hi guy’s. 
well i had the assesment this morning and it went very well indeed.
it lasted for just under 3 hours, but i only drove for about half an hour down a single track lane and went around a roundabout. as i said before i thought i would be ok driving it i was a bit concerned about reversing thou i did not reverse it this morning. after driving it i feel much more confident now so i dont think that will bother me too much. i start my lessons on 25th of april and sitting the test on the friday 29th april, not to sure about the time thou it is at 8.45,but as dave (the trainers name) told me it is a good time as you will do the reversing exercise and controled stop first before i actually go out on the main road, which will be around 9.10. every one should be in work by then hopefully the roads will be quiet then.
i was relieved a lot when dave explained to me that i wont have to use the splitter on the test,as i found it took a lot of concentration and it is a lot to take in wwithin a week. it is a k reg m.a.n 16 gears, but i will only use 4,5,6,7,and 8.
it has the slap over stick which i found easy and real gentle.
the 45 foot trailer looked real long from the out side but when i actually sat in the seat it didn’t look long at all. the whole lot is costing me £699 including the test fee of £80, so the actual traing is £619, i think that is reasonable concidering my motorbike test cost me £350 only 6 months ago.
any way fellas i will shut up now and let you all continue with your saturday night. really pleased i found this site i think it will help newbies out a great deal.
by the way i am from south wales. (vigfanbke)
THINK THE WORSE ANYTHING ELSE IS A BONUS… 
Well done vigfanbke and that’s cheap for a weeks course 
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Good luck and all the best with the training and test .
Good luck with the training, sounds like you’ve gained a lot of confidence today.
Very best of luck…keep a diary!!
vigfanbke:
…i was relieved a lot when dave explained to me that i wont have to use the splitter on the test,as i found it took a lot of concentration and it is a lot to take in wwithin a week. it is a k reg m.a.n 16 gears, but i will only use 4,5,6,7,and 8.
it has the slap over stick which i found easy and real gentle.
Are you sure about that? If you don’t use all the gears you ain’t gonna pass mate. There is, on the test, a gear changing exercise which takes you from a standstill all the way up the box and back down again. That said what ever vehicle you do your training in you are like to use for the test so you should be comfortable with the beast on the day of the test.
Good luck.
Not necessarily ALL the way up the box. You have to start in ‘your lowest gear’ and then work up thru the box until the examiner either tells you to start coming down again, or you reach the gear that he has specified.
On my test i was to told to start in lowest gear i.e. 1st low, then and then onward to 5th no mention anywhere of using splits but had been using splits and block changing prior to this excersice. I am guessing it will be the same but could be wrong.
Linux-user:
On my test i was to told to start in lowest gear i.e. 1st low, then and then onward to 5th no mention anywhere of using splits but had been using splits and block changing prior to this excersice. I am guessing it will be the same but could be wrong.
On the gear changing exercise, you’re supposed to start in the lowest gear, which will require you to engage low split. You don’t have to use the splitter in the exercise itself - just stay in low split.
It’s also a good idea to be in low split for the reversing - no point in having the truck go faster than necessary.
You might also need to choose a strange gear combination for the braking test - when I did my C+E, we were told to use high 4th - the only time we ever used that gear. The area for the braking test at the test station was rather short, so you couldn’t change gear whilst accelerating up to 20 mph; basically, if you just put it in high 4th, then pulled away as fast as possible, slipping the clutch a bit, the engine would hit the rev limiter at almost exactly 20 mph, so you didn’t have to worry about checking the speed - just floor it until you get to the cone, then hang on tight to the steering wheel… 
When cruising on the motorway, you’re expected to be in the highest gear (for fuel economy/engine sympathy), so they’ll probably give you a minor fault for not engaging high split.
The vehicle we used would also struggle a bit if you went straight from low 7th to low 8th on an incline - it went much better if you used high 7th inbetween.
So, you’ll have to change the splitter setting at some point.
