Mountain grades

I've always taught to be in the right gear BEFORE you go down a hill. That way you do not need to find a gear while going down. It best to know than not to know. If you do not know which gear (without a engine brake) you start at 25mph depending how heavy you are. If it's too slow then you can up shift as needed. I'd like some drivers to try taking a Ryder tractor (3 axle) hooking on to a 60ton Navy trailer and hauling a D-8L (110,000lbs gross) across country. No engine brake, just a standard tractor with a 350hp Cummins.

 

I've come upon unfamiliar grades in the north interior of BC, they put up the grade warning signs several hundred yards after you have already started down, pulling 100,000 lbs gross.
When ever that happened I got on the brakes hard and fast to get myself into an appropriate gear early, I didn't wait and I definitely downshifted.

 

Whoever said there can't be more than a 6% grade on interstates haven't driven long enough to see them. There is a 7% grade on i26 in NC. There is also a 7% grade on i70 near Denver in the Vail area, and that one is about 5 or so miles. I actually traveled that highway a few weeks ago with 78,000ish pounds. I have an automatic but I used the manual option to descend. I want full control over that truck in such a steep long decent. Nonetheless, I started descending in 7th gear. I found myself using my brakes more than I was comfortable with. So I slowed down just enough to drop to 6th gear. At 6th gear I was able to use just the jakes to hold me back. The RPMs would get up to around 2100. At that point the truck began to slow down enough for me to use medium or low jake settings. I toggled between jake settings all the way down, without using breaks. But...overall id have to say that Cabbage Hill on i84 west bound in OR is the baddest and thus funnest of them all, in the entire USA. Its only 6% grade, but its almost 7 miles longs and has some wicked hairpin curves.

 

Cabbage is a favorite of mine, but it's not up there.

Sandstone makes me emotional, we lost too many people on it in winter.

 

I hit Sandstone within a month of going solo and didn't take any chances. There's no shame in getting passed, at least not for me.

 

Well, personally, I would give an F when the climbing lane ends at the top. If they have room they should have continued on over the top so you can get some speed up before merging or if it's too narrow for that end the leftmost lane. It's just an epic fail to force trucks to merge at 25 mph.

 

I was otr for a month before sandston. It wasn't bad imo but I followed speed limit signs and was only 74k 2016 t680 auto trans. Just used stage 3 Jake and went down at 50-60.

 

Hi yall - new to the forum and wanna disclose that I'm not a truck driver, but looking for advice on driving a my converted school bus down various mountain grades. I'm a 38' rig, 26000 lbs, Cummins ISB 5.9 with an Allison 4 speed automatic transmission, governed HP: 195 @ 2500 RPM and governor regulation (%): 6.7, air brakes with recently tuned slack adjusters, but no jake or exhaust brakes. Heading thru AZ later this month and will be driving on I17 to Camp Verde up to the Cottonwoods and then back down Black Canyon City. The Mountain Directory Guide says '6% grade for 7 miles" down to Camp Verde and '6% grade for 5 miles' back to Black Canyon City. Do yall have suggestions for safe speeds/gear (2nd or 3rd) to maintain for that length of descent with my rig capabilities and any other strategies for navigating these and future downhills? Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Anand

 

No jake or retarder, your going to have very little engine hold back, so don't factor it in.
But you also have little weight, and is 6% grade really considered a hill in this day and age.
My God I feel old, sorry if i seem condescending, but 6% is a gentle gentle gentle slope. Please never drive in central BC if you think 6% is a hill. I would blow over the top of a 6% hill in high gear, over 100,000 lbs, and not even blink. But I haul heavy equipment, and massive loads of logs, full fuel trailers, and more, up and down grades over 20%, and then throw in single lane wide roads, and switch backs just to make it interesting, and do it all winter in the snow and ice to. Just don't Stop, tires have to keep rolling, or it kicks your chains crossbars out from under the tires, you lock up the tires, and away you go. 28%, heavy load, weighing 137,000 lbs and switchbacks, narrow road, trying to not run the over width equipment into a bank or tree, that just makes life not as boring, and yes I do it. Driven my father's motorhome a lot, and can't say that there was 1 hill in the lower 48 that I even considered anything but a yawn fest. That so called mountain pass in Colorado, we call flatland up here. I was 16 and driving the family 41' motorhome, my dad riding shotgun, sisters and mother in the back, my dad was chuckling that they even call it a hill. Even on a major hwy here, they don't even put up a single sign marking hills just 6%, no matter how long that hill may be. Different perspectives, depending on where you live lets say. Worry less, don't tailgate motorcycles and motorists, enjoy your holiday, and remember if its under 10% its not really a hill. #### my driveway is more than 15%, and I can't go to the nearest town on either side from me, without going down hills more than 10%. My papa's 80 year old car, beautifully restored, now that is something that needs better brakes, but they work as good now as the day it rolled off the assembly line. Imagine people used to drive them down steep hills, now that I bet caused a butt pucker. My semi truck Loaded at 106,000 lbs day in and day out, normal load for me, would require 1/4 of the stopping distance Dad's antique car does.
Enjoy your vacation, and stop worrying about nothing. Remember, most importantly do NOT tailgate, and never panic. Fear causes people to mess up, and their is nothing to fear but fear itself. And worth repeating, 6% isn't a hill, at least not for us. Revving your motorhomes engine really high, is just hard on the engine. If the hill looks like a skating rink, toss the iron on the tires. If you don't own iron, well shame on you.

 

Yes the steepest I've encountered was on the I - 84 Emigrant Pass with the gap in the Cascade Range using low gear is a must do by rights it must be a gear slow enough to hold you without having to resort to using the brakes which even includes your engine brake the argument being if that fails what will you have left to hold you? People do tend to focus on the speed, well that is what it takes to be in a gear that will hold you with around 40 ton I'd be in about 2nd or 3 rd gear it'll be a long slow decent but at least you can rest easy knowing there is absolutely no way your brakes can fail.