What was your 1st mountain pass you drove on. Or the 1st that scared you!everybody

I live over right below the foot of Monteagle so that was my first one and the one I hit most regularly. Its not a big one by mountain standards but anyone that runs it knows it has had a tendency to bite many drivers in the butt over the years. My first real scare was also on that same hill. Didnt have a jake in the truck i was in and the brakes on the trailer were getting to the end of their lifespan and I had about 45,000 in the box. i guess I started off one gear higher than i should have and gravity started having its way with me pretty quick. Didnt take long to heat those old brakes up and by the time i got to the bottom i was blowing clouds of white smoke and the pedal was doing nothing. This was pretty early on for me when i started driving. I had shaky hands the next hundred miles. There is nothing like the feeling of going down a steep hill in an 75-80,000 lb vehicle and having the brake pedal do almost nothing at all and having it smell like you truck is on fire. I learned pretty quick how to better handle hills after that. Monteagle is a weird pass though, doesnt look like much but if you set there and watch you will multiple trucks everyday have the exact same thing happen. I live near there and have been over it hundreds of time in my life since i was a kid and I cant remember ever going down the east bound side and not seeing and smelling at least one truck with burned up brakes. Very deceiving grade.

 

My first was Parley's Summit out of Utah on I80...man alive, I was so green back then, fully loaded to the doors, and a trainer in the jump seat barking orders. I started the climb slow, big mistake, had to down shift and got nervous, bigger mistake. Forgot the #### gear I was in, started hunting and grinding, that made it so much worse...finally stalled the hell out! haha. Got her back up in first and made it up there, ride down was a breeze of course, cuz on Parley you pretty much can just leave you're foot off the break so you can shoot up the next hill. I'll never forget that first mountain, never had trouble like that since, over much worse.

 

For me it was the Cumberland Gap on I-68. Why was I on 68 because I was going to the Baltimore area with Hazmat and could not take 70 thats why. Truck was an 88 Pete 379 with a 310 Cat that half way thru the trip blew its AFS. Then going thru the Gap blew its Turbo you want to talk Weak I got passed by a freaking guy on a Moped UPHILL.

 

I went down that mt. in 1980, had 40000 in the box. i was driving a 1976 mack c/o 5 sp. no jake. saw a sign that said check brakes, i did, half way down in 3rd gear the brakes went out. smoke everywere, when i got to the bottom i got out & just shook for about 30 mins. the only other mt. was on I80 going to SLC.

 

My first scary experience was driving up that 6% hill to an overpass....man alive!!! Musta been at least a 20 foot drop off the side there, even though I was in the left lane of a 4 lane bridge....had to drive at least 100 feet across that. I parked on the other side and smoked about 6 cigarettes and vibrated for a good 20 mins...HORRIFYING!!

 

Cabbage Hill... during a good snow... another driver and I ran the gate just as the hwy dept. guy was closing it... hated to see the sign 'deadmans pass'...

 

Wolf Creek Pass was my first big hill, it was a summer nite around midnight with a load of Budweiser kegs destination Farmington, NM. Thought it was a breeze, no traffic. After unloading the next day I came back across empty and couldn't believe I drove it the night before I just looked at the roads towering over me from the bottom. It was a nightmare coming back across, slow, slow traffic everybody and their grandpa pulling campers and sight seeing.

 

1st was the Grapevine...Not as bad as I was told.
2nd was Donner pass....A little trickier but not bad.
3rd was the Siskyous on I-5 northbound...It wasn't too bad but I had a great teacher when I was a kid.

 

Homestake Pass for me but there was that one in OK on some dumb backroad my hubby thought would be a good short cut, coming down off that hill about halfway was a rest area. We stopped to grab a sceneic pic and uh... pulled the parking brakes, and truck kept rolling... decided we should just go head and get down hill >.>

 

Hwy 17 from San Jose to Santa Cruz. Then coming out of RMC/CEMEX Davenport loaded with 80K of bulk cement. 3rd gear and jakes on. I was scared as hell. I thought the motor was going blow up. Then Donner Summit, ugh.