I was thinking about this last week as I was doing some training of new drivers. Thats a classic one, a guy with his Class 1 for one month doing training. Yiesh. The current thread in the newbies forum proved how much this would help.
Anyways.
The training that I was doing was tail lifts, curtains etc with some new guys. I was thinking about putting together a pdf booklet type thing that had references to the majority of things that they didn’t teach you when you did your test.
The thing that got me was how simple I found this but some people unless you tell them would spend 20 mins looking for it. I mean how long did it take YOU to find that pin you have to pull up so the flat tail lifts (single piece ones) will fold back up.
I am lucky. The old man is a transport manager / class 1 and I’ve learnt a lot off him over the years when I used to work at his depot when I was younger. So I just “get” this stuff, others don’t have that.
What I am looking for:
Pictures of:
Gear Sticks (to highlight range changers, spitters etc)
Maybe simple but untill I got that IVECO with no intro I’d never seen a knock over gear box. Took me 20 seconds to figure it out but thats becuase I just knew they “existed” and the name kind of gave away what you had to do to it? Or the scania with the collar on the gear stick for high low range?
Tail Lifts (photos of folding / unfolding for the 3? main types)
Tachos (hey, I’ll admit putting a tacho in the second driver position on a scania first time I drove one as it fell off the spindle in the first driver position - “that plastic must keep it on I thought”
Curtains - simple but so many buckle types you’ll look a tool when you can’t re do the curtain at a customers site.
Sliding 5th Wheel - were you taught this?
Shunt Button - not untill you need to do a rip the suzies off tight turn or pull a trailer out to put the unit at an angle to get the suzies on a frige unit you realise your not confident in usnig it
Shunter’s raised 5th wheel (the proper ones not raise the suspension on a normal unit)
Anything else people think would be useful.
The idea of this is not to proide enough knowledge to make people dangerous but not enough to do the job safely. Thats why I probably wont cover loading flat beds as I was shown by and old hand or steel as i’ve never done it and I wouldnt unless I was shown by and old hand.
Demount bodies a no no for the same reasons, as well as slinging loads.
If anyone thinks its a crazy idea then fine, no need to post that. It might help one or two competant drivers not look a tool on the first day which would be nice.
I’m agency driving so I should get most of the photos down pretty quickly but nice if people already had them (then I ask why you are taking pictures of gear sticks).
i found when just passing test the book The Truck Drivers handbook by david lowe a godsend when first out, it had all the info most would need,roping sheets,knots,manual fifth wheels and auto ones,getting thru london etc,his second book ,The Proffesional LGV Drivers Handbook also helps with more upto date info in it.
Sockpuppet:
I mean how long did it take YOU to find that pin you have to pull up so the flat tail lifts (single piece ones) will fold back up.
It was a long time ago, but I’d guess probably about 10 seconds
I have, however, spent many minutes/hours playing with various controls and buttons trying to work out which combination of cab isolators, internal and external buttons make the tail-lift move. It’s especially infuriating when the control breaks and the maintenance people either put the switch back in upside down, or just leave it there and replace it with a second one placed somewhere completely non-obvious
Sockpuppet:
Shunt Button - not untill you need to do a rip the suzies off tight turn or pull a trailer out to put the unit at an angle to get the suzies on a frige unit you realise your not confident in usnig it
I’d have to admit I’ve never used a shunt button, so I’m not confident in using it, although I’d have a play until I got the trailer to move (as long as it’s not parked on a significant slope)
Our Argos “Megadecker” trailers are a constant source of… I’d say amusement, others would disagree. There’s three sets of controls, one on the outside rear, one inside (split either side of the doors for tail-lift/ deck movement), and one on the moving deck. It’s a lottery as to which ones you’re going to have to use, and when you’re going to have to swap between them.
Couple this with the abundance of H&S equipment (when you’re moving the deck, there’s enough orange strobes for a large nightclub, and Annoying Voice Type 42 telling you that “the deck is moving, be careful, don’t get underneath it, don’t look directly at it, don’t mention it to anyone unless you and they are hi-vis clad, stay away from the buttons, and don’t do drugs kids, drugs are bad”… having said that, it’s a good job the voice tells you the deck is moving, since it’s so slow it’s barely perceptible to the human eye. An Indiana Jones stunt, it is not.
