Protecting your CDL while driving a personal vehicle

That’s my definition of “preventative maintenance”. Operate in a manner that helps you to not have to do unnecessary maintenance and cost. Same with tires. Mine will rot off getting the same mileage on a vehicle that others have put 4 or 5 sets on already because of aggressive driving.

 

On my commute to work, there are a few stoplights that even have the flashing yellow “be prepared to stop” lights that go off a few seconds early to warn you that the light is going to be red by the time you get there. STILL the idiots will not even touch the brakes till they are right at the line.

 

I had always been told by my elders DO NOT trust that you will have brakes every time you touch the peddle. When I was a teen and fresh with license I witnessed this first hand. I was in a right hand turn lane waiting for cross traffic to stop when a older then me lady came up behind me seemed like flying steered by inches to my left horn blazing. No brakes. Into the intersection T boning an unlucky van. Her car was newer then mine at the time. Lol! No one was hurt because it was a 30mph hit but I never forgot that panic in her eyes afterward.

 

You’d think stainless steel brake lines would be made mandatory nowadays but they aint. If you have an older car you should check for heavy rust cause next time you slam the brakes they could give up the ghost.

 

One thing I’ve always noticed while driving is the people that do stupid things in front of you always drive like YOU have insurance and the ones that do stupid behind you always drive like they have super hero brakes.

 

Something most people just don’t think about till it happens. I used to have an old rust bucket F150 with a 5 speed. I blew a brake line in it once, didn’t realize it until I was going down a steep hill with a stop sign at the bottom. Talk about a scary situation! Luckily, there was a huge snow bank on the side of the road, so I just steered into that and downshifted and managed to ride the snowbank to the bottom of the hill. Kept it in low gear and used the parking brake (which amazingly still worked in that old POS) to nurse it to a buddy’s house a few blocks away.

 

I’ve lost brakes on cars a few times , once when my 15 year old was driving a jet wrangler , was where the plastic inner fender liner rubbed a hole in the metal brake line .
If there’s anything scarier than a 15 year old screaming the “no brakes !” Coming up to a red light , I dunno what it is .
But he did great, he went from fourth to second , jammed on the Perking brake and that got it slowed down a lot but not stopped , and he laid on the horn and made a sharp right onto the side street .


And once was the O rings in the master cylinder .
Once was a rusted metal line .

 

As a motorcyclist (dirt & pavement) and a former trucker, I try to use gears to slow down, backing off the throttle or accelerator and letting the gears wind down as necessary... on a bike, I hardly ever touch my brakes, and when I do it's usually the front brake, as it has more stopping power. When I was in the big truck, I'd back out of it as soon as I saw a light go red up ahead, and downshift as necessary until the light turned or I gently braked to a stop in low gear. On a downgrade with a stop ahead, I'd have to use brakes more often, but my general aim was to limit brake use as much as possible. Drive this way in your POV (or Privately-Owned Vehicle) and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how long your brakes last, plus you'll be driving in a safer and more efficient manner.

Another trick is to "ride the gap" whenever possible, which means staying between packs of vehicles, accelerating or decelerating as necessary to stay in that gap as long as possible. That gap is the safest place to be on the road, with no other vehicles around you... obviously, you can't ride the gap all the time, but you can learn to MAXIMIZE time spent in that gap, I do it to this day in my Camry and it makes driving so much easier (even though there's not much traffic in the boondocks, lol). OP, now that you have your CDL-A the best thing to do is drive defensively, and NEVER expect the other driver to know the law or follow it, aye? Expect the worst and you won't be disappointed, though you might be pleasantly surprised when you encounter a knowledgeable & courteous driver.

I started this thread at another website, it's a good thread to read since it contains many helpful tips: homesteadingforum.org/threads/road-safety.17526/ The thread was written through my perspective as a truck driver, so it may be helpful to the OP here, and any other folks who recently obtained their CDL-A. The part about timing of the yellow phase in stop lights is really helpful: once you've learned how to use this information to your benefit, it'll let you gauge whether you should roll on through or brake to a stop. It'll keep ya out of trouble too, lol... I've often decided it would be better to stop, only to look over and see some revenue collector (traffic cop) waiting in ambush for his next customer. So that info might also save ya some money, lol... which is always a plus in my book. Cheers!

 

278,890 on the factory pads of my pick up truck, they will finally need replaced in the next month or two. Most likely would have made it to 3 but the wife brakes just a little too much when she tows her trailer with it.

 

Most today that have lost brakes have done so with a more modern 2 resivior master cylendar. With most of these at least you can slow and get it to a stop. Some of us older folks had the experiance of loosing brakes with a single resivior master in the rust belt where most emergency brakes are rusted beyond use long before the lines will break. Talk about a wild ride!