What can you do after a jackknife?

The difference between USA Truck and CREngland s if England had goofed, they would have made a rap song about it.

 

I never knew about coffee's secret powers until I learned that coffee trick from a shipper. A company I use to work for got their new trailers from the Wabash plant in Lafayette IN, and the inside of a new trailer smells like a paint booth for a few loads, so...they send you to an aluminum can manufacturer to load empty energy drink cans. But they won't load you because of the smell. He says to go to Wally and buy a 2lb can of coffee, sprinkle it in there and come back an hour later. Violá, but now the drink cans smell like coffee instead of paint. All loads like that in the future came with the comments to stop and by coffee prior to loading.

 

Ask this Prime driver what he did. This is yesterday.
Might buff out.

 

Where's it at? I'll pick up as much as my van will hold for Free.

 

Obviously abstinence is the best policy.Jackknife almost happened to me one time,got out of it barely.Here's the story: i70 near Manhattan Kansas.9th gear "dogging it" 40 mph,keeping rpms fairly low.,here comes a crash test dummy in a car 70+ mph up behind me (bear in mind it was snowing and 4 to 5 inches of packed icy snow already on the highway) as soon as they cut over in front of me"they start spinning like a top".What to do? Can't change lanes other lane is worse!.Attempt to apply brakes "lightly".Oh No! Trailer brakes immediately lock up,now trailers almost straight out my drivers side window.Let off brake immediately and stepped into gas (this got the tractor faster than the trailer and trailer wheels turning again! Keep in mind this whole process was 5 or 6 seconds (got it straightened back out) Only problem the car is still Spinning in the road,Yikes!.Now right before,I take out the car (it spins off the road into a flat farm field).Butterflies set in for next 10 miles,finally get over it.

 

Think they have rules about that. But it was a huge mess, both inside and outside the box.
Beer everywhere. And glass.

 

I don't know this from personal experience, but from careful study of YouTube videos of drivers ####ing up (like that infamous CR England video). It seems no matter what kind of screw up, the greater than 90° turn, taking the hood off a parked truck at a truck stop, or backing into a parked car, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO after the incident:

GOALATD (Get Out And Look At The Damage)

Apparently you are also required to place both hands on top of your head as you GOALATD. My theory is this helps keep your brain from exploding out the top of your skull, but this is only a theory.

 

This is an example of a veteran in a crisis.

Not knocking rookies, okay? People in cars, the vast majority, do almost everything wrong. It's why you see so many cars out on field trips in the woods. "Uhoh, car in front of me is spinning out, hit the brakes and cut the steers." You now have no chance of recovering control of the vehicle. Crash and burn!

Your 4 wheeler mind is telling you to avoid hitting the spinning car at all cost. The veteran driver mind tells you to CONTROL YOUR VEHICLE AT ALL COST.

"Six, are you saying to hit the car?"

No, I'm not. I am saying control your rig at all cost. If by maintaining control, you hit the car, then you hit the car. Odds are in your favor that you will not. And if you do, it won't have the energy of a head on. Most likely you will just punt them off the road.
If you don't swap paint, keep going. Darwin will somehow try to blame his inability to drive on the evil truck driver. Yeah, Darwin pass you and lost it, but somehow, it's your fault.

Now, if you do swap paint, park on the right shoulder, far away from the fog line as comfortable. Get you gear on (you flip flop guys are in trouble), put your hi vis vest on, grab a flash light and your phone. Get those triangles out ASAP! If another Darwin hits you while you are parked on the shoulder, the triangles will put a stop to any possible claims he can make. Call 911 and give them your location. Be advised that the odds of someone sliding into your truck are actually pretty good. Go see about the Darwins in the car. If you just punted them off the road, the car's engine should still be able to run. Have them keep the engine running and the heat going. It may take quite some time for the cops to show.

Keep your business your business. They may try to use that "I was trying to make it home for Christmas" story ad ammunition. The dingleberry passed you, but the accident was caused by your "excessive" speed to visit grandma's house. Darwins don't mind letting you know that they're stupid. They just need you to pay for their being stupid.

EDIT: Oh, and by the way, when the cop shows up to write the report, you NEVER lost control of your vehicle. Do you understand me? You didn't cut the wheel, you didn't slide. You stayed the course. Dingleberry was the one that lost control, he was all over the road, okay?

 

This should go into a encylcopedia about a vet keeping control of the rig during a second vehicle spin out. The thought process, actions etc are valid in every way.

I have had the time and pleasure to take pictures of vehicles sliding across my lane from the left hammer after they over correct going too fast on ice and end up off the road. 10 miles from Sheridan WY lies a valley to the SE. Me and a rocky tanker doubles had a 4 wheeler come up on left at 70 plus with both of us in interlock on split ice in winter of 2000. Car lost it no one touched anyone. Darwin taught the car a lesson.

For newbies it's sometimes really hard to mentally understand that during a situation you tend to become one with the truck you are driving and assess several important areas and problems really fast and choose your decision for action during the problem. You know you are not going to hit the darwin car but you really don't know how it's going to work out for everyone as long you don't do something really stupid yourself.

I sometimes consider myself somewhat of missed my calling and should have gone to stunting 18 wheelers instead of just driving them. Ive been so lucky as to be able to think things through as the bodies are flying, yelling and peices coming off it's really calming to be to solving a problem during a problem. That saved many lives. But I tell you for tooting my horn, it could have gone badly for all concerned on a whisker really easily. My strength is being two steps ahead of my enemy opponet who is trying to get out of a problem and body language, expressions and intent etc come through pretty bright to me as a deaf person because that is one of our hallmarks of communciation via sign language. It's hard to explain. But you have to be really calm, smooth and slow. Slow is fast and so on.

Ive talked enough. I write this thinking of all those people who saw me coming usually when facing me in their spinning car wondering now what? That is when they get scared. Really scared. Some just freeze and let Newton Physics solve the issue.

 

Lot of good those load straps did lol