over reving

I'm with you ... I don't use the brakes to maintain my speed on the downhill. And I too learned mountain driving without a jake ... delivering 140,000 lbs. loads of fuel to mines, O&G well sites, etc. Regular grades of 12%, and even more in some cases.

 

The pucker factor of running 12% everyday exceeds my paygrade

 

Did I mention that it was mostly in the winter?

 

One time I went down I think it was either Donner or the Siskyou without touching my brakes at all. Jake only. Everybody else flew by me like I was standing still. It was such an awesome sight to see all the idiots.

 

Sounds like a highway I drove in Vermont. That was more like 9% though. Where the hell is a 12%?

 

Off highway roads go up to 18%. 38 East out of Quebec City on the North side of the St. Lawerence has a lot of 12%-14%, both favourable and adverse.

 

The mountianous areas of Western Canada are full of them. You can even find 15%.

12% is the steepest I've done. It's not something I would look forward to everyday. These guys get my respect, even more so in winter.

My first taste of a 10% was many years ago in the dead of winter, no jakes, about a foot of fresh snow, grossing only 50K on a snakey backroad, single axle truck and trailer. Not something I want to repeat soon.

 

I drove for a small fleet owner who leased tractors with non-union drivers to Matlack. Another driver made his first trip out west with a tanker of wood preservative from Michigan. He had a new Ford conventional day-cab owned by a local car dealer's daughter-in-law, powered by Cat. He called in to report that the push rods were bent. We all knew what happened. Later, I worked with him at another company where he had the opportunity to spec a new tractor. He got the only truck in the fleet with a Jake Brake, and was assigned to haul Budweiser from Winston-Salem to Michigan. We had to adjust his trailer brakes weekly. But, he made good time.

 

There's a 13 in AZ, as well as plentious 10's and purportedly a 15 somewhere.

 

Nothing like a good, healthy dose of RESPECT for mountain grades!!