Training
"Okay, here we are!" Chloe announced as she pulled the parking brake fob and cut off the engine. "Welcome to Arcadia Bay's driving school!" She added, waving around at the scenery.
Max frowned a bit at the sight. She had expected them to go to some large parking lot, maybe at the company headquarter, but the punk had driven them to one of the docks of the Arcadia Bay Harbor. And while it was certainly deserted, it was not a driving school area either. "The docks? We are going to train at the docks? What about the dockers and fishers that come here to work?"
Chloe shrugged and pointed at the old warehouses with their rusty roof and facades. "The place is abandoned. Been that way for years. Ever since the Prescott came to 'help develop this promising town'" She explained, curling her fingers into quotation marks. "Asshole just bought one company after the other, firing everyone and selling their assets to make some cash."
Max frowned at the bitterness in the punk's voice.
"Oh, it was not his fault, of course… Just bad economy, bad previous management that made it impossible to save all those small companies." She scoffed. "Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact Arcadia Bay is squarely between Astoria and Newport, where two major shipping and fishing companies owned by none other than Mr. Sean Prescott are headquartered, right? At least, it's not like the bastard didn't run the hell away as soon as 95% of the local fishing and shipping economy had gone down the crapper."
She shook her head and sighed. "Well, at least Dicky had the ovaries to try and repair the damages by bringing her own company here. Can't really complain, too, with the changes in the STAA ratings of the US101 between Otis and Tillamook, the Truck traffic kinda plummeted around here, and well… Mom works at the local diner so… it could have been bad."
Max winced and nodded in understanding. "I wondered why she came here instead of Seattle. I half thought maybe she had tried to get away from our past… "
Chloe smirked. "I think it was part of it. But I also think a larger part of it was to give the big middle finger to her asshole in law by bringing a bit of the money he stole from us back into the local economy. Can't wait to see his face when she hits him and his shitty son with the divorce papers! Hope she can also get proof of the Presshit's affairs. too! If she can void that prenup it would be such a big blow to the scrotum! I mean, imagine if she left, taking half of his stolen money back into the Bay? That gotta hurt!"
Max chuckled. "Would surely be painful! But at the same time she's cheating too so … I wouldn't hold my breath on that."
Chloe waved a dismissive hand. "She's not stupid. Rachel and her aren't out to the public. I think all of those who might know work for her and we won't say a word about it. Most of use grew up here, you know. We got our own reasons to stiff the old Prick."
She shrugged and then tapped the wheel. "Okay, we are here to teach you how to be a good trucker girl. So let's be started." She reached behind her seat and grabbed pair of work gloves and a fluo jacket, tossing them to Max. "Here you go… now let's go out."
As Max climbed out of the cabin and walked around the truck, Chloe handed her a hammer and an old rag, beaming with amusement at the pinkette's confusion. "Lesson numero uno : How to properly make sure your truck is fit to drive!"
The truck verifications were not as she expected them to be. She had read on them in the manual of course, and she had watched Chloe do them every morning during their round trips, but doing the inspections herself was a different matter entirely.
And Chloe was not an indulgent teacher on that matter. Max could understand it, though, for even if the punk insisted it was only because the inspector would be insisting on every little check with its corresponding response, she knew the recent death of one of Chloe's friend due to a brake failure had hit her hard.
And so she did as shown and told, bending around and over to look in every little nooks, poking, probing at every part, making sure the frame of the truck was spotless of rust or deformations, that every nut and bolt where at their place with no sign of wear or tear, controlling that there were no single leakage, be it oil, gas cooling fluid, hydraulics from the powered steering or even simply the soft hiss of air leaking from the brakes and suspensions and other pneumatic systems.
She checked every single bulb, cleaning the lamps with the rag she had been given because 'it will show the inspector that you are actually controlling the light and their visibility by others', checked each tire, making sure their flanks showed no tear or deformation, that their sculpting was adequate and showed no nails or foreign object that could puncture them, and that the space between the twin wheels of the rear axles was sufficient to avoid the flanks of both tires to touch and that no rocks or object had come to wedge itself in-between. Of course she also controlled their pressure by hammering at them.
She made that round a dozen times, from start to finish, repeating it again and again until at last she made two in a row without mistakes before Chloe even let her climb into the driver's seat. After so many repetitions, she was glad to sit down and eager to start the driving.
Unfortunately, Chloe did not seem to be done with the verifications.
