Class A non-commercial drivers test

[vipermanden]

Kasboat, You are reminding of my nightmares I had trying to pass the alley dock test back in 2016. I am 57+ total feet long when I took the test, and I had a Class A driver with me, and I passed the written, and medical, and pre-trip checklist and the first two skills, but there is "NO" way to pass the alley dock test in my rig. They have lines you have to stay in, so you can not pull up enough to get straight. Plus if "ANY" part of your 5th wheel crosses over the imaginary boundaries of the alley dock, you fail. The guy giving me the test was wearing a rice patty hat, and the CHP officer that is a class A licensed truck driver also, told me I was screwed when I got this test person because he is so strict. At the Sacramento facility, there were no cones to see, just painted lines on the ground, and since I have 14 feet hanging behind the rear wheel, it is too easy to cross over those imaginary lines. After I failed 4 times, the test person walked back to the office, and left me stunned out there in the test area. My CHP truck driver came over and said let me have the keys, and he tried twice and failed too. On his third attempt, they came running out like we were robbing a bank, and told us to leave immediately. With your short bed and glider hitch, you might be able to pull this off? Only advice I can give you, is to go super slow, and get out of the truck and look a bunch of times. So after I failed, I started asking people in the RV parks, and none of them had Class A non-commercial licenses, and my son is a CHP officer, and he said they would never pull you over and ask that, unless you were doing something really stupid. Since I failed that test, we have been to 41 states, and two provinces of Canada, and 30,000 miles on the 5th wheel, and over 100 RV parks. I never looked back. The alley dock test needs to be updated to accommodate these newer larger rigs. These dimensions are probably decades old? Plus a lot of the semi-trucks have their rear wheels at the very back of the trailer, so they can just back right in without the overhang busting thru those imaginary lines. Good Luck, but if you don't pass, then just be like 90% of the rest of us driving around without a class A non-commercial license.

[vipermanden]

Sheesh, I even tortured myself and found the photo of the Alley Dock test site. My fifth wheel is not a gumby rubber toy, and can not just bend into this slot, and there is not enough room in front to allow you to get out far enough to get the 5th wheel going straight enough to not cross over any part of the lines! We have never had to park like this in over 100 RV parks we have been to.