truckers that tailgate

Well, I've got the 2nd GEN VORAD. It's okay to a point. But it can be a real pain in the ### sometimes. Especially if the guy in front won't use cruise, and enjoys talking on his cell phone.

You're just cruisin along, then just happen to look down and you're doin 57 mph. Because the clown in front, is off in left field on his phone. And the deceleration was so smooth. You didn't notice.

Or, the complete ###hole who passes you like a bat out of hell. Then sets his cruise on 64 mph, and the spacing doesn't open up fast enough...so the jake applies itself...not cool on a 6% grade. Up or down.

 

That's what I figured. Sounds like something I could live (better) without.
IMO, attentive drivers don't need an electronic device doin' their drivin' for them, and could actually be unsafe in certain situations.

Is there any way to disable it with a switch, or is it on all the time with no over-ride?

 

You can disable the braking action. It's only on when the cruise is set. just a flip of the switch (cruise) turns that function off while accelerating. You still have to listen to the beeps.

But it's better than the bronco riding feel you get from the on/off/on/off if you're like me and have a habit of trying to maintain the speed by stepping on the accelerator, while the cruise is still on

Oh...and that overpass. It wasn't really lying in the road. But we slowed down for it anyway...######. Just like that gaurd rail in that last curve...it wasn't really about to hit the truck either. But we jammed the jake on (stage 2)....just in case it was.

Actually, it does have it's good points. And those outweigh some of the BS you have to put up with. As far as safety goes.

 

Sometimes you aren't given a choice, at least here in southern California. Here, a number of drivers plan on driving your speed or even slower than you. They will nevertheless accelerate to pass, come back in your lane about half-a-car length in front of you (sometimes with their children waving at you through the back window). After already auditioning as your bumper decoration, they will push it further by immediately slowing down to their normal cruising speed, which could be 60, 55, or even 50.

I'll come off the gas, even do some braking sometimes, but outside of mashing the brake pedal, I am still forced into between a quarter-mile and a half-mile of tailgating. Sadly common here - just as you are getting close to a proper following distance, here comes the next one.

It is established here for cars to change lanes inches front of other cars. The fact that they might also only be inches behind the car that was in front of you is as irrelevant as the fact that they may be driving as much as 20 miles-an-hour slower than you with no plans of even trying to speed up.

Many drivers just treat tractors pulling 40,000 pounds in a 53 ft. box the same as a Honda Civic. The ones that will acknowledge the danger of cutting right in front of a truck will show it by waiting until they are at least half-a-car-length ahead. When traffic is heavy, but moving fast, you can go entire trips with no space to brake.

I am not familiar with the VORAD. Good luck having that system here. Some areas the traffic would force you down to 0 mph.

 

Hey , folks i am a mewbie ive been driving only a few months and man has my eyes been open about these , freeway and byways , When i see a truck following to close it reminds me of one of the training films i watched .... Its where a driver was following t0 close , he got over confident , he felt he could react to anything that came up ... Well needless to say he couldnt stop >>. Lets do some inside thinking here .. If a loaded semi is going 55 mph and tries to do a panic stop , it would take that truck a least a football field to stop..... #### i would say a tail gater in a semi would flatten a 4 wheeler all day , I try to keep a 8 sec gap between my truck and the auto thats in front of me ... Believe me that gap has saved me from some dumb moves done by some folks like darting in and out of your lane. Just my 2 cents ... Keep the left door shut !! If the wheels aint turnin we aint earnin LOL!!

 

I had a motorcycle cut me off last week - He pulled within 5 feet of my bumper - I was crusing 70 on the freeway. As soon as I saw this idiot - with his girlfriend behind him holding on for dear life - doing this I started braking heavily. Sure enough, not only did he pull in front of me like that, he hit HIS brakes HARD. I know I can't be the only one that has that sixth sense that tells you that someone is going to do something stupid and take immediate, evasive action before anything even happens. If I hadn't started shutting down the truck when I had, those 2 people would have been toast.

 

If they had gotten a look at the motorcycle wreck on I-75 in KY the other week. They'd swap that bike for a tank.

Did you know that a guardrail is the equivalent of a meat grinder, when you hit it at about 100 mph on a bike? It's rough putting the bodies back together when you have 2 to work with, and more than 20 parts lying around.

It was a long time before they opened up either side of the interstate that day.

 

I've that accident before. Very, very bad. This was in New Mexico back in July '07 on I-40. One truck ran up on another. The trucks were driven by brothers. Nothing left of the following truck...engine, cab, and sleeper gone.

I looked it up on here afterwards and found out that, IIRC, the driver of the following truck had fallen asleep at the wheel...

 

You're absolutely correct about SoSal traffic. It's very difficult to maintain a safe following distance behind another vehicle when driving ANYthing, including a Big truck. Four wheelers see that gap as a place to change lanes because MOST of the other 4-wheelers are riding the bumper of the vehicle in front of them, which actually CAUSES the problems in the first place. Those same drivers moan and complain about the traffic not even realizing that they're creating the situation, especially around on ramps and where highways merge. By NOT allowing other motorists to easily merge it causes those trying to merge to run the on ramp lane to the end and then try to bull their way in, which causes traffic to stop.

Even in my 4-wheeler, I leave plenty of room and allow others to merge in front of me, which often ticks-off the cars behind me. In frustration they move over to the next lane on their left thinking that I'm slowing down their progress. Imagine their surprise when the far right lane which I'm in actually moves smoother and faster than the left lanes. And they STILL don't get it!

When the car behind me rides my rear bumper and WON'T let others merge, I make up for that by allowing MORE cars to merge in front of me, and my lane STILL moves faster.
Go figure.

 

yeah.. professional drivers, we is.

Yesterday I had two different trucks cut me off by pulling back into the right hand lane way too early. One- a blue and white trailer with a name that sounds like the last name of a "comedian" (Excuuuuuuuuse me!) started moving over before he was past me. If I'd not jumped on the brakes, I'd have been REALLY irate.

The other - a pumpkin - was merely 15 feet in front of me. Perfectly safe. (it may have been less, or even more. I certainly couldn't see his DOT bumper or even his trailer tandems. I may drive a long-nose Pete, but that's still too close)