Quick question from someone who has never driven a semi

l left black marks from everything but my steers a few months ago when a car pulled out right in front of me and then freaked out as soon as they saw me and they stopped in the middle of the road. you really got to stand on them hard and have cool breaks to do it under a full load. breaking traction increases stopping distance though. it takes a lot longer to get a truck stopped than a car.

 

Even in a regular car, not too long ago I had to stand on the brakes with some power to get her not to hit the idiot kid running across the freeway with us coming on as a herd at 70. The car did fine until three of the tires slid when they slid they added about 20 feet to the stopping distance. It would have been better for them not to slide or the ABS to kick in. It's a full ABS car and I am concerned that it did not kick in.

Ultimately the kid saved himself by dropping straight down with a leg in front of my left steer. Which is not welcome.

There was a bridge behind us about 3 minutes walk for them. Hopefully they use that and it's wide sidewalks next time. I don't do well with vehicular manslaughter.

It takes a lot to slide the drives on a tractor under a load, it can be done. Just keep in mind that kind of stopping is actually not something you ever want to do. Most trucks today have a active software script that will tattle to your company during the hard stop something like 6 mph per second per second or harder.

The biggest and best reason never to resort to that kind of stopping is the load in that trailer. If it is a certain way on a flatbed YOU might get killed if it breaks loose. Or you just turned a 15 minute forklift unload into a single pile of mixed boxes that will require hours of lumping and doublechecking for hidden product damage. Besides, if there is any angle on the 5th wheel (I don't seem to stop running out of these reasons...) you risk forcing the tractor or trailer to fold on you. With a tractor jackknife being more dangerous of the two.

Braking systems in big rigs have gotten pretty good. Along with the tires and so on.

Just remember. Keep those things rolling if at all possible. It is much better than sliding forward.