What important skills of truck driving did you learn after your first year of trucking?

Whenever I ask a trucking question here, everyone always starts chastising me, writing that I should have learned the answer to whatever question that I am asking in my first year of truck driving. Nobody has ever told me that I should have learned something in my second or later year of truck driving. Here are the things that I learned after my first year of trucking:

1# sliding the tandems forward reduces off-tracking, allowing me to easier maneuver around obstacles.

2# stopping at all railroad tracks that don't have warning lights or a gate arm

3# the existence of trolley valves on most semi-trucks

4# pushing in the red brave valve is supposed to pop out the trailer tandem pins. In my rookie year, I always just walked to the back of the trailer and pushed in the trailer pin release button.

5# It is illegal to drive in the third lane in most states. In my rookie year, I thought it was only illegal to drive in the left lane where there were signs explicitly forbidding it.

6# when backing, you don't need as much forward space if the tandems are slid forward

7# when buttonhooking a right hand turn, i should wait until there is not oncoming traffic blocking me on the street i am going to turn onto. In my rookie year, I would just blow my air horn and bully my way through LOL

8# I need to look for hub oil seal leaks on the inside of the trailer wheels. In my rookie year, I would only look for leaks on the outside of the trailer wheels.

9# when sliding the fifth wheel on my truck, I need to dolly down the legs of the landing gear to take the weight off the fifth wheel. In my rookie year, I didn't know that, and it was very hard for me to adjust the fifth wheel to any position except all the way forward or all the way back.

So everyone always tells me that I should have learned everything in my first year of truck driving. What the heck did you all learn AFTER your first year of truck driving then?

 

Then what is it if there is a leak on the inside of the wheels? Is it a hub oil seal leak?

Anyway, the main point is that after my rookie year in trucking, I learned to check for leaks on the inside of the wheels too, regardless of the terminology.

 

I'm glad you think that. But if you're familiar with my posting history here, you know that most people here chastise me and talk down to me a lot and act like I don't know anything about trucking. People say stuff about me like "I wonder if he is even a truck driver."

 

What other truck driving skills did you learn after your first year of truck driving?