My turn for orientation at Watkins & Shepard!!

I have to concur, AT. I've done it so many times, on so many different grades at all speeds and gross weights, it's second nature to me now. I find myself doing it without even thinking about it now....

 

when I said faster I meant faster then the heavy guys....perhaps I need to explain. If the speed limit is 35 and your heavy with a 10speed your probably gonna have to go down in a gear that will have you running 30. If I'm light I can go down at 35 exactly no problem. Now you brought up a good point about the jake going out....for us watkins drivers that wouldnt be a problem because we KNOW how to down shift where as the rest of you guys would be burning up your brakes all the way down trying to control yourself because you refuse to take it out of gear....same thing for an accident, if you can down shift you just double down twice and your at a roll.....where YOU would have to lock up your brakes see the differance?

Trust me I have tons of respect for these trucks and for these mountains but you do have control over them....and you need to know how to keep control. The guys that end up on those emergency ramps are there because:
1. There idiots and burnt up there brakes
2. The lost there jake and dont know how to down shift
3. They lost there brakes in a actual brake failure

2 of those three could have been avioded had they known how to down shift..and the 3rd one nothing could have prevented that except possibly a better pre-trip

I'll give you $100CASH on the spot if you EVER see my truck going more then 1 over the speed limit Up hill/ down hill/ flat ground whatever. I don't speed its not worth the ticket or the mark on my B-E-A-Utifull driving record.


And last but not least, I'm not responible for the idiot behind me. He should know how to read and follow the signs, and since I go the speed limit at ALL times, if he's watching me he should be just fine...


American Trucker

 

Those runaway truck ramps on Black Mt. always gave me the creeps when I was a kid!
Please be careful and listen to someone with 34 yrs of experience. (Stranger)

 

Exactly!


American Trucker

 

AT s correct drivers need ta know how, just be careful and know when and where.

 

I'm not trying to start an arguement, but do you think the Watkins trainers are the only people in the world that know how to drive a truck? They are just people. Right now you have a lot of confidence, too much in fact, and I'm afraid it may come back to bite you before the winter is over. I've been where you are, as has every driver when they first started out. Just when you think you have that mountain, ice, snow, city streets, ect, whipped, it will jump up and bite you.

I never even owned a truck with a jake until 2002, and only drove trucks with jakes maybe six months total before. Somehow I managed to get down the mountains in the days when you couldn't slide a tire on a loaded truck no matter what. Many trucks came from the factory without brakes on the steering axle, and the shoes and drums were much smaller then also. If something happened right in front of you, you mashed the brake to the floor, and started looking for an escape route, because you sure wern't going to stop quick.

I'm not saying gears are not able to be changed on mountains, just that they shouldn't be changed unless you started out too fast at the top.

As I said, I'm not trying to start an arguement. I want to help you guys live to be an old driver. Your W/S trainer is not the end all, be all, of drivers, and neither is anyone else.

 

I never said it's not something EVERY driver should know how to do, it is. If you read what I quoted, you will see what I responded to.

Hot brakes don't lock up, or slow a truck very much.

I'll quit posting in the W/S threads. I thought I might could help some, as I delivered new furniture over most of the US for around 20+ years, including furniture out of the terminal you are training at, before it was W/S.

Think about what I said about over confidence, and putting all your faith in what one trainer says.

Stay safe.

 

It may sound as if I'm all confident but trust me I'm a very cautous driver, the first time I drove a truck in the snow/ice the other day I was doing 20mph lol everyone else was still doing 65! And I learned how to drive in the mountians of VT! I know snow and Ice but not it a truck lol


I understand what your saying and I agree you should be in the proper gear to begin with.





American Trucker