Im finally off on my merry way to edmonton on the 3rd of may, not doing trucking to begin with, just courier / van work. gonna save my $$$ to put myself through the canadian test, as i dont have enough uk experience to get a job trucking yet.
Hi Jon and welcome to Canada! The weather is starting to get nice now so you have timed your move well.
How would you know what the Canadian weather is like, Wireman■■?
You been this far north lately? 
Best of luck, BigJon.
Hey Bobthedogan!!! I understand you were enjoying the climate in southern Texas recently.
Thing is, I have been back into Canada, had 2 days off and am back in the US again… Saw you headed North this afternoon, but you clearly didn’t want to speak…
BigJon:
Im finally off on my merry way to edmonton on the 3rd of may, not doing trucking to begin with, just courier / van work. gonna save my $$$ to put myself through the canadian test, as i dont have enough uk experience to get a job trucking yet.
Good luck to you fella…
Keep us intouch of what your up to out there
Good luck mate,
You’ll earn good money up there, mind you it’ll soon get spent up too, Alberta can be pricey!
It snowed up there for one day & was 18c the next when I was there the week before last, mind you it can snow in July in Alberta so I hope you’re not going for the weather as you may be disappointed
newmercman:
It snowed up there for one day & was 18c the next when I was there the week before last, mind you it can snow in July in Alberta so I hope you’re not going for the weather as you may be disappointed
Tbh im quite looking forward to having proper winter’s, Not the horrible slushy snow we get in the UK but nice crisp white stuff.
Im going to be staying with my brother when i first arrive, as he made the move 8 months ago, just until i can get enough saved up to get my own place and start things rolling to get my wife over . My wife is staying here in the UK for a few months at least, so she can tie up all the loose ends, like selling the house & car etc.
Gonna get my Airbrake endorsement sorted as soon as possible, as its only $125 , and will enable me to drive anything upto 12 tonne iirc.
another thing that you guys that are there already may be able to help with… Ive been told that Canadian and US trucks dont have a synchromesh on the box, and have to double declutch gearchanges… is this true? Ive been practising Floating Gear changes the last few days, which is almost like double declutching in the way you have to match the engine to the gearbox speed, but obviously without using the clutch.
BigJon:
newmercman:
It snowed up there for one day & was 18c the next when I was there the week before last, mind you it can snow in July in Alberta so I hope you’re not going for the weather as you may be disappointedTbh im quite looking forward to having proper winter’s, Not the horrible slushy snow we get in the UK but nice crisp white stuff.
Im going to be staying with my brother when i first arrive, as he made the move 8 months ago, just until i can get enough saved up to get my own place and start things rolling to get my wife over . My wife is staying here in the UK for a few months at least, so she can tie up all the loose ends, like selling the house & car etc.Gonna get my Airbrake endorsement sorted as soon as possible, as its only $125 , and will enable me to drive anything upto 12 tonne iirc.
another thing that you guys that are there already may be able to help with… Ive been told that Canadian and US trucks dont have a synchromesh on the box, and have to double declutch gearchanges… is this true? Ive been practising Floating Gear changes the last few days, which is almost like double declutching in the way you have to match the engine to the gearbox speed, but obviously without using the clutch.
Oh you’ll get a proper winter alright I saw my first snow in the 2nd week of October & I had a full day of it in Northern Michigan last week 
If you’re staying in Alberta you’ll be ok but as soon as you cross the border you’ll find that the vast majority of Americans just cannot drive for toffee, even the truckers, they may get a lot of snow but as soon as it hits the road they all end up in a ditch 
As for the gearboxes (you’ll have to call them trannys or nobody will know what you’re talking about) the big firms tend to use an autoshift of some type, either a Fuller or Meritor, these are like early EPS but worse, nasty things & you’ll hate them with a passion, if you get a stick it will be constant mesh, as you say this requires double de-clutching if you do it by the book, in practice though you only ever use the clutch to pull away, after that just match the revs to the shift & it will slip in like a knife through butter, get the revs wrong though & you’ll be playing all kinds of tunes. They use a method called progressive shifting where you pull away in the lowest gear & use minimal revs to get up to the next gear & so on, total bollox in my mind, you never get anywhere like that, a gearbox has more ratios so that you have a gear for every given situation, that doesn’t mean you have to use all of them all of the time, it’s easier to make a crunch free shift doing it that way & perhaps that’s why they do it, if you watch some of them trying to reverse you’ll see that they’re not the best drivers in the world
BTW if you’re practicing with a syncro box you will muck (with a capital F) up the syncros if you don’t use the clutch.
Thing is, I have been back into Canada, had 2 days off and am back in the US again… Saw you headed North this afternoon, but you clearly didn’t want to speak…
Hey Rob.
To be honest i think it must have been one of the O/operators that you saw as i have crossed back north through Coutts Alberta the last couple of trips, bud.