Night time down grades.

Nightmare downgrades?

 

Crack the window so you can hear the tuck/road noise a bit more. You driving a new truck? they can be deceptively quiet.

 

That is what worries me with the new trucks, they probably ride so well that 70+ downgrade being unnatural is literally soaked up. The only possible warning then would be when the steering wheel gets tense against the steers losing the grip on the pavement or being forced by the 5th wheel to come around. If you are not sharp or awake then you will probably wake up very badly hurt or dead.

Now as a training exercise on the fly we allowed one of the very then new convetionals to go into neutral after running out the fuel pump at 125+ vs a 5% down for 4 miles. The speeds rose to what I consider a stopwatch 142 or so before stabilizing to earth gravity pull.

That was a downgrade to remember. It's straight down the mountain on that particular road. No traffic. We were on the bottom in no time at all with a need to slow to 70 or better before hitting that really tight left hand curvature in both sides of the interstate. The amount of air expended from 124 PSI down to 65 in both primary and secondary did the job to get it under 70 in one big application. She did not like it though.

You are not going down grade at those speeds. You are essentially falling. If you go any faster, supposing you had enough horse power, fuel pressure and gear ratio to do it you will realize what negative gravity is in forces as it decompresses your suspension first, causes the cigerette ash tray to get really floaty in that tray and the coffee to start coming up the cup sides wanting out as your airride seat decompresses all the way up to the roof with you in it.

You don't even think about the problem that most truck tires are engineered and accepted by DOT standards for sale and use in CMV Work in the USA at 80000 pounds carry a speed rating averaging 85. You literally are trying to kill people, or at minimum yourself going downhill way too fast.

I sound like a hen or a wet hen here. There was a time that I was fast and paid for my stupidty. And thus late in life I run the mountains just so. Easy as she goes. We'll get there.

Ive been reviewing Scottie67's I-17 video twice today, it seemed that the technology availible to him allows a downgrade run at close the speed limit provided everything is IN ORDER.. OR IN BALANCE.

So this old fuddy duddy (That's me) who would have run that at 40 in my time gets my doors blown clean off by someone running a brand new truck right by at 60 It's amazing to be honest with you.

But in my mind I will not be prepared to drop a truck off a hill too fast. It's something that I consider unnatural. And leave you with this thought. NOTHING I have said about the video is a attack or a form of disapproval. I personally had no trouble with it considering the overall sitaution of 18 miles of hill, saddles and eliminating various opportunities to do battle where possible if necessary. For example that truck ramp Once you pass it up, you are committed.

 

I almost always drove at night with both my windows open about 1/4 inch. Just that little bit was a big help with hearing. It also helped moose stay awake.

 

I don't use cruise. Of the last 250,000 miles I drove I might have a 100 or so miles on cruise. I am also grossing 78,000 + lbs 95% of the time and run PNW to midwest and back all the time. By not using cruise you get so in tune with every sound, every vibration, I can usually tell with my butt how fast I am going to the nearest 5 mph. Right now I do drive a truck with over a million miles so it's got a few unique quirks. Some might say you get better fuel mileage using cruise but everybody has there own opinion to.

 

You can always set cruise to 5-7 mph under the limit. It will keep you at 69-70 automatically with engine brakes. The trade off is going slow on flat terrain. But its an option.

 

My very last tractor was a Prostar. It had all that forward looking radar crap. If I was on cruise and someone changed lanes on me, well lets say my brakes locked up once so bad my laptop slid off my bunk. I was able to find the plug to unplug that dang thing but in doing so I also disabled my cruise.

 

My LT the jake doesnt kick in on cruise at all unless the onguard picks up something ahead. Itll just run away till it hits 80 then beep and kill the cruise

 

I've always heard exactly the opposite about fuel mileage and cruise control.

 

Some of these navigation devices yell at you when you get 4 miles over the speed limit
Of course
You wouldn't know it
if you have other devices turned all the way up