Drafting? Yay or Nay

I can assure you sir that travling 2 car lengths behind a truck at 60 mph, you have no view of any upcomeing obstructions on the road, so the only indication you would have would be the brake lights on the truck, And I assure you at 60 mph thats over 29 feet per second ( in other words the blink of an eye ) you have coverd that 2 car lenghts. And what about the day when the truck has suffered a malfunction and unknown to the driver the fuse for the brake lights has blown on route. where would you be then? Under the rear of the trailer thats for sure. You are a fool.

 

I know where you are coming from, the trilers I used to pull were tri axel reefers, the turn / pivot point of the tri axel is the center wheel. So from there to the rear of the trailer is about 17 feet. now thats a lot off opposite swing when you are driving in tight congested streets like centeral london. stay safe and be on the look out for the un educated.
A lot of folks just dont understand the space needed around a truck whilst maneuvering.

 

YES you were.

 

Dont fool yourself Christwill... yesterday, driving down the highway, there was a puff of smoke from the trailer wheels of an 18 wheeler just ahead of me in two lanes over, and the rig came to an almost instant stop. He obviously had an air line break and his trailer brakes dynamited INSTANTLY. It was a wonder that no-one drove into the back of him. Dont fool yourself that you could have stopped quicker than his trailer took to stop him!

I appreciate that this entire quote was meant to make us feel that you appreciate us. However, it is impossible to lump all truckers in the same category... we are all individuals, and we all drive for differing reasons. Mostly we drive cos we LOVE it. If you look on this forum you will see that some of us have varying degrees of college education and some of us dont... surprise surprise that some of us can give you better conversation than you get in college... personally I have 3 degrees and a CDL amongst other qualifications... My trainer has no education and a CDL, and you would sit mesmerised by his conversation if you were ever lucky enough to sit and have a coffee with him.

 

If you are drafting me in an auto or motorcycle I do not mind. You don't have to be that close to get a draft. If it is night and your lights are in my side mirrors I do mind. If you are in another big truck stay back!

 

Be your own judge. How safe do you feel knowing we cant see you? How safe do you feel knowing the average human reaction time for the mind to register brake lights ahead and the foot to move from fuel to brake pedal is over 2 full seconds?

If that all sounds ok to you then by all means ride along in that blind spot to save a little fuel. You will notice the savings wont even be noticable enough to warrant the dangers you already knew you presented. Any person that thinks to ask that question knows they made a suicidal move out there. But pulling 80,000 pounds, the impact that kills you is one the driver most likely wont even feel. So knock yourself out.....the fuel savings can help buy you a very nice burial plot!

 

Well said didntitellu!

 

What's that equation?

PD+RD+BD= TSD

PD= Perception Distance
RD= Reaction Distance
BD= Braking Distance
TSD= Total Stoping Distance

So in a tailgate, or draft equation it would look alot more like,
PD+RD+BD= BFW

BFW here equals Big ##### Wreck

Besides, if you tailgate me, I may just slow down, making you go around me, or wander my trailer tires into the area, debri strewn area i might add, of the rumble strip.

 

Don't forget to add air lag for trucks with air brakes which is about another 1/2 second.

 

If you try to draft me I will tap the brakes to let you know to back off, if that doesn't do it I will let my trailers wheels fall off on to the side of the road so that maybe some stones into your windshield will help you get the point. I don't like drafters. Actually, up here they are really cracking down on that, you will get a ticket for it if you get caught.

A friend of mine had a couple of kids in a car run into the back of his tanker, both kids went to the hospital, one of them screwed up his back pretty good, the driver of the car got charged, they are lucky they didn't hit the valve on the back of his tanker, they could have been covered in acid.

If you are drafting someone, you don't know what is going on around you, you can't see what is going on in front of you, that is a dangerous situation.