Truckers Tailgating

A lot of those FedEx day cabs seem to be governed at 66, vs some otr companies at 65. I’ve seen a lot of slug races between them and other drivers that wouldn’t slow down for passing. Maybe they are used to backing up traffic that they feel the need to move over asap or aren’t doubles slightly longer than a 53’?

They certainly don’t seem to have any qualms about engaging in slug races. I don’t understand why people feel the need to pass with such a small difference; wait until a curve or hill to blow by.

 

What gets me is people are now blaming the truck in the right lane for not backing out of it and letting the left lane idiot over. It's like the country has been flipped upside down and backwards like Bizarro World.

 

Why should they slow down? The "passing" truck should know it's place.

 

I'm not letting the guy in the right lane dictate my speed for the next 500 miles. I hope he concedes, but if he doesn't, then that's just life.

If I'm getting passed, and there's cars coming, I always back out of it and let the guy in front of me faster. Probably lose two seconds each time. No reason not to. I have no desire for some trucker to have to sit behind me.

 

I'm usually the one doing the passing but if a truck is next to me on my left and he can't pass I speed up. The rest is up to him. My truck has ample power and pulls hills well.

These plastic pos "trucks" will fly down a hill in the left lane and then creep up it at ridiculously slow speeds after they've come back to the right lane directly in front of me.

It's ignorant and it annoys me so I make sure they can't block me in if the road is busy.

 

57?
Maybe that is why you are getting cut off... because you are a hazard.

You ARE in everyone's way!

Or, do you only drive in CA?

 

I'm still a student driver though I do have a quick story on this. First off, the trucks that my school uses say "STUDENT DRIVER" in big, bold letters on the back and sides of the trailer. Hard to miss. The very first time I drove a truck on a public road with my instructor, I was doing the speed limit on a small state highway. The flow of traffic was a few mph faster than speed limit but I was told by my instructor to stay in the right lane and hold my gear and do not exceed the speed limit. As the highway began to ascend a hill, some supertrucker in a shiny red long nose Pete decided to ride my bumper and flash his lights at me all the way up the hill until cars cleared from the left lane so he could pass, at which point he gave me the finger and haphazardly cut back in front of me.

I guess he was never a new driver himself, or he felt pretty big giving the student driver in the crappy Ryder Prostar a hard time.

 

I haven't been to California in a couple of years actually. I used to run the speed limit +3mph all of the time. Driving 57mph versus the speed limit saves me almost $18,000 per year in fuel cost in my current truck.

I ran this truck at the speed limit for the first 90 days after I bought it and it had a 30 day average of 4.43mpg with a best of 5.12mpg.

At 57mph I have a 90 day average of 5.96mpg with a best of 6.12mpg. It is worth it to me for the amount of fuel saved to offset the amount of extra time I spend driving. Just because I am running slow doesn't mean that the other trucks shouldn't show any courtesy when changing lanes.

 

Sirscrapntruckalot -

 

Yes, as I said, I don’t understand why the passing truck feels the need to hold up traffic for 10mi. If I don’t have PasSmart available, I reduce my cruise speed so that if I do run up on someone, I can still increase to get around them. Of course, my current truck has the issue of not letting me follow to close before passing…

My 1st trk, I could hold the pedal down and still do 65 when preparing to pass, now pedal down on cruise still does 62… so I have to move over to the left lane further behind. This trk is just ridiculous.