Worst down hills

Depends on the company.

One company I drove for had the Jake set to only work when the brake had a certain amount of pressure on it.

 

Don't forget Teton Pass, Rogers Pass, Stevens Pass, Monarch Pass, Sherman, and a ton of others that I forget.
I used to own an International 9670SBA that had no jakes. The grade to Baker was fun the first time I came off that in that truck. Cajon is another one that can getcha if you aren't paying attention.
You know, the only time I remember seeing a truck in the runaway ramp was on Cabbage.


It was a JB Hunt truck, too.

 

Every time I go down the Siskiyous on the 5, I run the 18 mph speed limit. Especially since I'm always around 76K or more. Either everyone else is empty, I'm a wuss (I highly doubt that one), friggin' brave, or just plain stupid; and they are all passing me like I'm sitting still. Of course when I get to Ashland, they're all pulled over before the scales smoking away.

 

Probably I35 going into Duluth. Just steep enough and enough curve to get you in trouble in winter. A few of the Duluth city streets are steep as he77, better watch yourself! But as others have said, its about paying attention and not panicing.

 

Fancy gap in W.V.
The gorge on I-40 at the Tenn - N.C. border can be fun.
And almost the entire state of Pennsylvania.

 

i was told to by pass scales in west va because i was over weight alot, so i looked on the map and went on rt 100 in west va. as i was going up the mountain a nother truck was coming down and its a one lane road if i recall .this was way back in the early 80tys .i got over as much as i figured i could and the other truck got by me but my inside tire blue out on the right drives i stoped the truck and put the brakes on and got out to see what had happened i went around to the right side of the truck and saw that the out side drive tire was hanging in the air no ground under the tire. my jaw fell, i broke out in a cold sweat and said what im i going to do i decided that i had to get off that mountain some how and id screwed up bad.i put the truck in first gear and tried to go foward had the sterring wheel turned all the way to my seft but as i road the clutch to to move but the truck cut off i had to put the truck in supper low and findly got to the top of the hillon flate land but i could only turn left but i was in front of a house with a white picked fence and it was in my way of makeing the turn .i had no choice but to run over the fence takeing it down it took me a bout 40 mins to get off that mountain and i told my self id never try takeing the back roads ever again in any mountains.

 

I admit to a limited experience... but so far nothing on an interstate is frightening... just gear down and putter along. Been on a couple 7% and the like with a full load on - one that I recall is on hwy 30 in Oregon, west of portland...

Ron - I'm almost with you on that - I don't typically gear down to 18mph there in the Siskiyous, but 25 is close.

Basically, my thought is "if I hit the brakes, I geared too high"

Course, this is all on dry pavement. Add in water (liquid or frozen), and all bets are off.

 

Come north.







Actually, some of the big ones in CA, while not especially scary, nor even that difficult, are deceiving because of their length. I suspect many a fool has been motoring along and then realizes, "Whoa s^&%!

And Lurch, you'll be surprised just how much traction you do have on snow & ice.

 

Oh this thread is making me dread Winter even more!!

 

That has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard a company do. So with their trucks you've got to be on the brakes for the engine brake to work instead of letting the engine brake slow the truck saving the brakes so if you come up on an emergency you can stop. I don't understand their reasoning behind that theory since the engine brake can save wear and tear on the brakes. Unless the company never has heavy loads and goes no where near any grades.

There's no grades that are scary if you know what you're doing. I've had some that bring the attention level higher than others but none that I was scared to go down. I would say with all the heavy overloads I've had the one place that I really crawled down was the Nevada side road going down into Laughlin before they made it a 4 lane. It was steep and had sharp curves with alot of falling rocks on the road. I've seen so many drivers at the bottom with smoke just pouring out. Lucky they got the truck stopped because there's nothing to stop you except the river. On the AZ side they had an escape ramp but I guess NV was too cheap for that.