"Okay, release the parking brake and cut the engine off, but keep the contact on." She told Max as soon as they were seated.
"Why?"
"Because, there are a few more things to check if you want the inspector to even let you drive." Chloe retorted, making Max turn the key with a sigh and the engine bass rumbling died out.
"Now, press the brake pedal and release it again and again."
As Max did so all she could hear was the hiss and pshhh of the air being injected into the circuit and released, until the two needles of the gauges for each system fell under 60 psi at which point the alarm she had heard the first time she had climbed into the truck buzzed through the cabin and two red LEDs lit up under each needle.
"There you go. Now you tell the inspector the low pressure warning tone and visual signs are turning on when the pressure fall below 60psi. Go on, keep pumping."
As she did as told, Max kept looking at the slowly falling pressure on the gauges until it dropped below 45 psi. Then with a popping sound that surprised her, the yellow fob on the dashboard sprang back out and a loud hiss of released air came from outside.
"And there goes the safety. You should tell that the spring brake did come automatically when you went below 45 psi. Go on and turn the engine back on and try to keep the RPMs around a thousand."
"Okay…" Max said a bit confused before she turned the key bringing the engine back to life.
"Take note of the pressure indicated when the buzzer and the lights turn off, and how long it takes to bring the pressure back between 85 and 100."
"just at 60psi and it took about 40 seconds."
"Good, keep the engine running till it's full. Then pump the brake and check at which pressure you begin to hear the pump working."
Max did so, the tip of her tongue between her lips. She still was not sure what all this was about, but she guessed it was more of the safety checks. "Seems to begin at about 100." She finally said when she heard the compressor start refilling the tanks.
"When does it stop?"
"At about 125 psi… but what do we care?" Max asked.
"Well, if you build too much pressure what do you think will happen?" Chloe asked wryly.
"Err… I dunno, I suppose something will break."
Chloe nodded. "Yep! The tank may even blow, and then you got zero air pressure to work your brakes!"
"Which is not good." Max nodded. "Although the spring brakes will take over, right?"
Chloe nodded again. "Yes, they will… but Max, they aren't carefully dosed off brakes like you can control with the pedal. The spring brakes, they are all or nothing, they are actually what keeps the truck from moving when you are parked."
"I see…" Max whispered thoughtfully.
"Yep, not something you want to happen if you can avoid it." Chloe added. "Okay, so we checked that the instruments and the compressor are working nicely. Now you test the brakes themselves. Keep the parking brake engaged and shift into first."
Max made sure the yellow fob was popped back and then pressed the clutch pedal fully before she moved the stick forward.
"Good. Now slowly release the clutch until you feel the truck is about to stall. No big deal if it does either, but it's better if you don't let it. You know, makes it more professional and all."
Max nodded and slowly released the pedal. The rumbling of the engine began to slow a bit and she felt the frame of the truck trying to buckle and move as the transmission strained against the brakes. She then pressed the pedal fully.
"There you go. At that point you say something like, 'the parking brake is showing a good hold.'" She pointed at the dashboard. "Okay press the fob, wait for the pressure to be back up, then first gear again and let it move a bit forward."
Max bit he lip as she did as she was told, giving even a bit of gas to avoid stalling like she did the first time she drove on the company's parking lot. "Okay and now?"
"Now you use the brake pedal. Don't forget to use the clutch as well." Chloe smirked.
The truck stopped almost immediately from its creeping pace.
"And there you go, brake check complete." Chloe smiled mischievously. "Now repeat without my help. You gotta learn it by heart because you'll do it every time you start your truck."
With a groan, Max let her head fall on the driving wheel.
"Okay, let's pause here and swap place for a minute." Chloe said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"That bad?" Max asked with a wince.
"Nope… worse…. " Chloe sighed. "Not your fault, I think I should have explained it differently. So, we will try again."
Max pursed her lips. For the past twenty minutes she had been trying to switch gear with the truck. Unfortunately, if she did not stall much anymore when shifting into first, each upward shift tended to be accompanied with bucking of the truck and gritting of gears, and she had yet to manage a downshift that did not end in just more gritting without managing to actually shift into gear.
They exchanged seats and Chloe pulled the seat a bit back. "Okay, so let's see…" She frowned a moment in thoughts. "Alright, let's start with the basics. Here you have an Eaton eighteen speeds transmission. As you can see, the stick only moves into six positions – "
"One of which is the reverse." Max added with a nod.
