On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:19:17 -0600, Karl Townsend
wrote:
On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:28:21 -0600, Ignoramus22470
wrote:
On 2012-03-02, Karl Townsend wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:03:30 -0600, Ignoramus6107
wrote:

I have been practicing and driving my semi tractor almost every day
recently. Not much time every day, but I usually manage to find at
least some time every day. At my age and after 17 years of driving
auto transmission, the skills to drive a truck with an unsynchronized
manual transmission do not come easily, but I am making progress. I
can now shift up and down, and by now, it works well most of the time.

I will soon try to pass a theoretical exam to get a CDL learner's
permit.

You're learning at a better age than myself. I started driving
truckloads of wheat to the elevator at 14. Dad told me to never go on
the highway. Of course, I ignored that. I forgot to down shift at the
top of pleasant grove hill. When the brakes wore out, I tried to down
shift and missed it. That old truck was doing 80 at the bottom of the
hill. I was lucky to see 15. But, I've never forgot to down shift
again.

I have found a golden guy, an honest mobile mechanic, I will have him
check my brakes out.

Iggy, just in case you don't alread know, NEVER go down a hill in a
gear higher than you go up it. Downshift at the top. No matter how
good the brakes are, it won't stop 80,000 lbs. I just told you how i
learned this.

And the same lesson will kill you in a car, too. I ALWAYS downshift
one notch on hills and stay off the brakes as much as possible, even
if I'm not overloaded or towing and the brakes are minty-fresh.

You have to keep the brakes cool enough to get stopped when you need
to. If you were riding them down the hill to scrub off speed there
may not be enough reserve brake power left to get stopped before they
heat-fade into nothing-ness - then you are well and truly screwed.

Young dumb kid in a 1962 International Scout 4X4 (maybe a half-ton)
with the 152-CID Four and the stock Girling drum brakes towing WAY too
much unbraked trailer over a moderate canyon grade - Malibu Canyon
from US-101 to Pacific Coast Highway.

Got way dicey getting it stopped going down the hill, and that's with
pulling over several times for the brakes to cool down after I could
feel them fading away - more than once with Both Feet mashing that one
poor little pedal Fred Flintstone style.

Couldn't get enough engine braking out of it in Second without
grenading the engine, and I had a line of honking cars behind me when
I tried it in First. And that was the flattest route to the beach.

The trip home was after dark and traffic was lighter. First gear all
the way down the backside and SCREW 'EM - Honk all you want, I'm
getting this rig back to the barn in one piece and Never Again. I'll
hug the shoulder, you go around.

If I'd have tried that same trick on Kanan Road (and this was long
before they put in the Runaway Truck gravel pit in the median) there
wouldn't be any graceful recovery - I'd have been a splat on the
Hillside at the Tee intersection with Pacific Coast Hwy...

.... For about two seconds max, then *(if by some miracle I made it
across the intersection unscathed the first time) I'd get T-Boned by
the 4-lane 55-MPH through traffic on PCH. If one didn't kill ya, the
other one certainly would.

-- Bruce --