"Had a runaway," a driver later explained on the CB.

My old man used to be an O/O logger in BC for many years. I spent a ton of time in the passenger seat out in the bush. I can vouch it ain't a job for meatheads. If you can't hack it on paved roads, you'll never survive bringing a loaded 7 axle down the side of a mountain.

 

Hm. A little food for thought on my end.

It would be very bad if those drives skate and cannot get anything of a grip. Which leads me to another question, why in hell did he come out of gear? Stirring a busy box is a waste of time on the way down to my thinking.

I was not aware of the overall situation related to the bridge yet to come. So that would create a bit of a problem. I try to resolve my problems one at a time as fast as I get around to them.

 

it was on a private all season gravel road, it's not quite pavement quality but a close second to it once frozen in. there is only 2 hills in 160 km of road, the second one you can't really even call a hill. more of a dip you can run at 120 km/hr if you wanted. if you stopped while loaded mid grade you might spin out. but it's no BC resource road, that's for sure. this is learner's territory for sure compared to BC.

 

i'm not sure how these newer trucks work, if he stalled it when he locked up his drives, would a newer truck restart itself once the wheels started rolling again like a bomb start? or would the computer not let that happen until the ignition is cycled off/on again? you can clearly hear his jakes as he's rolling past me so he wasn't freewheeling in neutral but was still in gear. there are many questions I still have myself.

 

Glad you made the right move in a tense situation .. shouldn’t a runaway throw steam like crazy if he’s heated the brakes up that bad .. I agree with you that it’s just a idiot driver who panicked

 

I think he did end up glazing them but not until he had got to the bottom. he must have been on them full application to get that thing whoa'd up to make that corner and the bridge. he said he had no brakes and rolled backwards, so I'm thinking that was the case. I remember an instructor telling us years ago in an off road driving course we took through Mullen Oilfield that 60 seconds of 60 PSI brake application is all you have before you don' have any brakes at all.

 

I don't know if a computer truck will accept a rolling start, assuming a old time manual tractor quitting for one reason or another at highway speed, neutral and then restart with the starter. Once relit you find the gear and roll on.

If you had a truck that refused to start and did a roll downhill and popped the clutch in say 2nd to roll start her, I think the computer might accept it. But I have not ever done that to a new computer truck. This makes too many assumptions that you have power to fuel pump etc.

If you heard his jake coming by, then that tells me hes in some sort of gear. Great. I just don't know enough about what THAT driver is doing, thinking etc. after the presumed scare passing the two of you.

I do know that if you somehow came out of gear when it's not a good time to do so shes gonna either stall, scratch or refuse all together any gear and then take off on down.

I just don't know enough, I learned a few things from the Troy's explanation and so forth and that helped alot. But I can only begin to question the drivers experience in truth in mountain roads like that. Thats above my paygrade. If they chose to ban him then that's the end of that episode. It could have gone very badly considering the bridge and drop.

There is mountain work in my opinion in anything trucking and I just come down the same way I come up. If that means staying at 5 mph in say 2nd or whatever all the way (Which would probably disrupt others zipping by at 25 or whatever... that would be where I stay at.

Finally but not last. Jake braking in snow? Erm... that's big boy stuff you can possibly stall her out and then your drives stop spinning and slide as dead weight without rotating. You get into alot of problems in a HURRY with that situation.

As far as braking? I see that snow as a thermal bank where it's possible to ride the service brakes or stretch her with trolley out if that was availible in those trailers and ride.

In the end I am happy no one got smashed up there. Thats all I really care about. I viewed the video a number of times and it's apparent he's on his way through downgrade. That makes more questions on my end.

 

Its possible to glaze drums. I have had my farm tractor down to about 35ish PSI before the braking pretty much went away in my problem a couple of times. From 60 to 35 in a hurry through that one can that had a hole in it. Springs? Eh, trailer was too old for that and the tractor was marginal. And on the falls road south ramp to boot as well (Which is a turning ramp towards a tighter radius turning freeway pending a sharp upgrade south of I-695 onto 83 so there was limited time to figure this out.

One company used to do special inspections on the flatbeds when they found half the fleet was cracked or glazed back there due to excessive trolley. A few trailers Ive brought in turned out that way and you would think I learned from them how to check drums for cracking and glazing. (I do now.... especially after that year)

Glazing brakes? Well, Ive had the one runway in west virginia offically where the braking went away, smoked alot along with the trash talking on the radio it was obvious I did not have much experience. What I ended up doing was sort of floating across WVa at about 30 give or take until I had cold everything in a hour and change. I was taught no matter what you did not stop with hot brakes you would probably burn the whole thing down. If they got that hot to fire. But if you could keep moving they will cool down. Just makes for a different day until you get somewhere to get them fixed properly. The 76 in Hurricane took care of that over dinner. That was a bit of a bill.

The best thing was never to be in a situation where you needed all of your braking now and not have it. Thats a true runway to me. At that point things change and becomes a bigger problem.

 

there is plenty of traction, they keep that particular section well graveled on top of the ice. using the jake with that much weight on the drives isn't something one has to worry about on that hill. they won't lock up without added help from the treadle valve and even then it would take a good stomp on the pedal. most guys go down slow enough the jake is enough to hold them back.

 

Reducing everything to it's basic, did the man panic and stomp his service? Like OMFG shes going away? That will kill the jake and slide drives in a hurry. It wont take much. Like you said a good stomp.

I hate to use a bad pun but things probably snowballed from there.