Mountain grades

The steepest grade I've been down was a 7or 8% ... I think. Its is 189 or 89 coming out of Wyoming into Utah???... Might have caught the corner of Idaho... I can't remember.

Its a narrow 2 lane that drives into a gorge... Like driving down a cows face... About 5 miles of narrow 2 lane with straight up rock walls on either or both sides with several sharp 20 mph corners... The one run away ramp was at one of the sharpest corners and it climbed nearly straight uphill.... I'd hate to be the sorry SOB that had to use that cause backing down it would be nearly as scary as the runaway ride down the blacktop!

 

Backing out of a ramp might not be a option, if I remember right a good ramp will have gravel that gets deeper. You will get stopped. If you have enough ramp. There are those that are very steep, about as steep as you can keep something digging on it without falling off and killing the builder.

Another is a ramp that follows the terrain but goes on and on and on.

Im not certain anymore of the price to using one of these, but those are the absolute last resort the difference between life and death.

Ive had hot brakes before and adopted a different stragety was litterally slowing to a speed where I don't need them and keep moving, drifting. takes a couple hours but you can get them cooled off. The problems include cracking of drums, glazing them over or going through the pads and so on. Or all of it. it's expensive.

One time a trainer just showed me the extent of gravity straight down on a relatively simple mountain without touching brakes. The final speed would be about 130 or so by milepost stopwatch and slowly increasing. We used alot of brake on the bottom to slow for that run out curve. But that grade was 5% roughly.

Anything steeper past 10% or my record 25 or so percent you need a ramp. Sometimes there is none and you have to use what is around you to keep from killing yourself or someone else or several someones.

Sometimes you are caught in a high place like the US 50 bridge system with a storm front coming and had the rig against the rails trying to force it all over. It's about 220 feet to the water below. As the left hand wheels were coming off and beginning to go over I was halfway out the door working on getting out. I was not looking forward to that steel grating decking below. The injuries from about what would have by then been a 10 foot jump... erm it wouldnt go well. But she came back down thankfully.

Whoever built that rail did a good job. This would be back in about 1955. The day I had that trouble would have been summer of about 1988.

That bridge has a downgrade on the western end that's pretty good. Ever since that day I pay attention to the bridges and the weather around them. Norfolk to Tidewater bridge tunnel system is the best at that one in real time during nor easters because it's 20 plus miles over the ocean and in storms you needed to be loaded. After a certain speed they close the whole thing.

Anyway just a few more thoughts. Its not always the mountain...

 

Gotta say on I-40 E today that view coming over French bread river or whatever it’s called is really nice

 

Yes most good ramps have gravel... But this one was just a dirt 2 track up the side of the mountain... And it is steep enough that I think if one went up it high enough that you would almost fall back down it rather than backing down... I am 100% serious when I say that it looked to be nearly perfectly vertical about 80 to 100 feet up from the bottom... And there is absolutely no place else to go if you miss a corner... All that you will find is a cliff wall to smash into elsewhere... Very very tight gorge that this road goes through.

 

Ive ruminated on those ramps before. Thought over what would happen if I tried to use one and still come off the top. Coming back down wont be fun. I believe you. Ive seen a few of those ramps before. I just have to sit and consider just where. But there are so many.

Spotted Wolf is one pass I remember best because the sign up top tells you exactly what and where the ramps are. If you are lost on everything and choose not to take that first or second, there is a curve about 35 a mile before the bottom with boulders bigger than houses. In between that wall and the left edge of your pavement sit vehicles that have been left there since they went over.

Sandstone is my other. These are in interstate highway systems. (I-64 in VA) and a couple others.

It's when you are not on the interstate and crawling up a three mile 25% with no ramps anywhere straight up on a two lane in Vermont, life is pretty intense. I think DOT likes to see tests on new heavy trucks to 15% but there are grades steeper than that in various places.

What I hated was the rainfall in the PA coal roads. Sometimes just a little bit on those old two lanes or no lanes would make it loaded against your 5th wheel causing your tractor wheels to slide on curves as they change quickly in down and up and so on. Twisted like a wrapped rattlesnake. When you add ice and a empty flatbed... wal.. we will get home sooner or later. Not necessarily your earthly home tonight.

 

Killer Hills

 

There is a story here in these parts that come back to around 1923 or so maybe 25. Route 31 from Heber down is a mountain road until essentially US 67 where the land becomes sort of flat. But towards Searcy there is another route where the eastern edge of white county is nothing but cliffs. Now the hills are dealing with say... 200 to 1000 or so, nothing too big or huge like the eastern hills or the western grades in your article.

