On 04/13/2015 02:20 PM, Pavel314 wrote:
We have some of those ramps along I-68 in western Maryland. I wonder how they get the truck back off the ramp once it's stopped.

One or more wreckers. I don't mean your little tow trucks. These are
Class 8 trucks with the winches and equipment to handle tractor
trailers. If you look, there are usually stanchions to chain the wrecker
to.

I never used one of the ramps but I got in a position on a hairpin turn
going up Petit Jean Mountain in Arkansas that I needed to be extracted
from. Basically the truck was trying to roll over but the tractor and
trailer were holding each other up. However, all 4 drivers on the uphill
side were of the ground. There is sort of a limited slip between the
axles but when you get both tires on both axles off the ground, you're
screwed.

The guy with the wrecker had obviously been there, done that before. He
got all the wheels back on the ground and told me how to negotiate the
rest of the hairpins. In a trucker's map of Arkansas, everything but the
driveway to the governor's mansion is marked as a truck route. I imagine
it has something to do with Federal bucks. The wrecker driver told me
the last time he was out it was to retrieve an oversize load. The irony
is for oversize loads the state routes you so some cracker with a sense
of humor sent the guy up that goat trail.

The great thing about roads like that is once you commit you're never
going to be able to turn around. They just get worse and worse as your
knuckles get whiter and whiter.