Driver's License... What Vehicle did you use?

[Root Cause]

1965 VW beetle. Dad spent $29 to have it painted from black to yellow. Easy to parallel park. Awesome in the snow unless the ruts were deep. Then it struggled to turn.

 

[MoKelly]

I had a Mercury Bobcat. Small little car.

I remember the State Patrol guy was big. Very uncomfortable in the seat.

I believe he cut the test short. I passed.

MoKelly

 

[MossRoad]

Our oldest daughter had to parallel park in her driving test. She said the instructor picked a spot and told her to park there. As she was trying to park, the guy in the car at the rear of the open spot kept inching forward, messing with them. The instructor started yelling at the guy, called him some choice names and told my daughter to drive off. They found a block with only one car parked, she had my daughter pull up next to it, back into the very open area behind it, said something derogatory about the %^^$!!! at the last spot, they both laughed hard, and the instructor told her she rolled a crosswalk, don't do that anymore, and she passed.

 

[Alan W.]

70 Ford LTD. Dad never had small cars. Wished I still had that car.

CDL test in a T800 Kenworth dump with a 20 T lowboy. Really quick abbreviated test. Found out the trooper had been divorced for awhile and that night was his first date since, so he knocked off early.

 

[Sigarms]

Our oldest daughter had to parallel park in her driving test. She said the instructor picked a spot and told her to park there. As she was trying to park, the guy in the car at the rear of the open spot kept inching forward, messing with them. The instructor started yelling at the guy, called him some choice names and told my daughter to drive off. They found a block with only one car parked, she had my daughter pull up next to it, back into the very open area behind it, said something derogatory about the %^^$!!! at the last spot, they both laughed hard, and the instructor told her she rolled a crosswalk, don't do that anymore, and she passed.

Pretty certain when I had to parallel park, it was at the state testing station, and I had to deal with cones along with a curb. I believe I ended up hitting a cone. Fail.

Now my boys are amazed that I can drive reverse down our entire driveway the full length with no problem LOL

 

[kf4uda]

1968 Ford Custom 500 Sedan. It was my parents car.

 

[sandman2234]

I followed with my 71 Honda CB 175, my brother had a CL 175 and uncle SL 175....

The CB 175 belonged to a Navy guy shipping out from Alameda... it still has the military sticker on the fork...

I left SW Arkansas during an ice storm/freeze with an inch of ice on the road on an SL175. Took me five days to get to Tallahassee where it slung a chain. I started with $25, a T shirt, sweatshirt and a jean jacket, a pair of jeans, and socks covered by Dingo boots. Points closed up just south of Crossett, AR and a guy headed to work stopped. We laid it down in the back of his station wagon and on to work. Next morning he took me to a shop, and they fixed it at no charge (or he paid for it??) Made it to Lucedale, MS about to freeze to death. A small restaurant was open, so I got an egg sandwich. They brought me a big plate of food, said it was cooked "by mistake"! I got warm from the heater and their compassion! When I slung the chain a guy with a stepvan loaded with racks of 8 tracks stopped to help. He rented me a room for the night and took me into Tallahassee. He paid the bill, but I called my Mom in Jacksonville and She sent him his money back. I got to Lake City and talked a guy with a pickup into loading it into his truck and letting me sit on it, rather than drive it. Sure a lot of good people watching out for a dumb 15 year old kid!!

 

[Jstpssng]

Pretty certain when I had to parallel park, it was at the state testing station, and I had to deal with cones along with a curb. I believe I ended up hitting a cone. Fail.

Now my boys are amazed that I can drive reverse down our entire driveway the full length with no problem LOL

That's funny. I occasionally will back a trailer up the 600 foot road through my field; not so easy now that all I have is a little short tongue 8' SureTrac dump. It's not uncommon for me to back a 1/4 mile or more because I can't find a decent place to turn around... or am just to lazy to. (Woods roads, not public highways.)

I still can't use the backup camera, although it's handy to see if anything is directly behind me.

 

[Sigarms]

That's funny. I occasionally will back a trailer up the 600 foot road through my field; not so easy now that all I have is a little short tongue 8' SureTrac dump. It's not uncommon for me to back a 1/4 mile or more because I can't find a decent place to turn around... or am just to lazy to. (Woods roads, not public highways.)

I still can't use the backup camera, although it's handy to see if anything is directly behind me.

I wish I could find it, but for work, I backed up a 26' truck to the dock, and the tailgate on the truck was EXACTLY 1" from each side of the loading dock on the first try. I was SO proud of myself because I'm not the truck driver. I took a picture with the ruler for documentation to show I wasn't lying

One morning I come in, a 18 wheeler is backing up, and I swear to God, the guy had to take like 7 times to back up and he still was a foot off from the door that took him like 10 minutes and he had a full empty parking lot to work with, with plenty of room for pulling forward and backing up.

Now, back around 1996, I won't mention the 3 sideview mirrors I knocked off cars on a busy town road because I got to close I kept hearing this "thump", couldn't figure out what it was until the 3rd "thump", and I saw the sideview mirror on a car being knocked off a car.

