Newbie question about pulling over on the shoulder

U did the right thing . Sometimes it hard to find a good place to pullover

 

Yeah n down n the south them shoulders once u get off the road it is like quicksand. Probably couldve gotton away with it in the southwest where the ground is hard as a rock.. Oh well , live and ya learn, welcome to trucking , #### happens lol

 

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I have heard of more then a few instances of driver pulling over to hang a whiz and soft shoulder gave way, laying the truck over. If you are light you might get away with it, if you are heavy don't even think about driving or stopping on unpaved or sketchy looking paved shoulder.

 

Ok, I'll be the devils advocate here, You did the correct thing by pulling over, However you also screwed up by where you pulled over. Be really careful about shoulders, I carry a 20' Rope rated for 120,000 lbs for getting guys off the shoulder. You might think I'm a jerk but I will charge you for the priviledge, the rope was about 750.00 bucks, I don't seek a profit just want some help to recover the cost. Out here running lots of desert back roads I have used it lots of times, and no I won't leave someone stranded, by if the can help me it helps me to help someone else. Pulling off you have to watch for ice, mud, sandy or soft shoulders. I try to find a off ramp, I just don't like using the shoulders, to me people die on them. If its not life or death don't use them.

 

First a tire blowing is a very unmistakable experience, a very loud bomb going off kinda noise and a sudden jolt sent through the truck that's generally followed by a bunch of popcorn popping noises of bits of rubber hitting everything. If you've not had the pleasure of experiencing this you don't have a clue as to the fun your missing, it's a blast. Just wait and post on here when it finally happens. Now as a general rule when I hear something I start easing off of the throttle nice and easy while going thru s quick process of elimination.
Is air hissing, that indicates something is indeed wrong and depending on how fast my air gauges are dropping determins where I stop, if down shifting and keeping the rpms up will keep up enough air pressure then 4ways till I find a nice pull off, if not 4ways and as far as I can just in case of a pull off spot.
Any vibrations, if so how bad a slight vibration same as being able to keep air pressure, bad vibrations 4ways to a stop maybe passenger tires just off the pavement but no more than a half a foot to a foot, as soon as you feel tires drop off pavement after slowing down to low gear and no faster so you can judge if shoulder will hold, and a quick walk around with flashlight and if determined not safe immediate triangle release and call to police for traffic awareness assistance, if deemed ok 4ways to first nice pull off and a more thorough inspection or if a shop is close.
Never completely off the road, you got lucky that you just got stuck, there could have been a ditch drain culvert or under ground water main to bust, or anything. Just getting stuck is about the best case scenario, you got lucky.
That all being said, as others have said mistakes are a part of life you ain't the first one and definitely won't be the last one to do this. I was a job site in Tennessee a year or 2 ago that was on a road not designed for trucks, there was a truck coming out as I was going in and I got to close to the edge and the road gave way on my trailer almost pulling me over a hill, had to get tow truck to lift my trailer up and back over to the road. As long as you learned from it as you said you have we go forward with life just looking for the next one and just hope that it's best case scenario to.