My test is scheduled for next thursday and I feel pretty confident, however, I have some questions that the cdl manual does not address. I've read the post "ways to fail a skills test" and got a pretty good understanding of it.. except for these...

1) When stopped at a stop light waiting to turn left, do you have to stay behind the white line? if so do you have to have it in view? And if the light turns orange, can you still go or do you just have to wait until the next opening during a green?

2) When you stop at a stop sign, does the white line need to be in view?

3) When turning right can you cross the centerline of the raod you're turning from to ensure your rear trailer wheels wont brush a curb?

4) Even with an empy load, are you required to start in 1st gear? Usually I start in 2nd when empty.

5) My truck can smootly approach a stop in 5th gear without lugging the engine and only letting it roll 20 feet or so. Is this okay? Or do they require you to shift down through all the gears until you stop? And once stopped I understand I have to keep it in gear, but can I shift back into 1st or 2nd while stopped without penalty?

Thanks in advance all!

 

I will do my best to help


[quote="Farmtruckin"]

1) When stopped at a stop light waiting to turn left, do you have to stay behind the white line? yes
if so do you have to have it in view?no I think as long you do not cross the white line during red And if the light turns orange, can you still go or do you just have to wait until the next opening during a green? no wait for green

2) When you stop at a stop sign, does the white line need to be in view? as long you stop before the stop line

3) When turning right can you cross the centerline of the raod you're turning from to ensure your rear trailer wheels wont brush a curb? yes but do your best to get back in your lane A.S.A.P.

4) Even with an empy load, are you required to start in 1st gear? Usually I start in 2nd when empty. the examiner wants to see that you can shift through all the gears (whenyou get your lic. you can do what you feel is right)

5) My truck can smootly approach a stop in 5th gear without lugging the engine and only letting it roll 20 feet or so. Is this okay? Or do they require you to shift down through all the gears until you stop? And once stopped I understand I have to keep it in gear, but can I shift back into 1st or 2nd while stopped without penalty? just don't let the truck coast you should be ok

Thanks in advance all!

 

is the truck in your avatar the one you'll be taking your test in? If so since it's a day cab and looks like your trailer is a 39' or less you shouldn't have any trouble with turns, you shouldn't need to go quite as wide in your turns.


As far as down shifting goes, start to slow down early and as the rpm's drop to 1000 on each gear down shift a gear until you reach 1st. Now if you wait till the last second to start braking and downshifting you'll never be able to go through them all or do it smoothly.

 

I'll add that you should do this for the CDL test, but not for a road test with a company. They taught me that down shift down shift down shift down shift stuff in trucking school, and my first company road test, the examiner was not amused with the pointless way I wasted fuel. I failed that one, and didn't get that job. (Which turned out to be a great thing in the final analysis, but that's another matter.)

 

When I took the test the instructor was on good terms with the DMV guys and he said you don't need to downshift all the gears, only stay in gear until stopped. Which means pushing in the clutch as you coast is OK. Also they don't care if you shift gears when going through the intersection because if you stay in low gear the light will be through 3 cycles before the truck is out. And they also don't care if you start in 2nd or higher so long as you are doing it right. Chances are they do not know the shift pattern for the particular truck anyway, for instance if you are driving something with an 8LL you would not be expected to start in super compound low obviously, and with a 9 speed first is where second would be on a normal transmission so who knows.

What it all boils down to is finding out exactly what they want at that particular DMV, and doing it.

Birken

 

When you are approaching or stopped at an intersection keep the crosswalk/stop line in view. No need to crowd it. When the light is green enter the intersection, making your intentions known. If the lite is yellow just wait, with the lines in view over the hood.
Keeping "light" under traffic in front of you will keed you from following to close. If you can't see light, you are to close, except in heavy traffic where you need to see the tires at least.
And use all the low gears, if you stall the engine...you fail.

 

I just passed my test 2 weeks ago and it's still fresh in my mind.

