Steve and Sherry

On 3/2/2017 at 5:02 PM, David-and-Cheryl said:

You're right that you won't be able to rent a Class A rig without the appropriate license. You'd have to find a friend who has one and would lend it to you for training and the test.

 

However, if your only reason to want to get the license before you buy your rig is your concern about passing the vision test, I would simply visit any DPS driver's license office and see if they'll allow you to take the vision and colorblindness test for screening purposes. If they won't do that by itself, then you could submit your application for the Class A Exempt in the office. When they take the application, they'll give you the vision test. If you don't pass it, you could just stop there; if you do pass it, then you'd take the 20-question knowledge test. After that, you have 90 days to take the skills test, which would give you enough time to get your rig and practice for the test.

 

For training, don't waste your money on a community college course--that will be a CDL course and way more than you need. Instead, contact RV Driving School (http://rvdrivingschool.com) and get one of their instructors. He'll come to you, it will cost you just a few hundred dollars for a couple days of instruction, and it will be tailored specifically to RV driving. I highly recommend them.

 

Finally, I wouldn't worry about driving to Livingston for the skills test. If you're already in the DFW area, take it at the Dallas South Megacenter. They knew exactly what they were doing for the Class A Exempt.

 

So to summarize, I'd approach it in this order:

 

1. Get a vision screening to ensure that's not an issue.

2. Buy your rig so that you can practice in it.

3. Get instruction from RV Driving School in your own rig, and practice until you feel you can pass the test.

4. Take the skills test in your own rig.

 

Good luck!

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. 

Needing advice on getting our Class A exempt. We want DH to get his license in the next couple of months before we purchase the HDT (new Volvo or Kenworth) and put down payment on 5er, mine will come later once I get better at backing.

We plan to do the written test here in DFW area but would like to do the driving test in Livingston, TX since it's so RV friendly, we would need to rent a truck/trailer but can't do that w/o a license. Looked into community college driving classes in Collin county but 8+ weeks and $6k so that's not an option. Looked at a day class in Allen Texas but that guys a crook from what I read and an F rating at BBB. There's a place in San Antonio that looks reasonable (<$1k) and DH would have to take the driving test there instead of Livingston. Has anyone else solved this catch 22 of needing a rig to do the test? Many people we know got the rig first then the license or already had a CDL but due a possible red/green color vision issue we want to get license before committing $$ to rig and a new full time 5er.