Hi,
I’m in North Carolina heading to Tennessee with my instructor and fellow trainee, needless to say there’s several hills at least from what I can tell; any general advice for a newbie?
Best regards, John
Mountain/Hill Driving
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by farmerjohn64, Dec 9, 2019.
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Pay careful attention to your instructor. And ask questions.
truckdriver31, x1Heavy, FlaSwampRat and 1 other person Thank this. -
You're about to learn what Jake brakes are for, and how to downshift while climbing a grade. Pay close attention to your instructor.
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Then he's not a good instructor. Stay calm and use your common sense.
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How can your instructor be a fellow trainee?
Most of your westbound will be upgrade most likely starting at Black Mountain. Thats 6 miles up. There isn't any hills to worry about to speak of westbound.
There is a old saying. You come up in a gear, you come down in a lower gear than that.
A modern saying is set the jacobs brake in a gear that allows her to stay in that gear downhill without excessive surging of RPM without shifting and without using your service or trolley brakes. Your goal is to have stone cold brakes ready to use at any moment on the downgrade.
Upgrade loaded you want to be in a gear without redlining it and without lugging it all the way up. Today's trucks around 515 hp detriot should be able to run Black Mountain Westbound at about 40 mph give or take loaded.
If you are in winter weather of any kind on a mountain do not whatever you do if anything, break traction. If she is pulling at 1500 without spinning upgrade in whatever gear and you are slower than everyone else? That is good. Steady as she goes until the top. Do NOT try to add power or RPM to those drives in case you are range bound in available traction. (More common in powder snow, say 2 feet or more) and if you broke traction, you will never get started again.truckdriver31 and farmerjohn64 Thank this. -
Sloooowwwww. I would go so slow it pisses people off, I don't even care. I feel ya on not knowing exactly what to do with hills being as how I live in a state where the biggest hill is a bridge lol. So I vote for sloooowwwwwww
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Just take it easy . Learn the limits of your gears. U should know how fast each gear goes at the top of the rpm range. Once u learn that u can ride the jake down any hill. When ur ready for some real mountains come out west n have some fun
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