"Trucks use low gear"

Neutral.

 

The one with the L on it.

 

Less than top.

(It means slow down rookie, yer brakes ain't gonna save you from the pucker drop coming up.)

-1 if you're light -2 if you're heavy.

 

Any one of them that puts your engine rpm over 1500 with you running the posted speed limit or slower.

 

How cold is cold, if you ask me what the temperature outside is and I reply its cold, have I really answered your question? Yes i've told you that the temperature is low, but I did not say the actual temperature in degree's did I? Those signs are the same principal. First most of the time they are not a white with black letter regulatory sign. What they are is a warning that the up coming road requires you to use a lower gear then you normally use. No specific gear is mentioned.

 

How much weight in the load, how steep the hill, lots of variables. I like those signs, and use a gear low enough that I don't have to do much more than tap the brakes once in a while. Like Exray says, nothing is specific, it's all flexible depending on all conditions. But if you're using your brake pedal more than once every minute or so, (approx) you aren't in the correct gear. If you overheat your brakes you will cause your truck braking system a lot of damage. Overheat them enough, you can do yourself and others a lot of damage.

 

I was always taught that as a general rule, use the same gear you'd be in if you were climbing the hill or even lower in adverse conditions.

 

I've heard that, pretty often, Northern. I've thought about it, and if hills were the same on both sides, it would be OK. I haven't seen any hills the same on the up side and down side, none yet. Steep up, long slow downside, or long slow up, steep down. Or a lot of mild upsides followed by a steep, and long, downside. (Cabbage Patch northbound) So that same gear idea might work some of the time, but I haven't seen much of it yet.

 

Low gear is code for slow down!