Was told today in class that

In Montreal Quebec about 2 years ago I was running through at about 1 am. The 40 and 25 were closed due to maintenance and all traffic was being rerouted on the surface streets. Ahead of me was a very tight right hand turn that I could have made safely if not for the Geo Metro parked in the no parking zone (way to close to the corner, clearly marked). I had to make the turn, because ahead of me was a low overpass, and the street I needed to turn onto was a one-way street. I sat through a couple of lights, trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation when a city cop knocked on my door.

I explained that if I attempted the turn, the trailer was going to hit the car. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I wasn't gone in 5 minutes he was going to have me towed and house me for the night at the local graybar hotel. So at the next green light (you can't turn right on red in Montreal) I very carefully went around the corner, and sure enough, the trailer tandems tracked up and over said Geo Metro, folding it in half in the process.

About a half block up, I stopped to check if I had ripped out any air lines or caused damage to the trailer, and saw the cop putting a ticket on what was left of the Metro. I never heard another word about it, but there were a few people on that corner taking pictures or video with their phones.

On my father's grave, this actually happened.

 

The same thing happened to my brother in-law in NYC.

 

How the heck did that Metro get to NYC after it was run over in Montreal?

Couldn't happen to a nicer car, BTW!

 

LOL

 

Correct, do not pull into a intersection that you can not travel all the way thru except for setting up a left turn, but never stop on the tracks. I've seen several trailers cut in half and a couple of tractors that were just mangled.

 

For shifting over tracks, you also don't want to miss a gear and get stuck on the tracks. It can be frustrating crawling over a set of tracks in a low gear. I try to stop a little ways back, provided I can still see a good distance down the tracks clearly, so I can shift 2-3 gears before I get to the tracks, then ease over.

 

Most trucks nowadays pull from down low, 1200 rpm or so. Shifting at 1400 will definitely get you better MPG than winding it up to 1800. In the low gears, you don't need a lot of RPM to keep going, so you can shift at low RPMs and get yourself moving a bit more quickly by getting up into the higher gears more quickly. Depending on the transmission and engine you have, you may need to rev it higher in the higher gears. A heavy load with a 9-speed on a bit of an incline, you're going to drop quite a bit on the last 3 shifts or so.

The truck I've been driving most recently has a 500 hp Cummins with an 18-speed. The splitter helps a lot, so I can rev to 1500 or 1600 and only drop 200 rpm or so each shift, and the motor pulls hard from 1300 or so, with the boost gauge showing close to 40 psi. Anything above about 1600 and it tapers off on the fuel, so it doesn't accelerate as well. Running the western states at 75 mph and grossing 60,000 lbs, I get about 6 mpg. The truck is geared tall, though. It turns 1500 rpm at 75 mph in the "big hole". The rear end is a 3.36.

 

Ask that "instructor" to put that in writeing,( Bet that will never happen)If he does show it to whoever 's in charge there and let them handle it. The guy is an idiot! I wonder what other BS he's spreading that student believe? While pushing a car out of the way make's for a good fantasy THAT"S ALL IT SHOULD BE!!! If you ever do that get a good lawer cause your gonna need one! And you'll need a new job too

 

1800RPM I don't know if my truck would even get that high! I do know it hasn't yet and don't know why it ever would, I rarely go above 1500 and have never gone above 1600. But I guess a lot depends on engine/trans/diff

 

Yeah, most engines now are set up to pull from way down low. You probably get great mpg, keeping it below 1600. Saves a ton of wear and tear doing it that way, too.