Well, due to a rebate from the tax man, I finally had the funds to try and upgrade my C to a CE and the test was today.
As I stood next to the truck waiting for the examiner, two of them came out and walked towards me. My examiner introduced himself and then introduced the other guy as the Chief driving examiner who would also be coming out with us to examine him examining me, and who would also unofficially be examining me to see if he agreed the results with the first examiner. He hoped I wouldn’t mind? Blimey, no pressure on me then with two of them in the cab !!!
I took the test in a drawbar and thankfully the reverse went ok, then out onto the road. To give the examiner his due, he was very chatty and put you at your ease, and the Chief kept his head down in the far seat so I wasn’t too concious of him.
Made it back to the test centre without any mishaps, and then time for the uncouple/couple. Uncoupled ok, and then trying to couple the prime mover to the trailer again, the pin just would not drop. Everytime I did the tug test, I shot off leaving the trailer still standing there. After the third time, the sweat was pouring off me what with the both of them watching, and I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong? Finally, the instructor came over and said the pin had failed to drop a couple of times earlier in the week and to bang it on even harder. I gave it some revs and banged on with a loud clang and this time thankfully the pin dropped and I was coupled.
Well, despite the ‘couple up’ kerfuffle, the examiner climbed up into the cab and gave the words we all want to hear “Well done, you’ve passed and with a clean sheet, no minors” The Chief examiner even came to the window and said “That was a nice drive today driver”.
Well, I was pretty elated to say the least. Just want to say thanks to Wallace school of transport in London, and to my instructor Kevin who gave lots of good advice. Going back to get some handling experience later, in the school artic.