When coming to a stop sign, always stop behind the sign, then approach the intersection when it's clear to enter it.

I found it easy to come to a stop in 6th on a straight 10spd, only coasting the last 30ft or so and stopping well behind anything in front of me. You must be able to see the tires ahead on the ground or any line ahead. Since we weren't allowed to shift in an intersection, I always started in 3rd and most times made it to 5th before entering the intersection.
When turning right, you can't move so far left as to cross the center line of the lane you're turning from, that would be a "jug handle" and it's considered unsafe for the reason that someone may be able to get around you on the right of your trailer. The safest way I was taught was to make the turn from as far left as possible within my lane and not leave room for the passing idiot on the right.
We were told that if we were going to go over a curb, we should stop before that happened and informed the examiner that you will be going over the curb and you either got the ok or a fail. It was up to the examiner. At least you recognized the situation and dealt with it before it happened.
As for the shifting, keep it simple, you don't have to impress anyone with all the crazy shifting. I even stalled engine taking off from a right turn at a light because I forgot to flip the range lever down before going into what I thought was 3rd, but because I had feathered the clutch a little in 8th, I got the truck rolling, jammed the clutch, started the engine, got back into 3rd and kept rolling without missing a beat. The examiner was very impressed with that.
One other very important thing to remember is mirrors, mirrors, mirrors. Do a mirror check every 8 seconds, both sides, watch the trailer tires in all turns, but also check the other side once while turning to make sure it's clear there too. On the whole test, I only missed 4 points and 3 of those were mirror checks I supposedly didn't do that I know I did. The other one point was not clearly checking an intersection I was clear to proceed thru.
Hope this helps some and didn't sound too long or confusing.
"And if the light turns orange" Had your eyes checked for color blindness? That's referred to as being a "yellow" light.

 

another thing to remember, when you stop, the examiner should be able to see the back tires of the car in front of you. many of them will fail you if they cant

 

That's kind of interesting. When I went to school (2005) and took the test we were required to do a jug handle turn. Tandems on the curb caused one driver to fail.
And yes, I went way over into the lane next to me to make the turn, but swept the trailer tandems around the corner close enough so that no one could sneak under them and get hurt.

FYI: I make lots of deliveries in towns and make lots of right hand turns at small intersections. I set up very close to the right hand curb, but cock the tractor toward the other lane. When it is clear I move into the other lane (now I'm in both lanes) and if possible make the turn. If someone has moved into the area on the right that I'll need to make the turn I just wait. Some of my turns require me to use the whole dang intersection and when that is the case I turn on all four blinkers when I start moving.

BOL!

 

I'll give this a shot from the state where I tested people, YOUR ANSWERS MAY BE A BIT DIFFERENT!!!

You should! If the light changes and you are out in the intersection, you may get an "auto fail" for "impeding traffic". One of the rules that we as examiners were required to consider is if the person made another vehicle take action (speed up, slow down, change lanes etc) then the person is "guilty" of impeding traffic".

No, it should be out of site basically just in front of the bumper.. If there is no line and only a stop sign, you must not pass forward of the sign with the front bumper. If there is neither, you must stop before the front of the vehicle breaks the plane of the curbs of the intersection.

NO! Driving into oncoming traffic is a HUGE "no no". You should not have any such turns on the test route that requires a buttonhook or other strange types of turns. It does happen though! You must go further out into the intersection to make the turn, not into opposing lanes.

No, you are just required to drive smoothly without lugging or coasting.

Basically the same answer as above. You have to show that you can operate the gears smoothly and correctly. Downshifting to fifth for turns and stops should be fine as long as you keep yourself moving and do not get too slow for the engine's torque to pull your rpms back up as you accelerate. Starting off in third should also be no problem. You should be able (from a stop) start in third, shift to forth and maybe even fifth as you pull away from the stop, as soon as you start to make a turn, the shifter is off limits! All turns are done in the proper gear and with BOTH hands on the wheel.

Best of Luck,
Fozzy