Replies

I just drove on a college visit to Ohio and could barely tolerate the huge aggressive trucks all over the place. BEE ESS I say

I-80 or I-90? I-70 is crowded with trucks in that part of the country too, so I can sympathize with your misery a little. But only a little.

Midwest production of lots of things, circulating in-and-out of the Mid-West, and just passing through...being that the majority of the population lives East of the Mississippi helps make that part of the nation busy. Being mid-point, they can have traffic during daytime rush hours too, whereas receivers (who themselves are distributors) in big cities often schedule midnight-to-5AM deliveries for inbound product if they can...leaving tucker's crossing the Midwest needing to drive-drive-drive just to get there in time. I don't know how many times coming from CA I ran out of hours in Indiana while headed for Boston. Laws indicated I was supposed to stop for a full 8 hrs (at least). I could only afford 4 (or miss the 3AM Boston delivery window, a day and a half away. Luckily I got away with it. One little mistake (not even my own) and it would have been seriously bad news for me. All of that risk I was forced to shoulder so other people could make the big(ger) money while I was being paid circa 1971 trucker's (low, "company driver") wages in 2011.

I-80 is a major East-West route. There are reasons for that, like I-70 kind-of hits a wall (that one can go over, albeit slowly) but then dead ends in Utah. One can go from there to LV, or go back North to SLC, but one can't hardly drive much of a truck through Yosemite -- so it's either Donner Pass I-80, or I-40, for the most part.

And yes, I know about Tehachapi. Lovely scales there (they are so smiley & polite!) but not quite as perpetually cheerful & happy-face as a few other CA scales I can think of. Like the one at Banning on I-10. That one is famous, but the guys at Dunsmuir can be 1st class, 360 degree, uh,'smileys', and there is a reason the inspection bays at Castaic (I-5) are all worn-out looking...

Barely tolerate the "huge and aggressive" trucks, huh?

So much for lettuce and broccoli from Salinas, melons grapes & carrots from the San Joaquin.

Boston, Philly and New York (including upstate NY) will just have to do without.

We wouldn't those trucks to get in the way of your Honda car..and hold you up for a minute and a half. No sirree bob. We must focus on what's most important. Right?

These "aggressive" trucks you speak of...did you know they are trying to pass each other? They may swing out into the left lane when they see you coming...because if they don't, they know they'll be stuck behind that slow-a$$ Schneider (you'll know it's a Schneider when it's orange colored, and slow) for the next 12 miles, if he doesn't take the only chance he's going to get (for the nest 12 miles).

There are trucks on the road the companies that own them govern down (engine controls) to as low as 58 mph (maybe less?) though 62 mph is more common.

Trucks can be more heavily or lightly loaded at any given time, and have greater or lesser amounts of horsepower.

Gearboxes can make the difference too. A 13-speed can split a gear, making a downshift (on a grade) be about 200rpm difference, instead of 400 rpm difference between gears on a 10-speed. Pulling heavy loads, that small difference allows the 13-speed to downshift sooner and stay closer to the best parts of the power band.

It can make all the difference between a truck being stuck behind another for mile after mile after mile. This can make the difference between the one truck being able to maintain 65mph for the most part, instead of being slowed to 50 mph or less for long periods.

How about --stay out of the way? Like --- OPEN your EYES and SEE what is going on.

Is one truck gaining on another? Is there a grade ahead?

Pass or don't pass. GET IT OVER WITH. Mash yur' little foot down on the accelerator. That truck driver may have his own pressed firmly to the floor...and you could be fouling up his only chance to pass the slow truck ahead of him -- that he will have for the next quarter hour.

Don't linger near the back of the trailer or in the blind spot on the right-hand side, or the one near the driver's door, on the left either.