To the fedex driver that was in the median on I-10

Well, hes driving again, and now he's in the great state of Kansas. I seen him this morning. Me, and EVERYBODY else were crawling at 40mph. FedEx blows by doing a good 60. He didnt end up in the ditch or anything like that, but about 10 other drivers including myself started giving him a real rough time over time over the CB, and he quickly got his ### back in the right lane. Good thing too, cause there were 4 spun out cars about a mile up the road, none of which were pointing the correct direction. 2 were blocking traffic lanes, and the other two off the road leaving ZERO escape path for a semi doing 60. They ended up closing the interstate minutes later due to the ice.

It hard enough to keep a single trailer straight on iced over roads, but you add one more trailer, and call them doubles. I have no idea what in the hell this guy was thinking about!

 

I'm not going to defend the Fed Ex driver because I wasn't there and don't know all the details but I do take issue with what you're saying about his brakes. When you are pulling a set of doubles, with all your brakes adjusted within the legal requirements, the rear trailer will have a tendency to lock up first. The rear trailer is usually the lightest when both are loaded. Even when both are empty the rear trailer takes less braking force to stop and therefore can lock up wheels easier. This has been my experience with them. I have known drivers to shut off the rear trailer's air supply to prevent an empty trailer from locking up. Personally, I think thats stupid but it definently says something about how doubles react when the binders come on. Also, even on vehicles that are required to have ABS, it isn't required to work. I know of many trailers running around with dummy ABS. What I'm saying is you can't say the driver didn't check his brakes. It isn't that simple.

 

Excellent post,I was gonna but decided not to explain Doubles 101.
Pinching the air off to the back pup is very common,even in dry weather.

 

took these on the same day about a year ago along eastbound i-80 through wyoming. there were 2 others that i hadn't pictured.




the bottom pic's pups were on their side, down the sloped westbound side's shoulder. anyway, the other two i couldn't get a snap of were ones i had witnessed. the first being through the canyon in utah. the westbound idiot FE driver decided to go fast down the icy hill, lost it, and almost ended up in the eastbound travel lanes. he would have collided with me had he been going a little bit faster. the other one was just east of fort bridger. he lost it and managed to keep his stuff upright in the median.

 

Ahhhhh, the snow chi minh trail strikes again.

 

Well there are problems goin to slow when it snows. You gotta remeber some are rookies on the snow, but you don't have to go 40 when its that bad and you are loaded heavy. Been there done that. If your heavy enough it dosen't bother you but 70 mph bad things are gonna happen no matter what you say and on ice and snow??? yeah the ditch is a comin.

 

Pinching the air off to the rear trailer? OK, lets analyze this...lets see the last time I checked (namely every morning, it's called a pre-trip inspection) driver needs to apply air to the trailing units in order to; 1) find any air leaks, and 2) to allow the brakes to release so the wheels can turn, and 3) to allow adjustment of the brakes so all brakes are applying equally.

Now given this...(maybe some need to go back to the driving school and actually pay attention and take notes on the brake instruction, and the part about automatic slack adjuster and how INEFFICIENT they really are)...you cannot pinch off the air supply to the rear pup! Try opening the brakes so they don't apply when the rest of the brakes are applied. Yes I have done this myself. If the brakes lock up, the adjustment is out of whack...period, simple, driver school 101.

As to the comment about the ABS...the ABS would have sensed the lock-up, and released all braking...that is the ugly part of ABS...it sucks for the big rig, especially when you figure the system on the rigs is the same as the cars and SUV's, except they didn't talk to any drivers to find out that there is also a minimum delay of brake applied when we step on the peddle...thereby doubling the coast portion of the anti skid pattern...BAM, RIGHT INTO THE CAR OR OBSTRUCTION WE ARE TRYING TO AVOID BY BRAKING HARD!

Now will any of you others reading this thread please tell me why you didn't catch the "just pinch off the air" comment...and then the following post agreeing with it! SO...where are all the "professional drivers" now...still in school at Swift Training Academy?

 

Not all trailers have spring brakes. My doubles experience has mainly been with flat-bed and hopper sets. The vast majority of those have no spring brakes. When a trailer has no spring brakes, it is entirely possible to shut of its air supply, drain its air off, and pull it down the road and is more common than you know. Have you ever seen a farm tractor pulling a set of tomato trailers in a field? how in the hell does he do it? He'd have a hard time doing that if that trailer had spring brakes. These are things you don't learn in school but on the job.