Anyway. The story went that the bus carrying about roughly 14 students, children lost it's brakes for one reason or another as it's told. And rode out the four mile descent at speeds that must be theoratical but way way too fast for the little small waller bridge of wood and 6 ton weight coming up for it.

The driver managed to wedge a wheel into the side off road where a ditch was mushy with water from recent rains and rode the wheel for a good distance damaging his body a little bit but eventually it was stopped before that sure thing killing bridge at the bottom.

That's the story that gets told. Now I have tried to do a little research and it's somewhat difficult. I started using google books which publishes previously published material after a certain year where the copyright expires and it becomes public domain for all to read in the original form once scanned.

Im still working on that.

In Lepton1's article those mountain grades all are well honored and respected for the situation they present.

However I have not been able to identify the memory of having to slow to 15 halfway down about a 8% next to a canyon on which they were working on a boulder that was the size of three haul trucks, once removed continuing on with the finishing of I-68 interstate becomes possible along with Sideling hill. That would have been on the old 40 road way back when. That's gone now.

US 322 still is my grade from say State College down to Duncannon on 15. I had a good trainer that broke me in well in 3 foot powder snow, barefoot no chain, no jake and all up 80000 pounds over and down. Then back up later in the day.

I don't particularly enjoy the experience even today but that one is my hill more or less. Winter just makes it time to be sure your coffee is hot and you had your fixings this morning because you might aint get anymore after a screw up on that hill. (Or anyhill...)

 

Regardless of how many times I run a mtn, I still treat it with some respect, even if I'm trying to beat it. On/Off for 4 yrs I did a 3 day run for a local garage door company, I used hall butt on all of them, as fast as I could safely go and not get a ticket. Wolf Creek was the one I stayed closest to the limit, CSP loves to monitor that road. 550, Red Mtn./Molass/Coal Bank, I used make up 30 to 40 minutes coming over those 3 from Farmington, NM to Montrose, Co. Never got tired of running those passes, still don't, I always get a laugh out of the scared to death, white knuckle RV's, 4 wheelers and rookies I would encounter, typically heading the other direction. Many times, I've seen a SB truck stop on the one stretch until I went by, granted, it's a 1,500 drop off, and your tires are inches from the edge, but there is plenty of room. We stopped the run a couple years back. Until this past Oct., I hadn't been over 70 or any of the other hills in 2 years. In the last 7 months, I've been over 70 maybe 3 dozen times, including a couple of heavy hauls (3 separate times at 90K gross), and lately going over empty and coming back loaded. I never go more than 5 mph over, and even then I still have the trans holding a gear and the brakes on hi. The engine brakes and auto trans on my truck work great, even those 90K loads, I ran to GJ and barely touched my foot brakes. I see a lot of LTL's running it fast, most of those guys run it daily, all it takes it once...........

 

I was running down Cabbage Sunday. I was 79k and the weather was perfect and traffic was light. In my auto Detroit, I can go down at 80k with cruise set at 45(+2) and never over-speed or touch my brakes except for slower traffic when I can't pass. It will cycle between 2 and 3 stage to maintain speed.

Anyway about 2/3 down here comes an owner-op company 53 foot van with a company that brags about light weight freight. He's settled back in front of me and was clocked at 63 and occasional braking and trailer brakes smoking good. I did the only thing I could do and called out "dum ###" on the radio.

Point is, new guys, even old guys get over-confident and underestimate grades with light loads. No matter your weight, you should seek a speed (gear) and a retarder setting that lets you stay off the brakes altogether barring impedences. Regular or constant braking at higher speeds is only going to make you look like a moron, ruin your brake shoes (crystallize), reduce your braking capacity, and creates drums that make an awful noise at stops.

 

It will ruin the drums so fast. I cannot tell you how many trailer drums have been scrapped due to trolley brake abuse on mountains like Sideling hill in Maryland.

Im sorry you had a bad experience on Cabbage of all places. Ive always liked that hill. Probably because we had to run it barefoot up or down in winter all the time. Never in good weather like you describe.

I find it interesting your rig cycles the stages. Frankly I rather not. I prefer to be a gear somewhere where she will sometimes have her way with the gravity with small changes in speed and RPM now and then coming down without touching brakes.