Drove the 26 foot Uhaul truck, fully loaded, across US 70 in Colorado yesterday. Always thought picking up a CDL and driving a semi might be fun and interesting.
After yesterday, not a chance.
Not an experience I enjoyed at all. Unfortunately I need to do another round in October. You can bet I'll be watching the weather for that trip.
ETA: the condition of 70 in Colorado is horrible,
It's the steep downhill sections that create the maximum pucker factor.

I’m right there with you. I started driving a 24 ft enclosed car trailer about 15 years ago. Drove all over the country road racing. I have been driving small trailers off and on since a youngster but nothing this big. Took some getting used to for sure. Seasoned veteran now but I still get that pucker feeling once in a while. Lots of weight to contend with if trying to slow or god forbid you have to make n emergency move. After my first drive with the trailer I learned to keep plenty of space around me.

I only took a 26ft about 6 miles when we moved 2 years ago. It was a pretty tired Chevrolet model & wasn't fun for that short run, especially backing it into our driveway with 4ft ditches on both sides.

If I were taking a longer run, I'd absolutely find the newest looking one I could get.

I tow a 20' boat on a trailer, overall length is 30'. The amount of IDIOTS that get over right in front of you and slow down is incredible. They don't realize it takes me twice as long to stop. I once in a 2 hour drive had the same idiot get in front of me 13 times.......I was on cruise control at 72 mph on I-95.....he'd pass me doing high 70's for a while, then get a call or something then get into my lane and slow down to mid 60s........uuuuggghhhh

Going down long hills or mountains you want to downshift and use the engine to hold your speed down versus continual use of the brakes.

Most impressive driving I saw was the old Emporium store in San Francisco. The loading dock was in a tiny alley and the trucks had to back in and turn right angles to the alley with about 4 inches between the other trailers.

We may give truckers crap, but they go through a lot of crap themselves.

Cross country in ‘91 from central NM to the U.P. of Michigan with a loaded U-Haul (24ft?) and towing a U-Haul car hauler with my project car 67 Pontiac 2+2 on it.

Clark 285V five speed transmission developed a propensity to not want to downshift without double clutching and then still grinding from 4th to 3rd in Liberal Kansas. Faced with unloading and loading another truck I made the tactical decision to continue.

Wasn’t too awful bad of a trip but people actually drove with some courtesy back then especially when you were a lot bigger than they were.

I routinely haul heavy equipment for the construction company I worldliness fo, some extremely overweight and over width permitted loads. I’ve had my CDL for 40 years, and have always move stuff and hauled stone etc with dump trailer when our steel work was slow but have been driving almost exclusively the past 8 or 9 years for them. The quality of drivers on the roads today is tragic. Not just in semis but in cars as well. If it’s not a permitted load I will leave around 230-3 am most of the time just to avoid the Jack wads on the roads. I had to move a dozer about 50 miles toda, dropped it, deadheaded about 30 miles to pick up an excavator and so on. Had a couple hundred miles altogether and 3 times when I was swinging wide to make a right turn, I had cars try and come up on the right side of me get by because they were in a hurry. I have strobes and beacons on the tractor and lowboy and very ample turn signals. It’s crazy out there, your head has to be on a swivel all the time. I don’t recommend it for anyone in this day and age. Weather is a whole different ball game, people loose their ever loving minds. I do think everyone should be required to at least ride in a semi as part of driver training just so they know how difficult they make it on drivers when they do dumb shit to semis lol. Anyways I’m glad I’m close to retirement!

In the early 90s I drove a similar-sized truck just ~60 miles and was worn out, especially trying to back it into the driveway of the destination house. Its having neither A/C. nor automatic transmission (heavy/stiff/long travel clutch), nor, especially, power steering didn't help. Newer ones have at least A/C and P/S.

Around 2008/09 I entertained the notion - going so far as to get a CDL - of trucking as a "life-change" career. (Why is a long story.) I eventually decided against it (another long story) and don't regret it. My former work gave me pretty regular exercise, but in a truck, there are long hours in the saddle with very little. You have to take all your meals at what amount to "greasy spoons" with extra-big parking lots. Some trucking companies reputedly treat people like shit.
Then there's this:

There are a half dozen truckers posting on Y.T.
About the grief they decide to take in their profession.

A couple are just whiners, s couple offer insight to both the good and bad.

And a few are close to unintelligible. ( Vernacular gap)

Forty plus years was enough for me. It became stressful. Regularly hauled 90 to 100 thousand pounds. Gave myself a wide berth. So many oblivious idiots on the road. Quit two and a half years ago, never felt better.

Unless it's flat land a diesel engine 26' box truck would be my choice if it's loaded to the gills and you have a bunch of up and down going on.

With the newer ones that have a VGT turbo you can get some additional braking with the exhaust brake.
I've driven across Colorado in a crappy 26", the first one spit out the exhaust pipe from the cat back in Salt lake City rush hour.
The replacement wasn't in much better shape but at least didn't sound like a dragster.
What a miserable trip that was.
Gutless up hill and smoking brakes at the bottom.

Yeah, Always wondered why a Kenworth day cab has less interior room than a Tacoma (or hell, maybe even a Miata).

Never did long distance hauling, but wired a few dash/mirror cams back in the day.

I have had a long relationship with OTR truck drivers. I've represented many of them. They can be difficult clients. In my current role I actually manage them to a certain degree. All of it makes me have a lot of respect for the work they do. It's a hard job, they get hurt a lot and they put up with a lot of shit. All of that gives them a certain "flavor", as it were.

I rented a 26' U-Haul a few year ago for a move. I was SHOCKED at how large that thing felt. And I drive a Suburban as an everyday vehicle. I only drove the U-Haul back and forth a few miles for a short move. That was plenty.

What a good thread, reminding me how much I respect big rig and large truck drivers. I give them wide berth, don't do anything that requires a reaction from them, let them merge etc. It takes judgement and natural talent as well, patient nerves, and a whole lot more. Lots of money in those rigs and cargo, it's not a job for just anyone who thinks they might want to do it. Sometimes I'm amazed at how patient and defensively proactive these truckers drive in conditions where crazies in another world deserve to get run over. A good reminder to redouble my own driving practices when close to these big boys. Let them know you're looking out for them too, the same way they have to to help other stupid and asshole drivers from killing themselves when screwing with them. And then there's always physics and Mr Darwin to even the odds.

Drove a UHaul box truck from NYC to St.Augustine to help my parents move. Biggest thing to adjust for was the brakes and the damn thing had an engine governor which made passing a royal pain.

I’ve had my CDL for almost 35 years. You wouldn’t believe the amount of stupidity that I’ve seen in that time. My days of driving are over, and I don’t miss it one bit.

I would believe it.

The Navy sent me to a truck driving school near Stark FL to get my CDL when I was at a training command. The trainers were the semi's trailer. Driving for the navy was simple, we didn’t have to worry about log books, weigh stations (we were overweight to begin with), or inspection stops. I had my class A CDL with every endorsement when I retired. I thought about getting into over the road trucking, but I didn’t think about it very long. It’s a hard life to begin with and most of the cars on the road just make it harder.

We did get pulled over by a DOT cop after blowing past a weigh station, I think in one of the Carolinas. It did not go the way he expected it to go.