The most scariest situation ever!!

Going north on I-55 or I-57 in the winter after a snow/ice storm. Late at night with nothing but a little truck traffic. I don't understand why everybody is moving much slower than I think is possible. I'm doing what I think is a conservative 50-55mph and after I pass one truck the strong crosswind causes me to fishtail between the far left and far right edges of the interstate highway. Luckily, I stayed off the brakes and steered toward the direction of sliding several times as I was headed toward the median, then the shoulder, and back again, several times before I decided it's best to never be the fastest truck on the road. If you're passing everything in sight you might be doing something wrong.

 

I've had hundreds of "scariest moments" over my career; enough so they all kinda merge in my mind and all seem kinda funny now (sure weren't at the time).

But the scariest monment? The day after I got married for the first time at 57 when it hit me "Holy crap, now I have someone who's depending on ME".

 

Smoked all 5 axles droping down into Bulhead City AZ. Somehow made it to the bottem without catching fire. 13 miles on a 6% grade, 115 degrees outside. with a stop light at the bottom of the grade. I just started driveing, not much experince. The truck i was driving was just in the shop 2 days before and had only 1 set of brake shoes put on 1 drive axle, come to find out it needed drums, but the clown i was working for did not want to spend the money.

Needless to say, i was shakeing like a leaf at the bottom. Next time down, i stoped at the top to think about for about 20-30 min.

 

mine was not in a rig but in a pickup, i was going from nd to Oregon to see my dad who had just been in roll over accident. it was about 3am i had not seen one rain drop or snow flake in the headlights cruse control set on 75mph as i come threw miles city mt, i think to myself, "this road looks nice almost like they just re-paved the road" not long after that i feel the back end of the truck start coming around i kicked the cruse off which sent me into a complete spin. did multiple 360's down the middle of the interstate before i managed to some how get straightened out i looked down and i was still doing 65. looked in my rear view mirror and saw the tail lights of the car behind me come around before he went in the ditch so i eased it off the road and got stopped after scrabling to find my smokes that had gotten thrown under the seat of the pickup, i got out to check on the guy that went in the ditch and fell flat on my ### on the road. no one got hurt thank god nor did anything get damaged but i eased up the road to a rest area where i sat until i saw the salt shakers come by a few times. i was shaking for a few hours after that.

 

now one of my scariest in a rig was empty going to a place to pickup a load, steep down hill in a town, cars parked on both sides of the road narrow, glare ice, im doing about 10mph but even the slightest touch on the break pedal would start a skid, sending my trailer towards the parked cars on the side of the road. stop sign right at the bottom of this steep down hill with a car stuck spinning tires trying to get moving in the middle of the intersection. luckily the hill leveled out just enough twards the bottom to just be able stop, had i been going any faster even 5mph i probably would not have been able to stop nothing worse than the feeling of not being able to stop.

another one was at my current job climbing a glare ice hill on a dirt road loaded made it about half way up the hill before starting to slide backwards back down the hill.

 

first time I hit ice while driving, coming down a mountain, with 900 pounds in the back. I was going slow as it was raining, when I felt the tail of the truck start to tuck out to my left. eased off the gas, jobbed in the clutch and she straightened out. I pulled over in a safe spot hit the flashers, set the triangles and waited for the sun to come up. I saw ten trucks in ten miles in the ditch from that short stretch.

 

Old Timer anti- jackknife method for travelling in snowstorms..... back off 1 manual slack so that brake don't catch. That free-rollin wheel keeps the trailer straight cause it don't lock up and slide.

Hey, this was old back when I started out and amazingly it works.

 

Brakes are only gonna lock up if ya use 'em...

With my luck, if I tried backing off a slack, DOT would be waiting for me 1/2 a block away with the creeper....

 

I didnt even know horse drawn carriages had brakes...I guess you learn something new everyday.

 

Scariest Situtation?

Few years ago in the summer, pulling a load of ethanol in Iowa at night... came around a corner underpass that has construction(cones set up) right after the blind corner.... 4-wheeler ahead of me must have gotten confused and stopped in the middle of the freeway... There were No bailouts left or right because of the bridge... my only chance was to hit the breaks.... and hit them hard...

The good news: I got stopped in time.

The bad news: I cracked 2 break drums doing it.