Some "courtesy" questions for us newbies

At night then don't even bother, because it is MORE dangerous for the driver passing you to have momentary blindness from you trying to be courteous. Just tell them they cleared you on the CB and be done with it, unless you are one of them that does not run a CB either....in that case, just hold your steering wheel and be safe.

 

RHM- I also have my CDL but I call it my "license to learn". I can identify with your post and have to say that I have often left my ego in the truck and got my arse out to have a look around. If someone is impatient with me and I can't let them by- then I keep at it but I make sure I border on being overly safe so I don't go home with a bent bumper or insurance claim because somebody else was impatient. I'm pretty lucky as a flat bedder because I don't have to worry about the docks as often as you probably do and flat bedders seem to step up and spot for me if they see me struggling abit
BTW- Merry Christmas!!

 

I kinda get where your coming from but.....what if the interrupt switch breaks or the high/low breaks or the sky falls, what are the odds of a headlight switch actually breaking off in your hand, or even breaking?

 

CB? Nope don't have one. Momentary blindness? Well lets see, I've been flashed by other drivers in my mirror probably thousands of times give or take a few. I've been momentarily blinded or otherwise even slightly impaired by that act exactly zero times give or take zero and my eyes are far from perfect.

But I'll grant you that there could possibly be drivers out there who could become momentarily blinded by the act of someone flashing high beams in their mirror. Where you lose me is with the notion that such a person could operate a tractor trailer while knowing they tend to be blinded so easily and yet they're perfectly safe and I'm the dangerous one.

 

Valid questions. The interrupt switch cuts off headlights only, running lights are still on as are all the trailer lights and fogs lights are still available if need be. So if the interrupt breaks/sticks/whatever and the headlights don't come back on, I'm not a blacked out 80k lb object on the highway. People can still see that there is a truck there. OTOH if I switch the lights off and the switch breaks, I run the risk of losing all lights. I might end up with running lights, but I could lose everything depending on the nature of the failure.

How likely is any of it? Not very likely at all. But risk management isn't always about likelyhood of failure. Its about leaving yourself an out whenever possible so you still have options should the failure come to pass.

Like I said, I understand the night blindness thing. But I've just never experienced it in a truck from high beam flashes. In a plane? Yep experienced it lots of times and I completely understand how undesirable it can be. But the high beams on a truck have orders of magnitude fewer lumens than than something like the landing lights and/or strobes on a transport category aircraft. The high beams on a truck are also orders of magnitude less bright than the flood lights that the DOT likes to shine right in drivers eyes when they're doing paving operations on the highway at night. As I said before, if you're that susceptible to night blindness that high beams in a mirror could impair you, then trucking probably ain't your best choice of job.

 

CC posted.."Thanking is so popular, truck manufacturers even put interrupt switches in most 18 wheelers. That speaks for itself."

I never thought of it that way, well put CC!

 

Wait!!! What??????
Every truck I drove the interrupt switch turned off the everything EXCEPT the headlights. I guess it varies by manufacturer, some interrupt only trailier lights, some only the lights at rear of trlr.