Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

My condolences to you and your family. Keeping your family in prayer.

 

In my 22 years, I have never smoked my brakes on a hill...with or without jakes. And I have decended 11% grades on some god forsaken back roads of PA that Crete had us picking up freight. Once you've learned to decend a hill without jakes, you can pretty much ride a unicycle down a hill juggling kittens without issues.

 

As the old wise man told me many moons ago before I had a jake. You can go down a hill a million times too slow but only once too fast.

 

Wait, you mean you guys go down hills in gear?





I kid.

 

Anybody know if Sysco in Nashville has overnight parking.
This load is all screwed up load didn't get to Fargo till around 1800(not the relaying drivers fault, they took 5 1/2 hours to load him) According to DSP this is a new customer(receiver for us) so I will be there on time doing the vampire thing.
More snow from Tomah to Portage 2-3 inches of snow on the road and zero snow removal equipment. Portage to Madison no snow on the ground and lots of snow removal equipment driving around doing nothing.

 

Always seems that way, doesn't it? You're driving over insane ice/snow, white-knuckling it for 200 miles and no sand, no nothing, then it all clears up and there's 15 plows slowing traffic.

 

Going down an icey grade, Jake's are out, period. It's all controlled braking and appropriate gear.

I've got several calls this year from drivers doing really nasty, icey grades for the first time. Gave what advice I could. I learned how to drive on those grades and I'm STILL hypercautious. I have no problem running that engine to 2k in 5th or 6th before I make my 5-second brake. Slow is good, fast is stupid, when your dealing with ice. And sometimes it's just time to pull it over.

Dying in a truck crash is pretty much number one on my list of things NOT to do. And I just passed a bunch of flipped, ditched or jacknifed semis on I 80 In Wyoming a few days ago.

 

I don't think anyone mentioned that it was icy. If it were icy, I wouldn't use jakes either, but it was sunny and 40 deg on the western side. And it was a totally controlled decent. If you run these Paccar motors at 2k, you get an overspeed message. (Or at least mine does). International says the Maxxfarce's max engine braking power is 18-2100 rpm, but if you run a Paccar that high, it #####es at you.

 

But but but....

 

"Too fast" is a relative term. If you're going down hill relying on a bunch of service brake use to keep your speed in check, then yes, that is too fast. But if you're relying on mostly Jake with a little service brake use (under normal road/weather conditions), then that is o.k. if you know the hill you're decending. If it's an unfamiliar grade, then overly slow is the thing to do. But for guys with the years of experience like you and I, there are few grades we haven't been down repeatedly.