"Right. So here are the tricks." She pointed at the grey switch by her thumb. "This is the splitter. It divides each gear into low and high. So you have first low, then first high, second low, second high, and so on." She looked up. "Follow me this far?"
Max nodded. " So instead of five gears we now have ten?"
Chloe pondered a moment then nodded. "Basically yes. Although, you only have eight real gears and two low or crawl speed as you can see on the tag here." She pointed at the medallion. "From upper left to lower right, you get Reverse, Crawl, first, second, third and fourth. Each with their low and high split. Got it?"
Max nodded, although not very sure yet.
Chloe pointed the small paddle switch at the front. "This is the range switch. What it does is basically create a second layer of gears above your first one. So basically, if you raise the switch like this," she demonstrated by adding move to the words, "you now get a fifth speed instead of the first, a sixth instead of second and so on. So you get two layers of four speeds, each with high and low. That makes?"
Max frowned. "Only sixteen. Even I can make that simple a multiplication."
Chloe smirked. "Yep, sixteen normal forward gears plus two low speed crawl gears, that makes eighteen forward gears. As for reverse, the stick only goes in one position, but you get two in low range, and two in high range, which makes four. But don't worry, you usually only use the lowest of all."
"Thank Dog!" Max rolled her eyes at the small mercy.
"Okay, so unless you are very very, and I mean very heavy, when in the low range," Chloe flicked the paddle back down, "you don't really need to bother with low and high split. They are here to give you additional power stage to launch your drive when you are too heavy for your engine, but we barely use it. It may be useful in a steep climb so Dicky still get us truck with the eighteen speeds gearbox instead of the thirteen speeds. For now don't bother with it. I'll show you how to use them for the higher range, but it's the easiest part."
Max nodded doubtfully, not really believing there was an easiest part in this. "Okay."
"The tricky part of it is that the Eaton transmission is not synchronized. It means the gears are not always turning at the same speed so as to facilitate the change. You have to adapt that speed yourself."
"How do I do that?" Max inquired with a soft grumble.
"That is what I'll show you now." Chloe smiled, then pressed the clutch pedal. "Okay, you press the pedal fully when shifting to first so as to stop the gears from turning, because the wheels are not turning." She then moved the shifter forward, "then you shift into first. If it doesn't want to go in, don't force it, simply release the clutch a bit and press it again. It just means the gears are not aligned, so just let them move a bit and it'll be fine."
She started the truck slowly. "Alright, so you accelerate, slowly, no need to floor the pedal as the first few gears are short. When you reach about 1,400 to 1,500 rpm, you press the pedal and pull the shifter back to neutral. Then release the pedal." She put the tip of her finger in front of the knob.
"Now, here is the trick. You let the engine RPM drop back about 400 RPM, depending on where you stopped. As you do, you apply a soft pressure with your finger tip onto the stick, see?" She looked at Max who nodded. "Do no force it, just a tiny bit. At the correct RPM, you press the clutch only half way. Do not press it all the way, you would engage the clutch brake that would stop the gear from turning and you'll get fucked." She demonstrated by pressing the pedal at the right distance. "Then add a bit of pressure on the stick." After a slight delay, the stick moved back without Chloe having to force and she released the clutch and pressed the gas again.
"As you can see, no need to force, when the RPM are right, the gears will shift on their own with just a bit of pressure. In fact, you would not even need to use the clutch, but …. The inspectors will have your head if you don't so… use the damn pedal!" She smirked.
"For the rest, it's the same. You push the gas to about 1,400, then back to neutral, release the clutch, present your stick for the next gear and only apply a bit of pressure to keep it in position as you let the RPM drop, and when it's right…" as she spoke she demonstrated once again as the gear shifter moved into place. "you press the clutch pedal a bit and there it goes."
Max nodded, wondering how the girl could make it look so simple.
"And you add gas again…. And at 1,400 clutch neutral… present it to fourth… let the engine drop to 1,000, clutch and slight push…" Chloe kept driving, but stopped accelerating. "It's a question of timing. Basically, you just need to count one, two in your head."
"Okay… I guess. Well, I was beginning to get it I think… Downshifting though…" Max complained.
"Yeah downshifting is a bit different, but the principle is about the same but in reverse." She gave a bit of gas again and then released the pedal. "So first, you let the engine drop to 1,000, you can let it run, use the brake or the retarders, as you want. You let it drop at 1,000, then half clutch, Neutral." She said while demonstrating by joining the actions to the words. "Just like for upward shift. The trick is to get the rpm back to 1,400 so the gear can shift back into third. Remember 1,400 in third is about equal to 1,000 in fourth."
