Is a CB Radio really necessary to have?

Keep us advised on how your cell works in areas out west where cell towers are far and fewer. Traffic updates only work when near mid sized to large cities, and aren't nearly as reliable as real time reports of someone in traffic.

 

So what X-Country is saying, look at your phone and rely on the information coming from it, rather than the instantaneous and accurate info from the traffic coming the other direction.

You should get a CB and keep it on. Get a good one and get it tuned. You don't need to put out the most watts, just have it so you can turn the squelch way up so you can only hear trucks like 1/2 mile around you. The times I have waited in a traffic jam that could have been avoided, almost always I look up and yep, I had it off. Cost me lots of time and frustration. You will learn the areas of the country where you might as well just turn it off and other times leave it on. If you are going to haul open deck freight, wouldn't you want someone to let you know that a strap is coming loose, before the DOT man lets you know you have a strap loose? Or the load falls right off? The bottom line is, the information it provides can really make your day much easier.

 

It's saved my butt more than once. It's done a lot of other things that have helped me as well, but the most important fact is it's "Real Time." Unless I've got someone I know with a cell phone running ahead of me, everywhere I go across the US, 24/7, I don't know the phone numbers of everyone else out there. The CB doesn't need one. You're already connected.

Example: Southbound on I-95 just north of Fayetteville, NC one night. Darker than 10 feet up a you know what. A driver going north bound sounds off "Hey! Southbound? Back it on down! Something just wrecked on your side. I can't see it any longer, but what ever it was, it was pretty bad." "Going to be around MM 58-59."

There was a Allied Van Lines driver to my front. I moved over to the left lane. He then got on his radio and asked me if I just heard the warning. I told him I did. I went on to tell him I was going to hang out in the left lane to keep anyone from passing us. We also began backing down on our speed as we got closer to the area. Meanwhile, traffic behind us is starting to get aggravated. And then, there it was. You couldn't see it until you got right up on it. It was an overturned van, upside down, in my lane. I came to a stop. Go on my CP and made contact with NCHP.

If we hadn't had a CB, and did what we did, I guarantee that little scenario would have been a lot more catastrophic than what it was.

Yes, it's comes in extremely handy at a lot of shippers and other drivers. Like notifying them none of their trailer lights are working etc. Or other drivers about the same. Finding out about a problem up ahead before you reach it etc. As for the motor mouths in the truck stops, I usually just turn mine off after I park. And yes, they come in real handy at times just when you're doing that all by itself.

I've always said "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

 

I'm sorry....I have to say this..did you really just advise a rookie driver to forgo the CB in FAVOR of using HIS CELL PHONE CONSISTANTLY while DRIVING??

Surely I did not read that correctly?
Or maybe you meant it as sarcasm?

Please, Please....PLEASE tell me you did not just give him the advice of messing with his phone while trying to LEARN HOW TO DRIVE?

Also, what is he supposed to do when he loses his signal out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and has NO CLUE where he is?

Driver....DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE! A cb can wait, but you really should have one.

If for no other reason than to help direct the rescue crews to you when you end up shiny side down in a ravine because you were checking your map on YOUR PHONE and ran off the road.

 

Can a phone tell you what the scales are doing? All I know, is running with someone, CB's proved themselves very valuable in passing the time, and keeping you awake. Not to mention some really cool people I've met with a lot of the same interests as me. And not everyone has a fancy schmancy smart phone, and you shouldn't be talking on one anyway while driving. I've got an old "Star Trek" type to make calls if I have to, and that's good enough for me!

 

Yup, this pretty much sums up the new-age truck driver smh what a crying shame

 

Point blank man, get you a radio. Keep the RF Gain in the middle, SQ knob all the way to the left.. you'll eliminate most of the noise and when someone is trying to get a whole of you & you see a lot of noise going on, then you know something is wrong

 

Please don't lump me in with people like him, I drive daily and know better, I let it ring till I get to a stop to answer.

 

Yes. There were a few days when I left my radio on all day and all night and drove across the country and not ONE person said a word on the CB. I even asked for a radio check to make sure that I was receiving and then someone replied that they could hear me. I would love for the CB to be active, and it was back in the days before cell phones. Another reason the CB is dead is due to all of the trash talking and people acting like 12 year olds. If you are making a right turn off the highway into a truck stop while someone is pulling out of the parking lot to make a left, they will curse at you on the CB even though you have the right away and you were there first.