Learning to Drive Better
As a one truck owner operator, my most important job is driving the truck. All truck drivers are continuously making decisions that can alter everything. Calling them million dollar decisions may be understating. Some of the decisions that we make can not have a price tag. One bad decision can cost you more than your livelihood. It can cost your life, or cost someone else theirs.
It makes sense to me to become the best driver that I can be. Circa 1992, I took the decision driving course 
at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wi. In 2015, I took it again. Many of the lessons, I remembered from when I was younger. Doing something in a truck – even on a skid pad – brings the lesson home better than just hearing it in a classroom.
That said we started in a classroom. We reviewed stopping distances, distracted driving, etc. Those are the things that you can never hear often enough. Then the instructor gave a jack knife demonstration that I remembered from when I was younger. The skidding axle leads. Remember that a spinning axle is basically the same as a skidding axle. It will want to lead. The myth of powering out of a jack knife is just that – a myth. What it is most likely to do is push the drive axles in front of the steer axle causing a drive axle lead jack knife. What you want is for all of the axles to be free rolling.
The instructor got a toy truck like the one in my pictures – although not quite as cool. First thing that he did was build a slant board. Then he taped up the steer tires. He let the truck go down the slant board. It went straight as an arrow. The skidding axle lead the way.
Next the instructor taped the drive axles. When he let the truck go down the slant board, the drive axles took the lead. The result was a drive axle led jack knife as in the second picture. After that he taped the trailer axles. Sure enough as soon as he let the truck go, the trailer axle went to the front. That's bad.
After that we got to drive on the trucks. We got to test the differences between what happens with and without anti lock braking systems. If you aren't sold on ABS technology, you will be after after an hour on the skid pad. We learned how to steer and brake in jack knife situations. We did pretty good at getting out of jack knifes. Although I did do a 360 in a non ABS bobtail. Luckily that was
before lunch.
Then we got to jack knife. The trailer coming around generates an amazing amount of force. The video is what happens when the trailer axles lock up. It is not pretty on the skid pad. I don't want to see it on the highway. That is the idea.