ABS - God's gift to trucking safety?

Cars have had ABS and airbags for decades now. Have they been a great boon to safety or do they give stupid people a false sense of security?

I cant wait til they make OnStar for bigrigs!

 

For what its worth. I am not a fan of ABS. That free wheeling feeling when I really really want smoke to roll is not a good one. In those very few double pucker moments that happen to us all eventually, I want to feel, hear and smell my tires coming to a stop ASAP.

 

Here's the problem. OTR guys may drop and hook different trailers all the time and the ABS system may not work every time. With us it's been the best thing that has ever come along. But we have sets that are always hooked together and the ABS system works great. We've tried it on wet and slippery ground and every time the truck has stopped straight and fast. One problem that did come up is the guy behind us. We do most of our driving in the city and if a light turns yellow we can stop but the guy behind us may not be able to. So we have to watch that now.

I drove in Las Vegas and I can tell you that when the first rain pours down it's just like ice. Since it hardly rains there the oil builds up on the road and the first rain is real dangerous. With the old system I've had trailers break loose and slid all around and the ABS system fixed that. The biggest problem when ABS came out was convincing the drivers it's nothing like the old 121 system.

 

ABS is the best thing since sliced bread! As Gashauler stated stopping in a straight line is the cats meow! Even bob tailing in rain you can stop without swapping ends! I remember having the switch on the dash to cut the AP down on the steers! That was a waste of money!

Nope I love ABS!

 

I haul a moffet fork lift on the back of my trailer. I weights 7200 lbs and removes all the weight off of the tongueof the trailer. My truck does not have abs. If the breaks are not adjusted on the trailer I know it real soon. A 13,000 lbs trailer with 7,000lbs fork lift vs. a 16,000lbs truck. It does not go well. Say hello hand brake. So if you see a truck w/fork lift smashed in to GasHauler you'll know who it is. Our other truck has abs. The other driver never even notices the trailer pushing the truck if the trailer has not been adjusted. The truck breaks take affect much sooner than the trailer breaks even when the trailer is adjusted properly. I'll take abs over conventional anyday.

 

I also haul gas in the city and we have one trailer at my company that is older (1992) and does not have ABS. You can really tell the difference. When I pulled that one and did my walkaround with that trailer the tires have maybe four or five flat spots. Now I have a newer trailer with ABS and what a difference. It stops straight and true. You feel a little pulsing, but not bad. But like GasHauler, I pull one trailer only. That is until mid January when I get my new Heil. WOHOO!!

 

they do it is called qualcom the new ones provide all the same options as onstar and I don't want ether of them

as for ABS anyone that has ever pulled an empty tank knows how nice it is but every technological advance also diminish the driver skill set and that is not so good