David-and-Cheryl, thanks for taking the time to provide such great insight into how you would approach this. We plan on getting a HDT and a Spacecraft RV (delivery dates are about 6-9 months out and we won't put and money down on it until we know we can get a license) so will not be able to get them in the 90 days after the written test and eye exam to do the skills test which is why I was looking at day schools. I agree on not wanting to do a full blown CDL school, thanks on suggesting to do the vision test first if they will let him and that the Dallas South Megacenter is a good place to take the skills test. We want to drive Kenworths and Volvos to determine which one we like best before buying one and my assumption is that one of us will need to have the Class A Exempt to do that at a dealership or at the very lease a permit. We both drove a Volvo 780 at the National HDT rally last October but also like the ride in the Kenworth, we didn't drive the Kenworth. So it's still a catch 22 for us. I did find a website that hooks you up with truckers to do some practice and the skills test for a fee but I really don't want to use a random person for that :).
I may try to contact the person in Grand Prairie on the rvdrivingschool.com to see if he will let us use his rig to do the skills test in but the site specifically says you need to have your own rig. We feel it's a risk to purchase an HDT and a very heavy RV prior to getting the license - we don't want to get ticketed for driving w/o a license in the HDT then possibly not be able to get the license due to the ding on the driving record. I also do not want to purchase a Volvo or the Spacecraft w/o a license because those would not be easy to sell. So we are in a little different category but I feel there are others out there in our same situation.
Bottom line it's not just about the vision it's also about driving without the proper license in an HDT. Our current GMC 2500 HD and 5th wheel do not meet the requirements for the HDT skills test or we would use them.