Trucks passing other trucks on I-35

I have been dealing with it, and still do, on a daily basis.
I have no problems in my truck, no limiter so when I need to pass I get it done. There are also times I slow for a second and let the guy that is in a hurry to get around me.
I can understand some lines of thought, It is a chore to bump the Dec button on the cruise or lift your foot 1/8th of an in for a few seconds.
The OP wasnt talking about fuel savings but some of the answers gave it as the reason for why they do it.
This to me is one of those chicken v egg type questions that can have a thousand answers, each with its own arguement for why it is the only correct one.
If another vehicle catches you and tries to pass they must be going faster, no matter by how much.
If you speed up to force them back behind you and they catch you again you must have slowed back down.
I know well about making appointments and running on a schedule, but we are talking about 1 or 2 MPH for 1 or 2 minutes.
If 10 or 20 miles at the end of a 11 hour shift has that much impact on you something is wrong.
If you drive a 63 MPH truck and plan trips with a 63 MPH avg you need to rethink it.
Trucks pay more taxes because they have more impact on the road, plain and simple. This in no way implies "Ownership" of anything.
Maybe when more lose the I own it attitude and adopt I share it the roads will return to what they should be.

 

Pull off and take a break. The elephant race will be long gone.

I do not have a limited truck and do the speed I want.

I am passed by elephants all of the time. They cannot get by me. It is their choice.

They pass, I usually end of passing them again.

When I worked for a company in a 64 mph truck, they planned the loads at 68 mph. Whose fault is that?

I got penalized for not being on time. I do not see the reason to worry about another person's schedule.

 

I don't think that's what P.B. was saying at all. It's just that a lot of 4-wheelers seem to insinuate that semis only tear up the roads, terrorize "innocent" motorists and contribute nothing in general. Many of these misguided individuals would be/are surprised when they find out just how much of that highway is actually being funded by those "evil" trucks.

 

Here is my take on the original op issue. I have found on my truck loaded on certain grades if I can keep the hammer down running my allowed 65mph I can run the hill. If I have to slow down just a few mph I am going to be downshifting into 8th and crawling 35mph up the hill.

Sorry if I inconvenience you. Truck drivers spend on average 15 times more of their life on the interstates than 4 wheeler drivers. The interstates are our home, you are just visiting. If you don't like it, take a back road. We are restricted on the roads we can take, you are not.

Few more observations...I have found the more expensive the car, the bigger the douchebag driving it. Mercedes are the worst. The most courteous drivers I found are in pickups or, believe it or not, jeep cherokees. Those folks always let you in and leave space when you have to change lanes and always have a friendly wave when they pass.

 

Actually, in many cases, the revenue brought in from the motor fuel taxes, excise taxes, and other taxes INTENDED to fund the highways are diverted into the various states (as well as the federal government's) general funds. The money actually spent on the highways doesn't even come CLOSE to what is paid in for that express purpose...with the exception of a few states which have passed Constitutional Amendments to their state Constitutions mandating that highway dollars be used to fund the highways.

It really is a pretty good scam they have going. The money is there, but they fail to provide the funding....instead using the funds for pork projects to get themselves re-elected. When people complain that the roads are crap, they are told the money isn't there and they need to raise the fuel tax.

It is the same reason the police, fire, and schools typically see cuts before the pork projects are defunded...pork gets 'em re-elected, while underfunded police, fire, and schools allows them to convince the voters that a tax increase is necessary. A tax increase means more money passing through their grubby little paws.

The money is there...if it were spent on what it was collected to fund, we'd have some of the best roads in the world. Unfortunately, that money passes through the hands of greedy politicians and rarely ends up where it belongs.

 

I wish someone would explain that to our so called fuel manager.

 

Who said that I was sane?:biggrin_25526.gif:

 

Not a problem, my friend. And just so you know that I will be there for you when I am at my other job, when you do that, I shall just reach down, activate those silly blue lights on the top of my car, thus (hopefully, I hate low speed chases and deploying those silly strips that destroy all of those expensive tires you write about) allowing you to pull over to the furthest right lane and ask you to step down out of your truck over the nice PA system they put in between the nice blue lights after which I shall ask you for your license, the registation and proof of insurance, oh and of course you log book (hopefully not logbook(S) so that I shall have something to read between the time I finish writing your moving violation citation, including of course the "agressive driving" charge just to help you make an additional contribution to our road funds, and the time that the DOT (some states I think still call them Weights & Measures or some variation thereof) trooper can meet up with me, look at all of your nice paperwork, perhaps even pull out some of those portable scales, just to check of course. I suspect that it might take him about 30-45mins to do that but I can get done in 15 or so, therefore you should be back on the road in about an hour or so, and I don't think that the two citations that I issued + any gifted to you by DOT, since I know there would never be any questions about HOS, etc. will put you over your licensed weight limit. But then again, I could see by your 'holding left lane" violation, driving that 62mph in our 75mph speed limit are that you are in no hurry anyway. Oh, and guess what, you will probably get to wave at some of the 4-wheelers that you delayed by pulling the same stunt when I, or one of my colleagues was not there. Kindly remember that if the speed limit on the highway you are driving on is 75mph, (truck speed limit is usually 70, but that is still faster than your governed truck can go) and your truck is governed at 62mph you should never be in that left hand lane unless there is no car within about 2000 meters on level or downhill runs and 3500 meters or more on an uphill slope. Highways are only as safe as the drivers (CDL &/or 4-wheelers) that drive on them, and attitudes can interfere with safety so please don't cop one on any road where I, or my brothers in either blue, or khaki & spruce, or gray, etc. are doing our best to ensure that you don't get caught up in one of those 4+hr serious injury/fatalilty investigation sites where the highway is shut down and there is no work-a-round available to you. I know that you earn your living driving, so do I, so we must, being the true professionals, set the example, avoid either participating in aggressive driving or road range, or being the cause thereof.