What would you do?

You are using regulations that don't apply. THAT is wrong. Morally and fundamentally.

 

What escapes you mind is that that's what the OP was trying to do. The OP stated they were miles away from the nearest town, and likely miles away from the nearest rest haven.

 

Super Trucker Dogbreath,the fact is in the real world un-foreseen events occur. You may think you are knowledgeable, and have rules and regulations for every mishap, but things go wrong.Murphy's law. Your desk job is to find fault with the driver no matter what occurs, and you seem to be very able to do it. A drivers job is to safely & efficiently, and in a timely manner, move freight from point A to point B.That is not as easy task. Instead of looking down on a driver you consider inferior , educate them, listen to them,as you come across as not being driver friendly.

 

I didn't follow all the back and forth for the last 2 pages, but bottom line:

The trailer had a known issue that should have been thoroughly checked. I avoid running over branches, debree etc. If I do run over it, I pull over at the next safe place to reinspect my trailer and truck. As for hub seals, they rarely just break. Normally there is sign of failure before hand.

Now none of us saw that trailer before he took off, so none of use really know. It could have been perfectly fine and started leaking in route. i'd say that's un likely, but 150 miles is a long way to go. (150 between load check, he said only 90 though) Also most of us don't do a full pretrip at every load check. That being said, many driver (not me) dont even do load check and visually inspect their trailer.

So yea, I'm guessing this is driver error, but it could be just bad equipment and a really un lucky day. It may be an error that many of us would have made. In my opinion his first error was driving tired enough that he thought he was just seeing things when his first sparks started. Never drive that tired and always trust your instincts. I would have pulled over to check on things then. If he caught it before the second sparks he may have prevented the fire. Also a drop in psi from 120-90 is a major problem even if it does stay steady at 90 psi.

 

your first mistake was going from flying to truck driving, other than that I think you did exactly what you should have. Props! pun , pun, pun !

 

Wow... very good and informative thread....

I am very glad you and your son are safe and unharmed... and so no matter how the debate ends.. I think you did very well at keeping you and your son uninjured.

 

I know you guys and girls want to do the heroic thing but dying for your truck isn't smart. Stop your truck and use the fire extinguisher. Once that is exhausted run. Dial 911 and let the pro's take it from there.

But if you are really wanting to be a hero, let me tell you what a old navy veteran friend of mine would do. He always kept a can of Spinach nearby and would down the either can in one gulp. Made him strong to the finish. Had the ugliest girl friend, I think she was the first meth chick.