Two questions I always forgot to ask that no one talks about

You can tap a wall (depending on the building and situation) at a very slow speed and be fine. Even better just stop a few inches. If you put your hazards on and keep your foot on the brake pedal when you get close you will see your lights reflect off the wall and you will know when you are a few inches from the wall.

Personally I don't engage the all wheel drive unless I am at parking lot speeds. Traction is also going to depend on your load. If you are loaded fairly heavy you have much better traction. It sometimes helps to engage when dropping a trailer. Engaging all wheel drive is especially helpful when you are in uneven parking lots or there's lots of potholes.

 

Another note about locking axles. If you've dumped your air-bags and are on a dirt lot, especially an uneven one, you'll want to lock the axles up.

 

Recently a driver picked up a truck and got stuck in the snow leaving the lot. His boss had just bought the truck. He locked in the rear end. After he got unstuck he put the air brakes on and got distracted. Drove with the differential lock out on and the air brakes on for 90 miles. Didnt notice it till he got stopped by dot in sd going over the scale. Sounded unbelivable. Figured guy must have been high. His boss called wanted to return the truck necause it was a piece of crap. My boss asked the owner if this guy drove for him before. New owner said only once before.

 

Classical case of loss of "situational awareness". The guy forgot he was driving a truck perhaps...


In all seriousness, his mind was probably a muddle thinking about his last mistake when he should have been thinking about and rechecking what he was currently doing. After a close call or accident its always important to keep yourself straight thinking. Focus and double check yourself! Take a break if you need to to sort yourself out. Know your limitations. That's what that guy should have done. IMHO

 

Metal building siding, whether it is panel rib style or old fashioned corrugated is of course very fragile when it comes to trucks. About as strong as an empty tin can. If you hear a "crinkling sound", you are too close!

 

you can bump a wall or light post IF you do it softly. as for your (all wheel drive) whitch it is plain that you need to learn the proper terms for what you are trying to communicate. the switch on on your dash activates the power devider. whitch is exactly what it does. when you endgage the power devider you are engaging the rear drive axle. no you are not in (all wheel drive) because ALL the w2heels do not have power to them. In normal use the front right side tires are your power wheels. when you throw the power divider you put power to the back left tires.

If like me you have locking rearends then you can throw a switch (like the power divider) but this switch engages gears in the rearend that has the lockers then you have bothsides with power. You can run the power divider forever. You will wear out two sets of tires instead of one. if you have lockers in the front and rear and you lock them both at the same time it makes for a new meaning of (need 40 acres to turn this rig around)

 

When you lock the power divider, it simply locks the front and rear drives together as a unit with no differential in power input or wheel speed between the two. It has no way to direct power to certain wheel positions.

 

"Metal building siding, whether it is panel rib style or old fashioned corrugated is of course very fragile when it comes to trucks. About as strong as an empty tin can. If you hear a "crinkling sound", you are too close!"


I agree but the question at hand asked about a "concrete" wall. There is a lot of fragile stuff out there I would advise you not to back into!

 

Yep! Watch this video, and notice that when both axles are turning at the same speed, they are effectively locked together, and therefore receive equal torque.

[video=youtube_share;vBm-SzO3ggE]http://youtu.be/vBm-SzO3ggE[/video]

 

Just throw it in rewind and hammer on it till it sounds expensive..... That's freight hauler S.O.P. isn't it??