Hi everyone. Well here we go again. I’ve decided to take the plunge, hand the last of my coppers over to Phil Brown Training in Droitwich and get on with the C+E now rather than wait. So here’s the diary for Day 1.
As with the C licence Caz is the trainer and the unit is a T-reg ERF with a 40 foot twin axle trailer:
It’s got a 4 over 4 range change gearbox with the lever rather than the slap over that was on the rigid I first learned on:
Having climbed out of my Nissan Micra and up into the unit I was faced with a steering wheel about the size of Wales . After a quick familiarisation with the rest of the cab it was off on our way. We would do some easy routes this afternoon just to get used to the size of the vehicle and make friends with a new gear box. Unladen you can start in 3rd gear although a couple of times I started in 1st by mistake. Jeez, was it slow - what must the crawler be like!!?
First impressions? If I’m honest it was kinda like driving a house! I focused on getting it out of the yard making sure to position the unit in order to have the trailer wheels go where I wanted them. I drove pretty gingerly out of the estate where the yard is but with every mile behind me it was feeling more comfortable.
Getting out of Droitwich we went out to the M5 and headed south for one junction and then off towards Evesham on A-roads. I encountered enough roundabouts and junctions to learn the line you need to drive to clear the trailer through without hitting any kerbs. So a gentle drive down to Tewkesbury and back up the M5 for a junction to the M50 and then up the A38 to Worcester and then back to Droitwich. A teensy reversing practice to get the lorry parked up and we called it a day.
So, what’s it all mean? Well, after about 20 minutes I felt comfortable with the size of the vehicle and was taking a good line through roundabouts and around corners. As the drive progressed I began to get smoother and, like the rigid, you need to plan well ahead in order to give yourself a chance when the workload at junctions gets higher. The best thing was that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was nervous at first but that went away quickly and I just settled into it. Lovely jubbly!!
Tomorrow is uncoupling and reversing and hopefully some more roadwork. Will report in again tomorrow evening with Day 2…
Cheers,
Laz
PS - After a couple of hours in the artic, the Nissan Micra felt like a bleedin’ rocket!!
Wow sounds good and nerves play such a big part. You sound like your gonna do just fine all the best and think maybe my post should be more entertaining and worded better lol.
Glad to hear you have taken the plung Laz we are not getting any younger mate as I found out when I got out of bed today aches and pains every were even just getting in and out of that tipper enough exersize for me not counting getting up the 6 steps to the gantry to roll the sheet over . .
Best of luck mate I hope all goes well .
Excellent lollie!! I bet the time flies. Look forward to hearing how it goes then!
So here we are on Day 2.
The road users in Worcestershire will have breathed a collective sigh of relief that today was all in the yard getting to terms with reversing and uncoupling and coupling.
First up was the reversing manoeuvre. Given that the test is standard for everyone it’s pretty easy to just learn the magic ‘formula’ and it’s easy peasy. Well it is and it isn’t. Getting talked through it the first time made it seem easy and I thought this’ll be a doddle. How many bloody times do I regret saying that!!■■
I’ll not go into the detail of how I was taught to do the reversing. It’s pretty straight forward and the first couple of times worked a treat. Then I began to get a little cocky and decided I could speed it up a little while checking out in the mirrors just how much like a pro I looked in my hi viz jacket and Cat Diesel baseball cap. While I was busy admiring myself I learned about how there is a lag time between steering inputs and the trailer obeying them. Add a little speed and and an idiot too busy admiring his visage in the mirrors and you get into a complete nightmare of zig zagging all over the flippin’ yard. It was terrific entertainment for the fitters in the garage next door but got me into a right tangle .
So, deep breath, take it easy and slow and the last couple of reverses I did were spot on. Whew!! I’m mindful though that even if I get through the reversing exercise okay it’ll be a whole other thing to get the trailer onto a tricky bay. By the time I get loose on the roads they’ll be selling tickets at the RDCs when they know I’m on shift!!! Get the popcorn ready folks!
The uncoupling was, in contrast, pretty straightforward. We did the BLACK - KCALB way of uncoupling - coupling and it went okay. I’ll have a further practise tomorrow as well as get some more practise in and around Worcester city. I’ll report in again tomorrow night…
Overall I’m making progress, aside from being a bit of a d1ckhead when reversing! Looking forward to getting back out on the road tomorrow.