 

[sandman2234]

Just for the record, backing up to an empty dock in an empty parking lot isn't the easiest thing to do. Especially if there are no lines on the pavement. Nothing to judge distance by!
I use the backup camera in Wife's car simply to make sure there is nothing directly behind the car before I start moving, but otherwise use side mirrors.
The hardest trailer to back up is a cement mixer! The shorter the trailer, the harder it is to backup! The big ones just take more real estate, which has its own issues!

 

[Jstpssng]

Just for the record, backing up to an empty dock in an empty parking lot isn't the easiest thing to do. Especially if there are no lines on the pavement. Nothing to judge distance by!
I use the backup camera in Wife's car simply to make sure there is nothing directly behind the car before I start moving, but otherwise use side mirrors.
The hardest trailer to back up is a cement mixer! The shorter the trailer, the harder it is to backup! The big ones just take more real estate, which has its own issues!

Are you saying that things look different when looking in the mirror, if the end of your trailer is 48 feet away?
I used to drive a C-65 with a 20'(?) rack body, with a hay mulcher on back. Trying to back that up was a challenge, to say the least. The body was 8 feet wide, usually loaded with hay; the mulcher was about 8 feet long and 5 1/2 feet wide. By the time that it showed up in the mirrors it would be jackknifed... and the forewoman on back would be screaming at me.

Actually she only did that once... scream at me and I scream right back.

 

[sandman2234]

Shorter trailers react quicker! A long wheelbased pickup with a short cement mixer almost can't react in time to prevent jack-knife! Most new tractor trailer drivers don't wait long enough for the trailer to react, causing people to start counting how many times they have to pull up to fix it!

 

[k0ua]

Pretty certain when I had to parallel park, it was at the state testing station, and I had to deal with cones along with a curb. I believe I ended up hitting a cone. Fail.

Now my boys are amazed that I can drive reverse down our entire driveway the full length with no problem LOL

Here in Missouri they use "sticks" with weights on the bottom so you can see them over the trunk of a car. They set these up on a quiet street each stick to represent a parked car and you are supposed to parallel park between them. Certainly not the easiest thing in the world to do.

That may have been one of the things I got docked on. It has only been 50 years ago, so some of the details might be a bit fuzzy. As I remember it, I passed, but it was a barely thing.

I can drive in reverse quite well, and have had to drive down my gravel hill for a few hundred feet in reverse because I "dwadled" coming up the hill and didn't have traction. You cannot make it up my driveway unless you come up the hill "smartly" or you have a 4 WD vehicle.

 

[k0ua]

I use the backup camera in Wife's car simply to make sure there is nothing directly behind the car before I start moving, but otherwise use side mirrors.

Same here. The backup camera saved a little girl that had managed to get out of her mothers sight as I was backing out of a parking space. Without the backup camera I would have never seen her. She wasn't tall enough to show up in the back window of the minivan or in any mirror.

 

[JethroB]

My mom’s 1972 Olds Cutlass. Every soon-to-be 16 year old boy knew the testing schedule hours of every State Troopers office within 50 miles. Freedom baby. I had a 54 Willys jeep waiting for me back home.

At 18 I went back for a motorcycle endorsement. I asked the trooper if he was going to ride on the back for the driving test. Uh No. He watched me circle the parking lot.

 

[Jstpssng]

My mom’s 1972 Olds Cutlass. Every soon-to-be 16 year old boy knew the testing schedule hours of every State Troopers office within 50 miles. Freedom baby. I had a 54 Willys jeep waiting for me back home.

At 18 I went back for a motorcycle endorsement. I asked the trooper if he was going to ride on the back for the driving test. Uh No. He watched me circle the parking lot.

When I took my test they would follow in their vehicle, using the horn to tell us what to do. 1 tap = right, 2 taps = left, 3 = pull over and stop.

One long blast meant "Stop in place!" (You doofus! )

 

[sandman2234]

Same here. The backup camera saved a little girl that had managed to get out of her mothers sight as I was backing out of a parking space. Without the backup camera I would have never seen her. She wasn't tall enough to show up in the back window of the minivan or in any mirror.

A couple we used to hang out with years ago lost a child because he didn't see him behind the car when he started backing up. That was hard on him, and the whole family!

 

[Jstpssng]

A couple we used to hang out with years ago lost a child because he didn't see him behind the car when he started backing up. That was hard on him, and the whole family!

I can't imagine that. About 10 years ago I gave a washing machine to a friend, backing across the lawn to her deck to unload it. We brought it inside and hooked it up, then I went back out to my truck for something. I noticed movement up by my front bumper, upon examination saw her 2 YO grandson laying in the grass playing with his trucks, just as he always did. Even though I wasn't going to move the truck, that gave me nightmares for a long time afterward just thinking what could have happened.

 

[Semper Paratus]

73 Caprice Station Wagon. Had to parallel park the beast after arguing with the tester about wearing a seat belt. If I hadn't insisted I would have lost my new license for a month. Momma's rules

 

[shooterdon]

1968 Buick Electra 225