My experience with Knight Refrigerated

different states have different rules.. i found out about the flasher thing in Pa.. signs tell you that if you're speed falls below 55 or maybe 45mph to use your flashers.. but Florida doesn't have that rule, and i heard that in Cali you'll get a ticket for using flashers while moving. i've never understood why people did that, heavy rain, fog, accident scenes.. but now i know.. didn't know some states actually had it in the rule book.

 

As long as visibility is good use them to warn people when you need to, but if they can't see anything but your flasher, they are ignorant and treat them as such




American Trucker

 

In limited visibility, if you are running the speed limit, how do you know what is in front of you BEYOND your sight distance? Answer: YOU DONT.

A car could be stuck in the lane, another truck could be stuck in the lane, a car or truck could be creeping along at lower speed so they don't spin out... Next thing you know, you are on top of them because you are going faster than them. How do you plan to stop now?

No tickets, but I did come up on a car running across I-10 in Texas between San Antonio and El Paso (Gods Country) with a heavily loaded skateboard in 2007 or 08. Foggy as all he**. It was all I could do to slow down enough to NOT kill them. I was doing LESS than the speed limit. After that, if I had to continue on due to an appt time, I just slowed down enough that I could stop if I needed to or switch lanes. I'll never drive the speed limit in fog or blizzard conditions again.

You'd be amazed how little you see through heavy fog or a blizzard, such as the huge blizzard that hit the NE in Jan or Feb 10. I was running out of Baltimore on I70, creeping along in a bad blizzard. Tried to stop at the ONLY rest stop on that road, but it was full. Cop told me to move, couldn't park at the entrance to the rest stop. Told me to try to make it to the Peelot in Hagerstown.

Didn't happen of course, got snowed in on the road with several hundred other cars and trucks. Before I stopped though, I witnessed a truck barreling by me like an idiot (FedEx) and came up on a car that was creeping along at about 30mph trying to make it through. Shoulda seen the back of that car. What a freakin mess. He couldn't stop. I'm guessing he was doing about 50. Nobody hurt, thank God.

Same cop who moved me came along to investigate the mess. Driver got a ticket for "DRIVING TOO FAST FOR CONDITIONS", and one other one. We were all stuck on 70 until 7:30am the next morning when the wreckers started pulling us out.



BTW, I got my CDL in Mexifornia.

 

Road conditions and visibility are two different things.


And for the reasons you posted I run the left lane in poor visibility

I do slow down when needed a little but 50 in a 75 is way to slow


American Trucker

 

Actually, "Conditions.... Road Conditions" depending on the state. I got ticketed in PA as a college student for "driving too fast for conditions", which meant a wet road. Same same.

I recommend you slow down in thick fog or blizzard conditions. If you can't see far enough to stop, you are going to end up killing someone. Running the speed limit in those conditions is a recipe for disaster. You are going to be surprised one of these days, no matter what lane you are in.

 

Perhaps I should have been more clear, when I say if you can't do the speed limit get off the road I mean, if I can't do the speed limit or close to it I get off the road because its a waste of hours to putt along.

Snow/ice i'll keep going only because its there for months not hours like fog




American Trucker

 

True to an extent. What baffled me is that the next day on I-70, I ran up to the Peelot, grabbed a shower, then got dispatched back to Baltimore to pickup another load going to NC.



Roads were pretty clear and plowed by the time I started back out. Salt had melted most everything and the sun was shining brightly. Of course, (and this is NOT an exaggeration), there were THREE FedEx trucks laying on their side or jackknifed in the median.

I'm not sure why, but in the winter of 09/10 running the east coast, I saw a lot of FedEx wrecks. I'm not insinuating that FedEx drivers are crazy (except for the fool who blew past me in the blizzard and made a sardine can out of the car), but it was quite noticeable.

Tell ya what, I grew up LOVING playing in the snow. NC, PA, MD, even West Germany (when there was such a thing). Driving a truck in that crap made me appreciate spring that much more.

 

Have fun life is to short.....

 

I hope your truck is nice to. I never seen a crappy knight refrigerated truck on the road..

 

Just watched your last two videos, awesome! I love rant videos lol




American Trucker