Photos from Newport, Arkansas - post two

During the next few days, I will post blogs and photos for the three weeks of training at ASU-N in Newport, Arkansas. The photos are provided by Joe Staebell, a classmate and fellow graudate of ASU's 'Truck Driver Training Institute'. Click on one of the thumbnail photos to open a new web page and to display a larger version of
that photo.

A view of part of the 'practise range' at ASU-N. The range is located on a portion of an airfield built in the early 1940s. The range consists of several (12 or more) practise stations. Each practise station is set up with 55-gallon plastic barrels to delineate and to outline barriers and obstructions. Our instructors encouraged their students to imagine the barrels as buildings, street corners, tractor-trailer rigs, etc. Fortunately, whenever a student knocked over a barrel with their trailer . . . it was ONLY a barrel and NOT the side of a trailer, building, fire hydrant, a person's body. In order to graduate, a student was required to complete each practise maneuver without knocking over barrels. Driving skills practised on the ASU-N driving range: 100-foot straight-line back Right-hand turn Angled barrel dock 100-foot straight-line back between two trailers. Angled alleyway dock between 53-foot trailers. Serpentine backing. This maneuver required the student to back the tractor-trailer rig through and around three barrels that were placed along a straight line and spaced approximately 70 feet from each other, like this "o----o----o". The path the rig followed is described as serpentine and looks something like "----\__/----". Using the "o----o----o" as the exercise course, the rig's start position was parallel to and above the lefmost "o" with the rear of the trailer approximately 6 feet to the left of that barrel and approximately 2 feet away from the 'barrel line'. The student backed the rig between the leftmost and the center barrel; then, backed the rig between the center and rightmost barrels. The end position of the rig was correct if the tractor's bumper was approximately 6 feet to the right of the rightmost barrel and parallel to the 'barrel line'.

One of the 'range trucks' we drove - this one, a Volvo automatic with 53-foot dry van. There were approximately 32 range trucks available to students. Most tractors had a 10-speed manual transmission, air brakes, power steering, and was coupled to a 53-foot dry van or flat-bed trailer.

In the foreground is an 'angle barrel dock' practise station. Beyond this station are three other angle barrel-dock stations. Not a lot of room to manuever the tractor - trailer in front of the dock. The 'rig' was positioned at an angle to the dock. Imagine a clock that shows a time of 10:25. Substitue the tractor for the short hand on the clock; the trailer for the long hand. That was the position of the rig at the start of the backing maneuver. Zero points was a perfect grade for this maneuver. Points were added for going into a barrel-outlined area, for staying too far away from the barrel corner during the right-hand turn leading into the angle dock area, for knocking over barrels, for not positioning the trailer's bumper within a two-foot zone at the back of the docking slot.

A view of the practise station for the '100-foot straight-line back between two trailers' exercise.

Additional photos will be added ASAP..!