Top Tips for Driving Big Rigs
Story by Perry Mack
MY FIRST TEST DRIVE OF A CLASS A MOTORCOACH WAS ALMOST MY LAST DAY ON THIS EARTH.
It was time to upgrade from the travel trailer to a Class C. I had plans to travel south more often with the family and we needed more com- fort and space for the long drives. A looked at a few and then I saw an affordable 39’ Class A. The base- ment storage was perfect for a fam- ily of five that traveled with windsurf and kite gear, and the large win- dows were inviting.
“Would you like to take it for a test drive”, the salesman asked? “Don’t I need a special license”, I replied? “No, you’ll be fine”, he said confi- dently settling into the passenger seat and handing me the keys. I looked back from the drivers seat almost 13 metres (40’) to the rear of the unit. It looked like a long hallway in a cruise ship. Like Brendan Fraser in the movie The Mummy, I thought
to myself, “I only gamble with my life, never my money”, I started the engine and made a right turn out of the lot. I was feeling pretty con- fident driving after two minutes, which is when the sharp right turn after a long straight stretch snuck up on me. Without braking enough I cranked the steering wheel around so as not to end up in a farmers field, which put the salesman on the floor (seatbelts people) and the coach almost up on two wheels through the turn.
Who knew RV’ing could be so excit- ing? A couple decades later, thou- sands of hours and kilometres un- der my belt, I’ve learned quite a bit through experience and chatting with professional drivers. Here are the top tips for driving your big rig.
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Start with what I call the pre-flight inspection. Just like a pilot walks
around his plane, walk around your RV checking that tires are inflated
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