For me driving in the city is what gives me the jitters. Glance around the other Boards on Trucknet and there are countless stories of how pedestrians and other drivers throw caution and sense out the window and make your life challenging. I never look forward to it but it’s gotta be done.
So, Day 3 has come and gone. How did it go? Well, on the plus side, nobody died. The lorry was returned intact and no cars or animals were injured during my little drive around Worcester. BUT I had an off day. In fact I stunk. On the road that is - the reversing and uncoupling/coupling exercises went fine. Small mercies…
On to the road bit. We drove around Worcester and then through the city by the Cathedral and made it through some tricky junctions alright. At one point my instructor did some curious dance moves as she thought a bit of street furniture (a set of traffic and cross walk lights) was going to join us in the cab but I had it covered; I was trying to avoid the car to my right that decided to try regain some of his/her lane that I borrowed and drifted towards me. Sorry Caz.
I’ll spare everyone the goriest details but the things to improve on are:
figure out the ■■■■■■ gearbox!! Could I put it in the correct gear when I needed? Could I hell!! If I wasn’t hitting the range change wotsit by accident then I was just randomly selecting a gear that was usually too high or too low . The remedy? Just take it slower and THINK about it. Lesson learned? Yes.
stop clipping/mounting the kerb! I hit three of them this afternoon and each time I know that I didn’t ‘borrow’ enough road from the next lane on the approach; I had this problem at first in the rigid and soon learned to move safely but deliberately into the space you need to make it around a corner; the size of the artic, especially the length means that I need to get set up much earlier and take more room. Lesson learned? Yes.
check over the shoulder when changing lanes, etc! For some reason I forgot to do this a bunch of times. I remember that I needed to really focus on doing the over the shoulder look when doing the Cat C a few weeks back - will need to concentrate on it all the more. Lesson learned? Yes.
keep to the speed limits! The artic drives nicely in 7th at 35mph and nicely in 8th at 45mph. To drive at 40mph in 7th seems too high and in 8th too low. This may be a minor point but if I’m trying to stick to 40 in 8th I need to watch the speed carefully or it can creep up as the turbo comes in at about 41mph! No real lesson other than keep an eye on it.
Overall it felt an off day but in jotting down the points above I can reason through what went wrong and get it right next time. I’ll have to mind you - I’m on test tomorrow morning at 10:30.
I knew that my driving today fell short of the standard needed to call myself a professional and I’ll need to make sure I’m sharper not only tomorrow but in future. Don’t ever let anyone say that driving a lorry is easy. I found out today that it sure isn’t. But I know where I need to improve and FFS I’m gonna make sure that I do!!
Finally can I just say THANKS all of the pro drivers out there this afternoon who helped me out by flashing me on around parked cars, at roundabouts and junctions? There were a good few kind souls out there today so if any of you are on Trucknet and cut the Phil Brown Training artic a little slack today in and around Worcester it was much appreciated !!!
I’m off to the yard for 6:45 tomorrow morning to get a couple of reversing and uncoupling practises in and then down to Gloucester for a little drive around before the 10:30 test slot.
Good luck for tomorrow and im sure it will all fall into place I keep seeing slow is the way to go and it sounds like great advice i will be strongly listening too.
Many thanks to all of you for your kind wishes. After yesterday’s nightmare I wondered what today would be like. It didn’t start well - the first left out of the yard and I ran up over the kerb . Deep breath, put it behind you and carry on.
Down the M5 and into Gloucester and an hour driving around test routes and NOT driving all over the kerbs helped settle the nerves. I also finally got to terms with the gearbox mainly by just slowing it down a little and leaving thinking time.
Test time! Reversing and uncoupling all okay and out onto the driving test itself. Took my time, and it seemed to go well. The hour flew by!!
ROG you were right - got the rubbish day yesterday outta my system and managed a test pass with a clean sheet.
My grin took up most of lane 1 on the M5 on the drive back to the yard. I even got to flash in overtaking truckers for the first time without getting told off!!
Thanks go to Caz the instructor at Phil Brown Training and to all those on Trucknet for support and advice!!
. After a quick familiarisation with the rest of the cab it was off on our way. We would do some easy routes this afternoon just to get used to the size of the vehicle and make friends with a new gear box. Unladen you can start in 3rd gear although a couple of times I started in 1st by mistake. Jeez, was it slow - what must the crawler be like!!? 
we are not getting any younger mate as I found out when I got out of bed today 
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