She glanced at Max while letting the truck coast a bit. "So, you present your shifter into gear as before, then press a bit on the gas pedal. And yeah, you got to release the brake pedal. That takes some getting used to." She smirked as she did just so. "Then, when you have about the right RPM, press the clutch and give a bit more pressure and voila!"
As expected, the truck shifted down and Chloe smiled. "Not so hard, is it? I'll show you some more but first let me show you the range." She announced as she pressed on the gas. "One," she pressed the clutch pulled the stick to neutral and released the clutch, letting the RPMs drop. "Two!" She pressed the clutch again and the stick went in readily.
"See? Easy! Just choose which you prefer, either count or as I do, keep the shifter in position and when it's right, it'll get in on its own." She looked to see if Max had understood. "Okay, we are into fourth and we want to get faster, so first, you select the upper range by flicking this switch up." She showed the moves again. "and then it's just like any normal shifting, except you want to put the stick back into the same position as for the first. It can be a bit weird, but basically, just let it go to neutral and you push forward. Like that." Once again Chloe shifted gears while counting 'one, two.'
"And so on. Okay let's stop this truck, then it's your turn."
"That's it. You are doing great. Just let it flow, take your time." Chloe was giving out encouragement and advice as Max slowly navigated the Truck across a circuit marked by old traffic cones they had laid out on the dock.
The day had been long and Max was beginning to feel it in her arms. Even with power steering, the wheel of a truck felt heavier than that of a car. And it was not like she had much experience with a car either, despite having had a license for over five years.
On the other hand, she was improving. She now could shift gears using the 'double-shift' technique. She was not perfect, far from it, but she was not stuck as she had been and the grinding sounds were getting sparser.
Her handling of the truck's size was getting better as well. Her first run through the 'maze of cones', as she called it, - Chloe had another much dorkier way of calling it – had turned into a disaster. In fact, it had been so bad that Chloe had told her a Court was gathering at The Hague to sue her for mass murder and traffic cone genocide. Then, she had made a show of cradling the single and unique cone that had been left standing and treat it as an orphan.
At least, now that she had a better grasp of the size of the truck's nose, length and turning rate, she could drive through the maze without crushing a single cone. When driving forward that is. Her backward driving was still to complete a single run without killing a poor cone.
"Yes, just like that, easy on the wheel." Chloe kept encouraging her as she slowly backed the truck along another S-curve. "Don't forget to check both of your mirrors." She reminded Max soon enough for her to check the opposite side and notice she was going to be too close to the cones on the other side.
She stopped the truck and shift into first, driving forward a few yards.
"Good choice." Chloe said. "Do not hesitate to go back forward. You are doing good and you are right to look through your side window. But don't forget your other side. A truck is big and large, you can't see everything if you only look on one side of it." She gave a slight frown. "In fact you can't ever see everything around it. So try to always keep everything you can into view. Check both mirrors regularly."
"Okay." Max responded with a sigh. She was getting tired and it began to show.
"Okay, let's just finish this run, then we are done for the day."
Max nodded, shifted back into reverse and went to pursue on her exercise. She slowly maneuvered, backing up the truck, ignoring the strain in her arms and legs as she concentrated on looking at the mirrors on both sides and bending into the side window to check now and then her alignment.
When she was done, she put the transmission into neutral and set the parking brake before giving out a sigh of relief.
"Great. Let's pack the cones!" Chloe cheered, popping her door open as Max groaned.
They packed the cones, Chloe passing them up as she stored them into the sleeper's cab. When she turned from wedging the last cone into a corner, she found Chloe seated at the passenger's place, feet on the dashboard.
"Err…" She hesitated as Chloe smiled at her.
"Yes?" The punk beamed.
"I thought we were going home?" Max inquired a bit unsure.
"Well, yes! We are going home!" Still, she did not make a move.
"Shouldn't you be sitting behind the wheel then?" Max asked.
Chloe looked at her with faked surprise, eyes wide. "Why? Did you already get your permit revoked? I'm shocked!"
"You've been with me the whole day! You know I haven't even been controlled, you smartass!" Max retorted.
"Then, nothing's preventing you from driving this baby back home!" Chloe smirked at her and leaned back in her seat.