Driving in mountains?

The 3 things to respect if you want to live to be an old hand.
#1-Winter road conditions.
#2-Downhill grades & corners.
#3-Equipment under your seat, Brakes,tires,ect.

 

I don't know where 'Mount Eagle' is. I know where there's a 'Monteagle' in TN that will kill you if you don't know what you're doing, although it's much better now than it was years ago since they rebuilt the road.

 

If the linings are uneven and the duals are not working equally one wheel will start hazing long before the others do. Also... that truck might shiver a little bit and constantly want to go this a way while you are braking. You don't think much of it but subtle clues of pending trouble are all around.

 

I hae had the honor of sneaking old fancy gap once upon a time fully loaded. I will never, ever forget that run in the rain. It's third behind your first love in life.

 

Depending on weight and the length and steepness of the grade, I have often been able to take it in top gear and use my engine brake and snub braking to the bottom.

I haven't found a grade yet that required me to shift below 9th on the way down, with a 10 speed. With my trainer who had a 13 speed, I went from 7 lo/7 hi back and forth with my 4 ways on. For a new driver, my recommendation is the standard 1 gear lower than you climbed with. When you hit the top of the grade, brake to 1000 rpm, shift to neutral, rev to 1300 and downshift.

If you need to downshift descending the grade, brake way down to about 500rpm, downshift 2 gears.

 

the old hands always told me, you will only go down too fast once. can any of you post video of the trainee & trainer on donner that went over the side? or maybe the idiot that averaged like 72mph down monteagle? be good for him to see. my web skills suk. thanks

 

thx, that still sends chills through me

 

You can clearly see the physics take hold of that trailer, As the curve tightens over it goes throwing the tractor down.

My solution to this truck-maru scenario (No win Kobayshi Maru from Star Trek) is to use that median barrier to force that whole thing to slow down to a stop probably. Hopefully before enough damage throws it down or over into the oncoming traffic.

On 695 at Hartford Road Interchange back in or about the late 90's we had a fully loaded trash truck try to punch the stressed median barrier. It only bit a hole about 3 feet from top and about 5 feet wide. But it's front axle, fuel tanks etc was all stripped out under the frame stopping the whole thing top center on it saving countless lives on the westbound.

 

Properly maintained trucks today can be much more forgiving of [a little] excess speed then they were decades+ ago. However, any excess speed is going to be a BIG problem if something goes wrong on the road ahead and you find you need to slow considerably or come to a stop stop on a steep part of the grade. Accident, big patch of ice, other vehicle stalled or proceeding exceedingly slow and not fully off the road, etc ... these are some of the things that a heavy truck must always be expecting to see and deal with on a winding mountain grade.

New hills and mountain passes are always difficult the first time, even for experienced drivers. Not knowing, many will either not give the grade sufficient respect, or give it too much respect and end up going far slower than is really needed. Lots of the signage still up today assumes old technology, no engine brakes, maybe even poorly adjusted brakes. On dry pavement, you can go down cabbage or similar grades that have mandated truck maximum speeds, at 80k pound gross, much faster than the mandated speed, and still never touch your brakes.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to suggest here, other than just making a statement.