Downhill in Winter

If you get sent up in the dead of winter out west, find yourself a very slow gasoline rocky double preferably one with the second trailer on it's own pintle hook. Settle in behind him and do what he does. Leave PLENTY of room between you and him. You will be taught soon enough.

 

slow and steady wins the race, not like this -

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(Please) DON'T drive super slow with very little room between you and the truck in front of you, blabbering on the CB ninety miles an hour about how bad it is, and #####in about how crazy I am when I pass you.

Memories of crossing the Blues in Oregon and encountering a pack of Arkabama boys comes to mind.

No offense to my Southern brothers!

 

None taken. I rather be the slowest and by myself.

I don't care for the motor mouths on the radio consumed with the winter weather.

I had a black car come up one time at 70+ 10 miles south of Sheridan WY on split ice. Myself and a gas tanker was moving at 15. Camera caught the car lose it next to me and then across my front as it slid off into the deep deep snow (Something like 6 foot plus drifts) We eventually got word to the scalemaster in Sheridan that there is a car needing recovery with two people in it. But they will be there a while and hopefully wont be that stupid again to speed.

If anything is going to happen it's going to be here in Arkansas, Oh lord lol. I can only sit back and have a laugh.

 

Ya know... I had a experience one christmas eve in Delaware tolls I think just before Delaware house rest area... on 95. Someone fumbled the change to the ground in one of the baskets to toss and missed.

The best way I can describe the resulting backup was to roll south on 95 at 60 or whatever speed and watch to the left window as people stopped dead. All lanes northbound. It was richmond VA before that finally changed to moving traffic northbound. I believe it made the next day's paper as a epic failure of the entire section of 95 from Delaware down to Virginia. And I would hate to think it's because someone fumbled change to toss into the basket.

 

You will not believe it but the boneheads at frieghtliner decided to remove manual mode for the newer styled cascadia models. If you got the 2017 older style it still comes with manual but the 2017 newer and the 2018s don't come with manual mode.

 

That's just not true. Maybe it's somehow possible to order them that way but my 2018 cascadia has manual mode selector on the stalk.

 

Your post reminds me of having a trainee at the wheel descending Cabbage Hill westbound in December a few years ago. We had ample warning on the CB to "Watch out for the Choo-Choo train heading down Cabbage."

We had chains on nice and tight. Stopped at the rest area near the summit to double-check. Then started down the hill at about 25 mph with light Jakes on.

All was well until the final curve before Pendleton. Then we came upon the "Choo-choo train". At least 80 trucks in the right lane going THREE MILES AN HOUR!!!

My trainee slowed from 25 mph, waited for the left lane to clear, then got into the hammer lane pacing traffic at 10 mph. We passed all those truckers in the right lane, white knuckling with the familiar "Wack! Wack! Wack!" of badly installed chains.

We shut it down at the Pendleton casino. Shortly after we parked another trucker parked next to us. "Did you get around that wreck?"

"What wreck?"

Apparently two potato haulers couldn't slow in time for the Choo-Choo train. They jacknifed.

The next morning we ended up running over tire chains buried in the snow. That cost us four hours west of Spokane, getting a new tire.

Learn how to install chains properly. Don't become part of a white knuckle Choo-Choo train.

 

Choo choo...

 

That's funny. In the 80's I hauled French fries back and forth from Twin Falls to the Tri Cities, and was across 84 on a daily basis. I came across the group of guys that I mentioned earlier, and tried to stay behind them for awhile, but kept creeping up on them and just decided to get around them all before there was a problem. You would have thought I was going 90 the way they were talking about me. One of them said not to expect them to stop and help "when" I ended up in the ditch.
About the same time there was an acquaintance of mine that hauled IBP meet from their plant in Kuna, ID to Wallula, WA every day. He used to stop and pick up the tire chains along the road, take them home and patch them up, then sell them to those that needed them. I don't know how much IBP spent on the brakes on his truck, but it had to be substantial, cuz he would stop going down anyone of those hills just to pick up another set of chains.

Edit to add:
In those days EVERYONE used there CBs religiously. It sure helped to know what kind of problems were ahead.