Wrong gear

I hit a 15% grade (no sign, according to gps) that felt like 45% with a sharp right curve after picking up a machine at a closed down business in Irwin PA. I was going up it in 4th gear and it’s the most scared I’ve ever been, and I’ve been driving over a decade.

 

my goodness we all had a bit of scare eh? And a wee hill too.

Always take your time when in strange places. I had a official runaway bobtail once when I was on a 21% at 60 with maybe 200 yards notice steep curve. HA... i say. come over the top see nothing but sky and that old bobtail took off.

It's about three miles, threw the jake in, stood on the brakes and just waited after grabbing a couple of gears down. Fortunately it was a straight runout. Then I had to think Im going to be loaded coming back over this monster. Not something I was looking forward to.

The worst plant situation would be two quarries that was being worked on since we were America it seems and between was a narrow road uncut up top. 1000 feet down both sides, 10 feet wide and two things first you sign waiver in case you die and you follow a painted line with your steer all the way across. Bye. Im still here so it's not my day just yet.

Any time you see a bad situation you down shift as far down and as much brake you need to do it probably all the way down to the top of your low range throw in the jake and see if she will be stable the rest of the way down. But you have to do it fast. If at 15 or less you should be ok. So getting down there with a huge brake application would be your first goal and then get into a gear and have that jake going. Otherwise just hang on and don't spill it.

Remember it well, you might be dispatched back there. And it will be much more organized for you then.

We had a particular 5 mile hill where it's pretty good run out at bottom followed by a 80 mph for us curve. Trainer taught me how to let gravity take it so you are falling down this one at somewhere in the 140's But at the bottom you needed to be at or under 80 before the curve. Things get interesting half way down when gravity quits pulling. And you can add power with that particular truck and see the airbags dump the loads on them. The braking from that to 80 takes a huge amount of air. There was no jake in that truck.

 

You know your in the wrong gear if you can't hold the truck and trailer back with 10PSI or less. So iyou see the RPM climbing and you need more brake pressure. You need to slow down and drop a gear before the brakes get hot.

They way to down shift is push the brake hard and slow to drop the engine RPMs to 900 then downshift. If you do that two time in say 1 mile you might want to drop another gear to let the brakes cool.

The secret is 10PSI of applied brake pressure if your truck has that gauge. Because that's how much heat the drums can disipate without over heating. You want low engine RPMs going downhill.

 

I was always told, you can go down too slow as many times as you want, but you can go down too fast only once.

 

Steepest longest grade I've been on that I was unfamiliar with, but it was signed well.
11% for 7 kms (4.5 miles) weighing 134,000 lbs.
I put it in 3rd gear full Jake's engine fan on for a little extra help. The truck held it perfectly at 11 kph (7 mph) . So it took 35 mins to go down.

 

I remember having to shift down at idle and no more than torque, it's against everything that they taught a time or two. Paying a eye on the air application gauge. 10 15 psi spending that air pressure in both the primary and secondary. Trying to find that number in which the compressor would stay ahead and maintain the pressure all day. Then the temperatures of those brakes. Your nose knows. Then the eyes. (Smell burning, then blue haze of early heating of brakes reaching their thermal limits) Those pads will absolutely burn the truck down if you let em. And there is what? 10 pairs on a truck?

I don't know a #### thing about those pads. Maybe ceramic. But they sure made them good. But not that good.

 

You can go down it to slow plenty of times, to fast only once. I have gone down grade in Northern Cal near the gyser's that if you tried to downshift you would probably not get it back into gear. 18% grades I believe. And you would never get it stopped because you would start sliding. When in doubt pull over and survey the hill before you start down in. If you think you need 5th go down in 3rd.

 

10 steepest roads in the US,

1. Waipio Rd. in Honokaa, HI — 45% gradient
2. Canton Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA — 37% gradient
3. Eldred St. in Los Angeles, CA — 33.3% gradient
4. 28th St. in Los Angeles, CA — 33% gradient
5. Baxter St. in Los Angeles, CA — 32% gradient
6. Fargo St. in Los Angeles, CA — 32% gradient
7. Maria Ave. in Spring Valley, CA — 32% gradient
8. Dornbush St. in Pittsburgh, PA — 31.98% gradient
9. 22nd St. in San Francisco, CA — 31.5% gradient
10. Filbert St. in San Francisco, CA — 31.5% gradient

 

Pittsburgh might have been a few hills. Never thought of it as percentage. More like can you get to the bottom before something got bad. Spotted Wolf on I-8 is bad enough but when you can see bottom after the second ramp with a mile to go you can let er run out.