Downshifting without revving up the engine?

Lovers leap Virginia comes to mind.

 

Hwy 14 from Greybull to Burgess Jct. in Wyoming isn't that steep - about 6%, but it's 18 miles long!

 

Sandstone(WV),Monteagle(TN),
Emigrant Hill(OR),Donner Pass(CA),Wolf Creek(CO),Castaic(CA),Fancy Gap(VA),Echo Canyon(UT),Old Fort(NC). Many a time drivers (old and new) have gotten complacent going up and down these grades. Some of the them paid the ultimate price for that complacency. And that’s in the best weather conditions!
A few years ago we had a driver wreck near Old Fort, North Carolina on I-40 after he failed to stop at the brake inspection area at the top of the grade. Going down the grade he burned out his brakes and before the truck went into a ravine he bailed out of the truck! He costed the company dearly-he wrecked in a federal forest preserve! It took five wreckers to get the mess out, and every tree that was mowed down by the truck or cut to extricate the wreck the company had to pay for! And this was his INAUGURAL RUN for the company-he was fully loaded with 40,000 pounds of cole slaw in a BRAND NEW REEFER TRAILER at the time! Both the trailer and the load were a total loss!

 

Great MPG on the way down.

 

Going up @ 95,000 pounds I did have to slow down for a few corners, but not very much!

 

Now do it offroad in the snow and ice. Welcome to the rockies.

 

That’s what Mr. Hinkle thought too…. before he put Pops 1981 Cabover shaker through the guardrail on Sandstone mountain just east of Beckley, WV.

Took a big dozer to build a road into it to get it out. That was the straw that broke the camels back as the old saying goes. Machinery Hauling went out of business after that.

In my nearly 35 years looking through the windshield, I’ve learnt to respect every grade, no matter if I fear it or not.

Pine mountain in eastern Kentucky is a real mammer jammer too. Use to run it with a 3 axle beam trailer, better have a CB and know how & when to use it lol.

I came up out of Panther, WV with a Cat D350E on few weeks ago. Running route 52 here in southern WV, ya need to know what them spray painted numbers are on those rock walls in the curves, and especially on those grades with steep switchbacks that allow you to clean your tail lights without stopping…

 

Been there done that with a D7 hooked to the front maneuvering drilling rigs around the mountains or I mean ant hills on coal mining jobs. Can’t stop working just because it snows either, add chains and dozers, can’t stop the mine….

 

ive heard some of those coal mine roads out in those areas are just crazy crazy. Ive been on some of the logging roads out west here and they are insane , not for the faint of heart

 

Alot of good advise here.