,

Go talk to your local school district and see if any of their drivers would be interested in giving lessons. These older ladies (at least in our district) drive 45-foot coaches filled with 70 or more screaming kids though residential neighborhoods' narrow streets twice a day.

I was fortunate that, after getting bored with retirement from Boeing, I took a job as a coach operator with our county transit agency. It took only about 3 days (12 hours of instruction) before I got my CDL. The next day, I was horsing a 40-footer through downtown Everett rush hour traffic and it wasn't a big deal after the first 10 minutes of white knuckles.

You just have to learn the new perspective from the driver's seat, and it's really not that difficult. I find our 32-footer is no more difficult than our Kia Sedona. Unfortunately, DW is too short to reach the pedals, since the cheap Flexsteel driver's seat has no vertical adjustment and the equally cheap Ford steering column isn't telescopic. As a result, I do all the driving.

Our transit coaches (Gilligs) had steering column adjustability with two universal joints (one near the floor and one about 24" from the top) and the top section was telescopically adjustable. It could accommodate drivers from 4'6" to 6'8" tall. I wish we could have afforded a Gillig-based DP.

Fear of many things like water, heights, flying, spiders, etc are quite common and easily handled in a singe session with the right approach. I'd look for a Counselor or Psychologist who is experienced in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP). I had a deadly fear of water for over 30 years, and in one 20 minute session it was eliminated with NLP therapy.

You could think of it this way. He kept the rv from going off the road and destroying itself which happens far too often.

I don't have a magic solution. Maybe try it on several short trips and work up to bigger ones. Take it really slow and don't worry about who's behind. But, then if you are really uncomfortable, maybe a big MH isn't for you. I have a friend who quit after 2 blow-outs.

First off way are so many people assuming the DH is a crappy driver. I don't know many people that haven't had a bone head moment driving. New coach, lots of distractions, long day, we don't know what really happened. In 40 years of riding motorcycles I've had two crashes that were a whole lot worse than being bounced around the back of a motor home. Get back on your horse and try and relax. On the other hand if your DH is a terrible driver maybe you should drive. Good luck

It is tough to make an investment in something you don't feel comfortable using. I did it with a truck camper of all things! There were so many things I loved about it but it gave me major anxiety about 75% of the time. There are some good suggestions here. First take it to a parking lot or something and practice. Try short trips. If it just doesn't work, cut your losses and find something else. Life is too short to worry about "things" and you want to enjoy RV'ing. Best of luck. lizzie

It appears that not only were did this time scare you, but he has sacred you before. Does he have a habit of running off the road? After all, it is no harder to keep a bus on the road than it is to keep a full size pickup truck on the road.

If he does have a habit of running off the road. It may well be that you would need to do the driving. Or rethink the whole thing. If he scares you on a regular basis. You will never feel safe with him.

to come to grips with such traumatic experiences takes time, practice (meaning working at it), and a strong desire to do so .... the suggestions to take shorter trips over wider roads and build up over time are good ones

Jim

I used to teach driving big rigs. Some folks never get it. Good luck.

First thing I would do it make sure I was doing all of the driving, not the DH. He sounds like my ex, scariest driver ever. If you are behind the wheel, you will be in control of the rig, how fast you are driving and so on.

If it were me, I would just to out and sit in the drivers seat to get accustomed to the big windows, take all the time you need. Then if you can't go to an RV driving school, go to a big empty parking lot and practice a lot as mentioned earlier, learn to back up, stay in your lane, any other kind of driving your feel uncomfortable with. Take as much time as you need, if anyone tries to make you hurry up, tell them to take a hike. You need time to be comfortable with a new rig.

Moving up to a bigger rig is scary at first, especially from a C to an A with that huge window, but if you are in control/driving each trip will get much easier until you get to the point you will wonder why you were scared to drive.

If you don't want to drive, always sit in the passenger seat, belted in, that way you can anticipate problems early and prepare for them. I'll bet that the unexpected manuver is what scared you more than anything.

Take care, you will enjoy the RV alot in time.