So how do you merge onto the highway?

wow Y'all are seriously harsh....


course it took me 10 min to stop laughing so i could post...

 

Yes but if they fly out in your lane and you rear end them then you lose because you are supposed to be in control if your vehicle 100% of the time. If you run into the side front or rear quarter panel then it will probably be judged as they are at fault for improperly merging and or lane change.

 

Well see, that's the beauty of it. To truck, you need to do maths in your head.
Like this. (They teach this in trucking school, you know...) If you're in a 50-foot long vehicle, it's probably a bus not a truck. But I digress. With a 53-foot trailer and about 15 feet of tractor, you're about 68 feet long.
So when you merge, you find a gap that's about 70 feet long and gear jam that thing right in there, using boosters and auxiliary thrusters, with the fifth wheel greasers set on "high." If the DEF is low on the tractor, you'll need to drive slower. With the airbags dumped, it will be a rough ride, but if it's too rough, flip the switch and glide. No coasting, either. Without load bars affixed high and low horizontally, the beer will spill, unless you're on the Lincoln Highway between Breezewood and Bedford trying to save the ten bucks of Turnpike tolls, then you take that effing road at 70 and hail mary, don't lose your lane on that curve, driver, because that will pucker your sphincter controller, it will. Do it at 65, no higher. Merge at a safe speed and never, ever stop on the ramp waiting for a gap.

And you do it safely, of course, all the while observing all local, state, and federal regulations and laws and bylaws and company guidelines and without hurting anyone including yourself.

Hope this helps!

 

its near impossible to get to highway speed to merge from a ramp in CA.....

 

Okay , you are to blame for the pepsi that I was trying to drink now being all over my truck...

 

You come down the ramp and get a feel for the flow of traffic , if in doubt slow down ( I had to almost stop twice today ) , don't do what I've seen happen a lot and come down the ramp at full tilt
and scare cars out of the way. That's a big gamble .
Rule of thumb wether you're merging or looking for a customer on some side street is don't get yer self in a spot you might not be able to get out of .

 

Its kind of hard to go the flow of traffic from a ramp especially when the ramp is short and your loaded. Once you get going, time your merge. But once in a while you meet up with a class act trucker or 4wheeler who wont move over or slow down but what can you do? They do have the right of way. Just watch people when they get on from the onramp. Most 4wheelers are driving ms. daisy from the ramp. Most dont turn thier heads to look.

 

Just curious, but dont they teach you these things in truck school? Do they teach you only the minimum requirements to pass a dmv test? For 5k or whatever it is they charge, I really hope they teach this.

 

I'm one of the people that was somewhat harsh and did have a few smart alec comments and I do apologize. I just try to treat everything as a joke and don't take things as serious as I should sometimes. I and most of us on here do have to remember that there was a first day on the road for us at one time, unless someone shot out of the womb and into the drivers seat. The best answer I can give to the OP is when you get on an onramp, have your turn signal on, get up to the best speed that you can, keep watching the traffic and eventually an opening will occur. By no means, do not stop at the end of the ramp unless of course, there is a construction zone with no merge area and then you may have to slow down to an almost stop or even actually stop and wait for an opening, but believe it or not as much as we talk about non courteous drivers, most of the time they will give you room to merge. You do a lot of the times have to be a little on the aggressive side and make things happen to get out there. I don't mean just come out like you are going to run over someone, just hold your ground. Once again sometimes a post will catch us when we are not our best and the comments will come that do not in anyway answer the question and I'm just as guilty sometimes and this was one of those times. We have been told most of our lives, that there is no such thing as a stupid question and it holds true in this case as well. My apologies. Donald aka drifter42.