driving down mountains in truck has no engine brake,how to handle that

A adjustment on some of us older coots, there are some older than me who I will listen to any time.

My body is gone, but I'll die a trucker. I do resent some of the company actions in today's corporate and technology dumbing down truckers in general and trucking in particular.

Needless to say my mountain habits have kept me alive mostly without damage and for the most part out of trouble once I settled down after that famous smoking incident in Western Maryland.

My way may not be the correct way or the best way for everyone. Im still here. Some are not. You can only come downstairs too fast once. You already know this.

I would like to see perhaps a reduction in certain words before too many people decide that there is a problem. Schnider is wonderful yes. But I have never respected them as a corner stone of all things trucking. they don't put jakes into trucks, they implement speed policies long ago that caused problems particularly during the old split speed limit states and so on. They are hardly the only ones. If you were with them, you did not enjoy the freedom to do what you thought best with the 18 wheeler.

I valued the freedom to decide on that mountain how it's going to go down and get it done. It depends on the mountain when I get there. That is why I cannot stand here and say you do this in genesis one then two and three. I substitute the words "It depends"

Keeping the brakes cool so you have them if you ever need them on the way down is the biggest priority over anything else. And a good truck with a powerful Jacobs braking has bells in my hearing on the valves above them. THOSE are the ones I want to take into a mountain. Schneider can have the rest.

 

I can agree on term limits!

 

Man, your head would explode if you got a job with our company. We have a couple of openings but I don't think you'd fit in too well.
We have thirty drivers. The youngest is forty-five. The oldest is in his mid-seventies.
Our two primary lowboy drivers are both in their late 60s.
A couple of our log truck drivers are in their early 70s. The rest , the younger guys, are in their fifties and early sixties. Our forty-five year old...we call him "kid"...is the son of the senior lowbed driver.
I don't think I've ever worked with a bunch of guys as skillful and professional as they are. Or as tough. I don't mean tough in the sense that they're ornery or mean. I mean tough in the sense that they'll go out every day in any kind of conditions, any kind of weather, and any type of terrain and do a fine job.
I'd like to be there when you told them that they're too old to work and they're no longer relevant. I'd like to be there when you told them they should just step aside for the likes of you.
Depending on which one of the guys you talked to, you'd either get ignored, laughed at, or a couple of pages added to your dental record.
In any case, their reaction would be honest and immediately given. When these guys are ready to step aside, they'll let me know. People like you could never influence their decision.

 

Great post, may I add to it please?

Most of the time you become the butt of jokes, most you don't even hear! Very few will actually hit you, however NEVER assume an old timer can't put you on your butt. I have seen that mistake made many times over the years. I saw a young Airman at Edwards AFB back in 1977 make that mistake with a WW2 veteran working as a civilian. The Airman got up wondering who that truck was that hit him. However most of the time you just get ignored until you start wising up.

 

Was that a great place to watch aircraft or what. Sucked to work there as an 'airman.' I was there from 78 - 81.

 

True. Hitting people is a last resort. Unfortunately, hitting people doesn't accomplish the goal, which is to make them smarter.
When somebody is so utterly clueless that just the thought of them makes your stomach roil, the best path is to just ignore them. Eventually they'll go away and bother somebody else.

 

Nah, they'll go to Washington DC and parade around with their silly signs and dirty little tent cities. Which, in turn, bothers EVERYONE when they start burning and smashing things...

 

Yes it was. I spent my entire enlistment there. I got to Edwards around the middle of April 1976. I stayed there until Dec 1980. I was one of the few to make E5 in under 4 years. I saw the Space Shuttle make it's first landing at Edwards. this was the testing when they popped it off that 747. I saw a lot of the testing on the F-16, F15, B1 and A-10. I saw a SR71 fly there several times and had the pleasure of meeting several of the Thunderbird's killed in that horrible crash I think in 1981. One of the worse mistakes i made in my life was getting out. When I got out I was no more then 3 years from making E-6.

Edited to add that with the exception of Alan Shepard I have met ALL of the Apollo Astronauts. I do have in my possession an autograph of Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin in their white suits. This photo has been authenticated and has been valued at 4 thousand dollars. This is why the 70s at Edwards was such a fantastic time!

 

And yet you display an old school truck in your profile picture. Interesting.