Well it has come around very quickly. No time for panicking. Out on the road tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes with pictures too of course.
Good luck with training and test, seems you are hooked up with a well respected training company, all the best.
Steve
dar1976:
Well it has come around very quickly. No time for panicking. Out on the road tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes with pictures too of course.
Lots of pics where possible 
Looking forward to starting your course in the morning. Don’t sample too much of the hospitality tonight!! All the best, Pete 
You’ll be in very good hands with Peter and his staff I took mine with them and they are first class good luck and enjoy it.Pleased to see you are back on the mend Peter.
No alcohol this week. Keeping clear head. Just wondering how long the bad vocals downstairs will continue. Hopefully not much longer.
See you bright and refreshed first thing.
Dean
Good luck hope everything goes well
Jen x
Peter and I have a difference of opinion about day one. He said I have done extremely well and me, being the perfectionist and pessimist, think I still have a long way to go.
I thoroughly recommend him for his laid back but thoroughly professional attitude and training style. He has made the day very comfortable to ease in to. It was a pleasure.
So on to the nitty gritty of the day.
I was introduced to the lorry and trailer and we set off with Pete driving for a short time to give me chance to see how it’s done. We drove out of the centre to a small industrial estate with lots of left and right turns so that he could see how I coped with it. No mounted kerbs. A great start. I think sometimes I over compensated for it and swung very wide. But hopefully over the next day or two I will perfect that.
I told Pete my two main concerns were coupling / uncoupling and reversing.
So after coffee break we spent time on coupling and uncoupling and let’s just say I need more practice. I have the sequence right but need occasional prompts to remind me. No two were the same. At one point I released the trailer break straight after reversing on. Doh !!!
It got to the point of needing a change of focus. So he suggested going through a bit of preliminary to the reverse exercise. Great idea.
Pulled up to one end of yard and reversed to other end correcting as I went back. Attempting to keep it as straight as possible.
Then we went again but this time I was asked to purposefully make the trailer go out of shape to the unit and then collect it and find the straight line again. Success !! Got that without too much difficulty at all.
With my confidence way up he set the test lane up so I could do the exercise as it should be. That’s where I went to pieces. Part one up to the middle cone and as far as the garage is in Pete’s words ‘textbook’ but straightening it to go into the garage is just not going in to place. I can do it with 1 or sometimes 2 shunts but can’t get it sussed for going in off the original manouvre (sp).
We finished off with a more challenging drive and I felt I did ok.
Looking forward to tomorrow and hoping I can get over my coupling mental block and get the reversing theory in my head.
Thanks for all the good wishes and thanks to Pete for a good day
Dean
Good Luck Dean.
Fingers crossed Peter rips you off by paying that little bit extra for the guarenteed pass by you passing first time!!!
But it must be good safe in the knowledge that god forbid you sis do the worst possible you have always got the next chance good peace of mind.
Good luck as said and I hope the GPS is a success for you peter,
I hope for a first time pass too mate and thanks 
Oh and for the pic enthusiasts among you.
… and the last picture shows the body of the last person who reckoned they couldn’t reverse!! You’ve had a great 1st day. The coupling and uncoupling will just drop into place and the reverse isn’t a problem.
Everything’s in place for a good day on Thursday - - just don’t talk yourself out of it!!!
Roll on tomorrow, Pete
For uncoupling you can use BLANK
B - Brakes
L - Legs
A - Air lines
N - Number Plate
K - Kingpin
Just keep the word in your head and you wont mix up anything.
Riho:
For uncoupling you can use BLANKB - Brakes
L - Legs
A - Air lines
N - Number Plate
K - KingpinJust keep the word in your head and you wont mix up anything.
in my case it will be plank
Last night I went through BLANK over and over in my head. Slept on it, Visualised it whilst eating my breakfast this morning and went in feeling confident I could get this coupling / uncoupling sorted. So that was the first thing we tackled and I did it consistently without fail 4 or 5 times. Great
Then the reverse. Ugggggh. All credit to Pete. He has tried so many ways to get it through to me. My mental block is just not letting the trailer run before following it with the Prime Mover. And that’s only once I am passed the centre cone. Up to that point I get it right consistently. Turning it gently across the yard to pass the centre cone… I have that sussed and down to a tee. What I am having problems getting past in my head is that I can get it so that I think the trailer is beginning to enter the garage and then as I steer the PM to follow it in, it just goes to pieces. It goes skew off line and heads off to the original line instead of staying on the path I have just steered it towards. I have tried to come at the garage from different angles (although most were through luck more than calculation) and still seem to suffer the same lack of control of keeping the PM in line with the trailer to back it straight into the garage.
Fortunately I have got it in consistently with one shunt. But the perfectionist in me is SO not happy with one shunt when I know that if I could get past the mental block it would be in without a shunt.
Most of the day has been spent on getting me happy to take a shunt as I really can’t get my head around the logic of doing it in one manoeuvre. Maybe it will all fall into place tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
We have also spent a bit of time ironing out silly errors on the road. All stuff that I should be doing no matter what vehicle I am driving. It is coming together and I think that by the end of play tomorrow I should have it sussed.
Thanks for another good day Pete.
Dean
Hi Dean you mention that you have tried to enter area from different angles. Well don’t is my advice do it as shown by instructor they know best as for getting in without shunt don’t worry I was sticking it straight in the area time after time then in test had to take shunt as went too far over towards yellow line and a minor is better than a fail.
Good luck
Hey dar1976! Excellent read and looks like you’re making good progress. I’m far from a perfectionist but I wanted to do it right the first time so I know your frustration. It’s still early days and if you’re like me it’ll sort of click into place. Just don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t quite yet. You’ll get there!
Keep the updates coming and good luck later in the week!
Best wishes,
Laz
dar1976:
Thanks for another good day Pete.Dean
What time was you there yesterday 4th october, as i saw a gent practicing with pete at about 14.30 wondering if it was you, i was practicing my cat c reverse as well ?
atomic7431:
dar1976:
Thanks for another good day Pete.Dean
What time was you there yesterday 4th october, as i saw a gent practicing with pete at about 14.30 wondering if it was you, i was practicing my cat c reverse as well ?
I was there all day and as I am the only one doing CE this week with Pete it will have been me. A belated Hi 
hello mate i was following you today as well lol
hope today went well.