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

I always took that rule to mean if you were to pull up a grade in a certain gear, use that gear to come back down that exact same grade, not the one on the other side.

 

A lot of drivers take the other side as gospel and they shouldn't. Use speed and not gears to go down the hills.

 

Maybe that’s true which makes it a ridiculous rule of thumb for new drivers in places new to them. Who goes up a hill, turns around, then goes back to where they came from?

 

I hate to hear a driver say, "this was the way I was taught." Hate it. It means to me, "I took what someone else said as gospel." Mom taught you to 'put on clean underwear and look both ways before you cross the street. Not a bad rule. But 30 years later, if you tell everyone that you always put on clean underwear and look both ways before you cross the street because that's what you were taught...?

Do you UNDERSTAND why? You may not have understood when you were taught, but do you understand now?

"If you weighed 80000lbs and on a 7% grade, what gear should you be in?" The religious man is looking for a hard fast rule, the gospel truth. Someone said 3rd gear, is that right or wrong? It will do the job, so, its not wrong. For a rookie, its not a bad answer. But if the guy has been driving 10 years and you say 7% grade and 80k and he says, "3rd gear," and you ask him why 3rd and he says that was how he was taught...?

 

Logging trucks. Gravel trucks. Tankers delivering fuel to helicopter bases. ..

But you're right...that rule of thumb will confuse new drivers.

 

Yet with ALL THAT. We went up over and down, with NO jakes. The brakes we had back then were not as good, the engines were not as powerful. However seldom did we have a problem. AND even with all the logic your trying to apply. It worked then and STILL works today.

 

Gawd we didn't have Jakes where i was working early '80s 140,000 loaded with nickel ore or lumber and miles of 7% grade on the north shore. I'm sure the good folks at Raybestos loved us.

 

It means if you start up the hill in 13th gear. But by the time you crest the hill, your in 9th gear. Down shift once more into 8th gear, and stay there till your down. Yes the hill won't be the exact same grade or length going down as it was going up. But as a rule this will get you down safely, with out smoking breaks, or using the runaway ramp.

 

Except it will.

I climb the 3% 3 mile grade in 9th. Then go down the 7% 5 mile grade in 8th, I will smoke the heck out of my brakes.

 

I can recall a particular forest near Orbisonia or Mt Union roughly in PA I recall really old Macks coming upgrade wound out with trees five feet thick and 60 long, plural in lowest gear. Several times a hour. Hardwood trees too of the finest old growth if such a think is possible.

They chopped those in half and shoved them into my container. Going to China. I had to wait a while while they chopped some more.

Coming out of there was mountain 101 for me if I did not already have training from my first employer I would not have done well.

I could not tell you what the weight was. That poor Offset Cab mack from about 1962 managed it all the way back to Baltimore. Fast it wasn't