i have my driving test on wednsday and im concerned about the test. i got the inspection and the skills test down to a science, but im nervous about the driving portion of the test. i've only had 4 hours of otr and i'm a perfectionist and just don't feel like i got the double clutching down, actually it's the down shifting.....any help please..........

 

Congrats, and good luck! Be yourself, and everything should work out. Hope that it works out.

 

Relax. They are not looking for perfection. Only that you can handle the rig in a reasonably safe manner.

 

Downshifting is just the opposite of upshifting with the exception that you have to give the pedal a little rpms. I just took my driving test today and passed so relax its not that bad.

 

I heard an instructor tell a student one time and it made alot of sense .... Just drive the tractor - not the clip board. :idea: Don't focus on what they may or may not be writing down while your testing .... take a deep breath and remind yourself that your still a student ... this is a learning experience and you will learn to down shift better as time goes on. ... :wink: ............... Good luck

 

I can't believe that you only got 4 hours of road time. When I get to go out on the road I always make sure I upshift and downshift before I hit the road. At least in Michigan you cannot be graded until you hit the road.

Get your first downshift out of the way before you hit the road. My school is using Detroit Deisels and one Cat. I find that the Detroit's RPM's drop slowly making both up and down shifting much easier. The Cat drops off as soon as you let off the pedal, making shifting difficult.

We get to choose the truck that we want to test in, so I am going with one of the Detroit's. In these trucks anyway, I get the truck into nuetral and get my foot off of the clutch, reving the engine while I am lining up with the next gear. I let off the pedal, while pushing in the clutch and gently guiding the shifter into the gear. All of this has to be done pretty much at the same time and it slides in very smoothly or at least most of the time.

I hope this helps.

Hans the mi_rookie

 

I can't believe that any trainer is letting you go to test with only 4 hrs OTR! I'll be getting at least 42 hrs OTR by the end of the next 4 weeks. I don't know what you paid for training, but I would demand more time so you'll be more comfortable when you test.

 

Man Utrun, I hope not to be one running 2 feet over from a guy that is out on his first run seeing if he can be reasonably safe!

I get your drift though, a stumble on the gear here and there and cutting too wide on corners are things that can be fine tuned with some time behind the wheel.

That said I know guys that have been tested 10 times to get into my company and still fail. They toss you into a manufacturing plant during production and force blindside back-ins in artificially setup holes that are narrower than normal. Touch a trailer and it's all over. The test is nuts, 6 hours long in total.

Good luck to the poster though, most test are a scoot around the city with a good side to shut it down, you'll be fine,