Quick question from someone who has never driven a semi

Ive had em hold on 25. Not very well but they held. Getting that thing going again in deep low risks throwing all of your clutch plates, your entire rear drive interals etc out to scatter while you fall backwards off the mountain to your death.

I think DOT designs to 15% but not much more than that. I don't know of too many hills that steep. Only the ones Ive managed to get away with it.

There was a farm in VA I had to back up both a hill and then a inclined dirt ramp to a barn and the gradient on grass was causing the tractor to refuse it. I forced it up there. That was a few hours prior to being loaded and now it's been snowing against a overhanging cliff some 40 feet over the fence line.

I had tied the one inch rope to the freightliner door handle then over my other shoulder to pysically keep my body where it is long enough to reach the pedals just so until we got off there.

I got it off there 4 feet at a time this way and 2 feet closer to the cliffside that way by sideways sliding of tractor drives. The trailer essentially pointed straight down. I finally got to about a 60 degree jack towards dry pavement and made a bet. I would punch her, get on the pavement before the trailer slid over the small cliff.

I had her on pavement and a savage stop with the trailer now 20 degrees on the right with the outer wheels against the wooden farm fence which would not hold it much. Took out about 30 feet of fence. Which I nailed back into place myself.

The truck went into shop for more work. One drive set on the tractor got shaved from the corner of the trailer biting into it. A bearing was replaced, three of the 5 clutch plates replaced. Throw out was replaced. on and on and on.

I never did find out what that piddling 60 mile haul paid. But it #### sure did not pay anything versus the repairs that probably approached twice the amount in cost.

One of the biggest most interesting situation devolved from that particularly botched loading. No one yelled at me, they simply issued me a new truck and told me not to talk about it.

 

Ya. ABS will stop your truck
Ask this driver about his brakes.



Ohh ya. It's a siverado pickup.

 

And there were two fatalities inside of that Silverado pick-up truck too.

 

You mean it was a silverado. Was the pickup parked behind another truck? i would think that the big truck would have pushed it forward rather than running over it?

 

4-truck crash kills 2, blocks I-20 east in Carroll County

 

I see he has not replied.
If I am still at home everyday when the news comes on TV I watch the weather while I eat breakfast. Adds not far from make big bucks sue big trucks are on every day. Then my wife just got called to a wrongful death jury duty Jerry Springer kind of 10 million dollar lawsuit. That was on my mind when I answered him.
I do not know all the answers to that question. However when a four wheeler eased over in front of me and slowed down I locked up no tires at full brake application. Their brake lights never came on but I wonder if they switched it off or used the E brake. All I could see was the hood of the car in front of my hood and my horn was on full. Then it darted off to the right for a last second exit ramp retreat.
If people have nothing more to do than wonder how capable truck air brakes are maybe they could do something productive.
I learned a lot reading from Tom McCahill. Make a version of his writings for modern trucks and safety. How to prevent an accident, avoid an accident and be able to drive out of a bad situation. Well theboom never drove!
Maybe someone smarter than I could use this for a stepping stone. A post on that type thing and advanced driving skills. Always have an out. I know that is difficult at times.
A man I used to work with had many years experience. Said " I came over the hill and cars were wrecked everywhere." As I recall he said he went to the shoulder, then across the lanes to the median. Was using the hand valve trying to get out of a jack knife. " I saw the car in the median, I tried to miss it but the tank ( loaded open barrel ) kept coming around. I KILLED HER. She should not even have been there. She was not even in the wreck and just stopped to try to help." It was raining. If he had tried to stretch it out would that have made any difference?
I probably should not have shared that but the point is we hope we never have to use those skills or knowledge. However if we do not practice them in our mind, make them ingrained in our thanking, we will not be prepared to react if needed.

 

When vehicles full of people come up the left eyeballing me and it's raising the hair on me. Insurance scam coming up. Sure enough they swerve into my lane and then lock it up hopefully at a point too close for me to stop.

What those idiots do not understand is that I have endured this situation many times and am fairly capable of manhandling a semi and trailer into a unnatural situation to get past them and most importantly not hit em. I just give thanks that the trucks have given me everything that I asked for when I asked it to do it and not get away from me. Although the company officers are not very happy to see that when the truck informs them just how aggressive my braking was on the satellite.

I would not run a big truck without a good quality camera down to speed and GPS Lat and long sufficient to 10 feet. So that when something that stupid (Not if, when) comes up it's all there on video.

What I do worry about is the cabs. There seemed to be a trend not to really secure them to the frame much. I need them to be really secure. My last truck a Century did well, but had way too much roll in the cab. (Partly because of the 700 pounds of tare in food and fluids and supplies in addition to the two of us.) That's alot of mass for a cab to hold on to when abused at the steering wheel on dry pavement.

 

What camera do you use?

 

Just a portable HD Camera or a ordinary Cell Phone in a bracket facing forward. Memory card records more than a day so it's not a problem for a drive somewhere. It's not much. But eventually we hope to improve on it. The portable rides in a hat bracket as a body cam for concealed carry purposes it's a little thing.