ABF | Truck speed

[hangbelly]

I thought it was the CF lane

It was on Donner pass downhill with their brakes on fire... Lived that nightmare...I remember going by Baxter many times wanting a cup of coffee but afraid the truck would burn to the ground while I was inside. The joke was: a kid comes into Baxter and walks up to a CF driver at the counter and says " Hey mister, you driving that CF truck outside?" And he puffs up his chest and says " Yeah little buddy. You want to climb up in there and honk the horn like a big-rigger?" And the kid says " No, I just wanted to tell you your truck was on fire"....

 

[hangbelly]

I remember coming down off Cabbage hill one afternoon with a heavy set before we had engine brakes at ABF and pulled into the fuel island at Floyds truck stop where we always fueled, and I set the brakes and laid my head on the wheel to catch a couple of winks. I usually always charge the trailer brakes again to release them from the drums, but I was too tired to remember to do it this time, and I hear this tapping on the door a couple of minutes later, and I look down and the fuel jockey Cliff says " your trailer brakes are on fire." So I pull the truck around the side of the building and get the garden hose out and put the brake fire out and pull back around to the fuel island and Cliff comes back out and I say to him "What the hell is wrong with you? You afraid to fuel a truck when it is on fire?" He mumbled something about my mother and went back to fueling again.

 

[steercrazee]

I’m outta Ocala, FL. We just saw the first 086 road driver turn our terminal in a shift. 706 miles.

Is a 706 mile turn something common? Should I be worried that they’re looking to cut our UE run out of Ocala?

That would be illegal according to Estes.

 

[steercrazee]

I remember coming down off Cabbage hill one afternoon with a heavy set before we had engine brakes at ABF and pulled into the fuel island at Floyds truck stop where we always fueled, and I set the brakes and laid my head on the wheel to catch a couple of winks. I usually always charge the trailer brakes again to release them from the drums, but I was too tired to remember to do it this time, and I hear this tapping on the door a couple of minutes later, and I look down and the fuel jockey Cliff says " your trailer brakes are on fire." So I pull the truck around the side of the building and get the garden hose out and put the brake fire out and pull back around to the fuel island and Cliff comes back out and I say to him "What the hell is wrong with you? You afraid to fuel a truck when it is on fire?" He mumbled something about my mother and went back to fueling again.

I seen a truck nearly at the top of one of those runaway truck ramps off Black Mountain NC. The tires were buried neary to the top of them. Dont know how fast he was going but to make it that far up and that deep he was moving. Id say his brakes failed.

 

[hangbelly]

I seen a truck nearly at the top of one of those runaway truck ramps off Black Mountain NC. The tires were buried neary to the top of them. Dont know how fast he was going but to make it that far up and that deep he was moving. Id say his brakes failed.

There are 2 ramps on Cabbage. They are filled with loose gravel to stop you before you launch out the top of the ramp. Man, I smoked a lot of brakes on that hill over the years. And 1 runaway with a set of heavy ABF doubles right toward the bottom. I just rode it onto the flat ground and used the left lane til I got it slowed back down. Triples were a special joy without engine brakes. We begged ABF to give us engine brakes on our triples tractors and they just said we were doing fine, didn't need 'em. I wondered if I might have asbestosis of the lungs from all the trucks I followed down off that hill over the years with their brakes smoking. I had 3-4 brake fires, and a lot of cinders coming off the brakes at night at the bottom when you let off the brakes. And still the FMCSA didn't think engine brakes were required equipment on class 8 trucks. Go figure.... If it hadn't finally become standard equipment with the automatic transmissions, we STILL would not have them. We can thank all the rookie drivers they were trying to lure into the industry and to come to work for getting us those.