An easy way to appreciate the stopping distance of a truck is

to carry your lost drive shaft back to your truck over said distance.

I was cruising up 45 near Madisonville, TX bout 5 am. Truck driveshaft was removed for work a few days earlier. Doing about 65-68, vibration suddenly started, I let off the gas, and in the matter of three or so seconds, there was a pop, clang, and ran it over with the rear tandems in a half loaded tanker. Very puckering experience. It ripped some airlines out, and I got on the brakes pretty hard and pulled off to the shoulder.

Got out with the flashlight and figured out the driveshaft is MIA. Way, way back down the highway, I see car headlights swerving out of the right lane. The driveshaft is in the road at night with moderate traffic- disaster waiting to happen. I walk back to it, shining the light in the get over motion to the traffic, took several minutes to get to it. I carried it back to the truck, with several breaks, which seemed like an eternity.

To top it off, when I get back to the truck, I see a car pulled over on the shoulder about 200 yards in front of the truck. Great, I thought, they hit it and are probably calling the cops or something. Car sits for about 5 minutes, then starts backing up toward me. As it closes in, I see it has a flat. Fat lady pops out, and chugs to the truck while I'm on the phone and stands there looking at me. Here we go. Turns out it was a complete coincidence. She just happend to have a flat there and wanted me to change the tire.

It was gonna be a two hour wait for the tow truck, so I obliged and put on her spare. We chatted it up and she said a prayer for me and left to get to work.

Thats about it- experience sucked overall. Learned how to cage the brakes from the tow guy, though.

If you ever get a wild hair, walk the stopping distance of you truck doing full speed- it's an eye opener.

 

What ticks me off is the lack of giving a half #### from the dispatcher. I typed in the last major intersection on my gps to allow the dispatch to give my exact location to the tow truck. Exactly 17.4 miles north of the 11th st. Huntsville exit on the northbound side of I45.

Tow dude said they only told him in Madisonville on the southbound side, none of the specifics i clearly relayed to dispatch several times.

 

No, happened all of the sudden.