I guess someone lost their brakes??

But was he driving in fact a Freight shaker ???

 

Yes. The video is good enough that you can pause it for a good still.

 

Just glad he wasn't on a real hill. lol

 

Every hill is a real hill when your brakes stops working. Lol

 

No doubt about that.
I just heard all about the grapevine all my life growing up, but never took a truck over it till I was 20 years old and kept wondering where this famous hill was. It was not that impressive after driving some smaller highways in the rockies. lolo

 

The Grapevine is a real hill. While the grade isn't that steep, per se, it is a long grade. And since it's in sissy-fied California, the speed limit of 35 mph (northbound) is applied to both loaded and empty trucks.

Still, plenty of trucks come down the Grapevine too fast with their brakes smoking.

As you may or may not know, the Grapevine gets its fearsome reputation from the days when braking technology for trucks wasn't all that great. The result was many horrific wrecks over the span of decades.

My hat is off to the truckers of the 1960s,1970s, and beyond who literally risked their lives on a daily basis running up and over the Grapevine all those years.

 

Try and come down highway 24 in BC. Coming down in a loaded 7 axle at around 118k lbs gross. Its a snails pace crawl with the 3rd stage jake on for about 20-25 minutes straight. Should hardly have to touch the brakes at all on a grade if you're in the right gear.

 

Did that dropping into Trail from Rossland. 7 km downhill at 11 kph = 35 minutes. Took me 3 hours to get from Rossland to Creston via Salmo Creston summit, 52 miles.

 

All I can say is take your hat off. lol
My first trip over the grapevine was in the 70's with no jake, it was not an impressive hill, people can manage to pile them up anywhere, even with out a hill. lol There are many hills spread out over the states that are much worse, but don't get the reputation that the grapevine does because of the amount of traffic, is all I can figure.
When my son in law decided he wanted to drive, his first night was across Az and Flag, second was the grapevine, while I slept.

 

No argument there.
There are drivers who have gone down Monteagle,Sandstone and Fancy Gap(which some drivers here wouldn’t consider real hills) and yet they end up cooking the brakes,having a brake fire or wrecking outright- or all of the above at once.
In this business I give EVERY hill,grade and mountain every bit of respect,because complacency can get you killed!