especially if you've driven a manual vehicle before, but no. The average person who has never driven a semi before can't hop in one and drive it.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:36:59 AM EDT
[#31]
It's like handing an AR and a mag to someone who's never shot a gun before. It's not that it's difficult, it's that it takes a few pieces of specific knowledge and a little experience to do it correctly and effectively.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:37:21 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: OP, what is a glad hand? A trucker's treat!
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:39:50 AM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryNo shit. I needed to get a job after the housing crash and I had gotten a CDL back in the mid 1990’s. I had only driven a Ford single cab with a backhoe trailer before I ended up getting a job at McKenna medical supply. They needed a driver to run from Columbus to Louisville Kentucky every night. I needed to do a test drive in the big rig. I watch YouTube for about two days until I figure it out how to shift and make turns. I ain’t gonna shit you. I was pretty puckered up on that first test drive. Luckily for me it was an automatic because the standard shift truck was in the shop |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:43:29 AM EDT
[#34]
Last year I worked at a local mine, I drove a 2019 peterbilt service truck and I learned it with one weeks worth of supervised driving, I was put on my own after that.
Granted, I could only drive in the mine.. 4.5 mph is hard on trucks.. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:44:09 AM EDT
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If truckers exercised on their breaks instead of sleep and eat fast food, maybe they wouldn't be so fat. Bless your sweet little heart. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 7:54:26 AM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Not too bad, if they know to push the brake buttons in. Are they going to drive a manual truck decent? Nope. My uncle could never get the hang of driving a manual. Especially the split. I remember waiting in the combine to unload, watching him drive the farm truck down the road to the field, at like 20 mph. He decided that trying to shift into H was too hard, so he just drove the whole way in L. I swapped out and let him run some corn for a bit while I took that load up to the elevator. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 8:01:26 AM EDT
[#37]
You don’t drive, you operate a big rig.
Problem with big trucks is people try to drive them like cars. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:13:04 AM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted: OP, what is a glad hand? Very happy when hooked up correctly , not so much when they are not. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:29:14 AM EDT
[#39]
Have you ever really looked at a truck driver can’t be hard.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:29:47 AM EDT
[#40]
showing my age, but I always think of the scene in the 80s movie Coast To Coast where Dyan Cannon tries to steal the guy's rig and she's MURDERING the shifts, just destroying the transmission, and he's jumping up and down outside while screaming at her to stop.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:32:19 AM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Have you ever really looked at a truck driver can’t be hard. It's not hard. But it's not a skill anyone is born with either. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:32:26 AM EDT
[#42]
Just the tractor, not hard especially auto trans
Tractor + trailer, or trying to unhook a trailer = better know what you’re doing to a certain degree |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:49:56 AM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Have you ever really looked at a truck driver can’t be hard. I have several degrees including a JD and I cannot do what they do. They have skills I don't have and I probably couldn't develop. Much respect to truck drivers. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:56:42 AM EDT
[#44]
Just make sure you do your pre-trip . Don't want to get pulled over and get a ticket.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 9:59:20 AM EDT
[#45]
An auto? Yeah, just start it up like a diesel pickup, let the air pressure build (till the buzzer goes quiet,) push in the red and yellow knobs, set in D, and off you go. A trailer will track inside your turns. If manual? Nah, you're gonna need to practice. Hills are not gentle to newbies.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 10:04:58 AM EDT
[#46]
If you drive a long bed crew cab pickup and tow a trailer once in awhile you’ll have some clue.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 10:09:33 AM EDT
[#47]
Quoted: And just start it up and take off? I mean, is it something an average joe with no experience in a big rig can do? If there were a shtf situation and my only option was a big rig, is it something I would be able just hop in and drive off? Doing it and doing it well enough to not kill people or wreck your truck (or hang it up on obstacles) are different things. Getting them moving isn't hard. A few moments worth of a tutorial should be all you need. Doing it well is why I didn't become a truck driver.
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Posted: 1/13/2021 10:15:17 AM EDT
[#48]
Till you discover the air brake release, the hi/lo, and the splitter it might be slow going forms while.
Unless automatic then just the release. Running Bob tail isn’t bad but if you’ve got a trailer in tow it could get spicy Today’s average joe? Probably not |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 10:15:54 AM EDT
[#49]
There is a reason some people are truck drivers.
Think about it. |
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Posted: 1/13/2021 10:17:48 AM EDT
[#50]
I got my start at a large factory in the late 1980's....The yard truck driver went to Real Estate school and the shipping supervisor asked me if I wanted to learn to drive. I told them I would and proceeded to learn from that perspective. I went and took the written portion of the test and got my Class A permit.
If you back trailers into tight dock spaces all night long, you will do one of two things....Get REALLY good at it or tear the sides out of three trailers and get fired. I got good at it....So good through constant practice in fact, that I remember several drivers pulling in, (a Werner driver in particular comes to mind), and telling me there was no way that they could back their 53' trailer in the spot it was needed with storage trailers horizontally in front of where they had to cut. At least once a week, I would tell a driver to just drop his trailer and I'd put it in for him. An Ottawa yard truck has a hydraulic fifth wheel, so cranking landing gear is not needed, (by design). I'd grab the trailer and jack them right in there. I eventually carefully practiced blindsiding trailers into the same dock doors until I could do that proficiently. Once I drove on the road, I was like??????? This is it? Correctly backing a trailer = driving a truck. |
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