I’d write a quick guide to use of them, but if Health and Safety found out us mere warehouse wallies had come into contact with any part of the truck, let alone got inside to help handball the big stuff off… they’d fire anyone in a 6 mile radius.
Scanny you are so ■■■■ it beggers belief, Not only do you post word for word the same topics on 2 different web sites (maybe more) you also take photos of gear shifts too
unfortunately the site has been down for over a week (dunno why) but it has all this kind of info on it as a reference
if the topic i think you are referring to is right then i have posted it on both sites because it should be made public knowledge. not everyone uses both sites but i feel that the topic is big enough to justify as many people as possible seeing
Good idea for a post Sockpuppet. As sa Class 1 holder who makes a mokery of the “training” system, I have always wondered about that remote control handset by the drivers seat.
I think it operates things like suspension levels(?). Too be quite honest (and I know people will ridicule me for being honest) I don’t even know how to drop the mid lift axle on a unit, or even if it’s a manual operation or weight sensored automatically. having only driven a 6x2 once.
Like I say, good idea for a topic, there is so much too this game that gaffers think you are born with the knowledge or something.
Patches:
Good idea for a post Sockpuppet. As sa Class 1 holder who makes a mokery of the “training” system, I have always wondered about that remote control handset by the drivers seat.
I think it operates things like suspension levels(?).
Yes, if you’re thinking of the same thing that I’m thinking of, it operates the unit suspension.
To start off, you need the ignition on. Then, press the middle button on the top row, and a light should come on. That enables manual suspension adjustment.
The “up” and “down” buttons are then on the bottom row IIRC.
Once you’ve finished, there is a button, usually green, and I think it’s on the middle row, showing a truck with both up and down arrows pointing to it. Press that, and the truck resets itself back to normal running height, followed by pressing the top middle button to disable manual adjustment (and to make the warning light on the dashboard go away).
Why do you use it? Three reasons:
When loading/unloading, it’s easier to be moving the pallets/cages down a gentle downhill slope than pushing them uphill.
When picking up a trailer, the trailer pin might be too high for your fifth wheel. Also, it is a good idea to avoid scraping the fifth wheel plate along the leading edge of the trailer, so drop the suspension down and reverse the unit until the fifth wheel plate is just past the leading edge (but not up to the kingpin), then raise the suspension so that the fifth wheel plate becomes flush with the trailer. This avoids scraping all the grease off the fifth wheel onto the front of the trailer. When dropping the trailer, you should do the opposite (i.e. drop the suspension after disengaging the pin, but before driving out completely.)
Sometimes the trailer is heavy enough (and the leg gears are bad enough) that it’s very difficult to wind the legs up when picking the trailer up. You can use the suspension to lift the legs off the ground (or at least reduce the pressure on them), making it much easier.
Patches:
Too be quite honest (and I know people will ridicule me for being honest) I don’t even know how to drop the mid lift axle on a unit, or even if it’s a manual operation or weight sensored automatically. having only driven a 6x2 once.
In the cab, you’ll see a button with a horizontal line, and two circles below, one nearer the line than the other. That’s the lift axle control. Play with it until the axle goes up/down as you want
When I decided to get back into driving after a long time away I bought a copy of “The Truckers Handbook” (Someone else mentioned it but by a different author so might not be the same). I found it a great resource for updating my knowledge like how to use air suspension, lift axles etc. with examples of what various buttons usually look like and where they’re found, it includes a whole section on gearboxes.
It doesn’t have all the answers but I found that when I did need to ask for help with a strange lorry i didn’t need to ask how to check the oil AND how to adjust the steering column AND how to put the tacho in AND how to use the gearbox…
On the Daf AS-Tronic, the ‘s’ means ‘search’. It is for when you’re driving in manual mode and you need to find the most appropriate gear for a roundabout, or sudden change in speed for example. You knock it to the right and it ‘searches’ for you.
