Real experiences

[GinXeng]

I'm about 250 miles away from there, I didn't feel anything

[number9ark]

The truck infront of me hit a low bridge with a ride he was hauling to a fair ground , he didnt even relize he had hit the bridge and just kept going until I and a few other truck drivers informed him via the cb radio about what he had done .

[KENWORTH]

i dont drive fast when it rain hard but i am good when it comes to driving trucks i drive a kw w900l 18spd 550hp

I don't find anything too funny really, most of my experiences have been pretty damn scary. Well, lots of fun times, but nothing funny in terms of events.

[64Pacific]

I've got a couple similar ones for you:

Fellow trucker told me he was running up 7 mile hill in Northern British Columbia Canada, the hill is 7 miles of 8% grade, fairly straight. He was driving an International Transtar COE with an 18 speed road ranger. The co-driver and owner of this brand new truck was sleeping in the sleeper at the time. He started up the hill, and with the short throw on the stick he ended up missing a gear, and was unable to recover. The only option he had was to stop the truck (he was loaded), and start over. Tried it again and stalled the truck; the co-driver broke out laughing, adding to his frustration. again he tried it, made it to second gear, and when he went for 3rd, missed the gear and again had to stop, on the fourth go he just said forget it, and let the truck crawl up the hill in first gear, 45 minutes later they crested the hill with the co-driver laughing the whole way.

I have done the same thing only running empty and on a much smaller hill, missed a shift up to 5th and over (truck has an 8 and a 4 in it), ended up having to stop. I tried it again, but this time I got the rearends bouncing a little, so I had to let up on it and get on the clutch before I destroyed the rearends. By this time, about 10 cars had stopped behind me; this is probably the most traffic this road has ever seen. On the third go around I got it to move, but I couldn't get our of second gear if my life depended on it! Let me tell you, there were a lot of very annoyed drivers behind me!

[JOleg]

What 64Pacific and his fellow trucker have experienced with those hills is so true. My dad has finally returned from Spain, after being on a trip for more than a month.

So, I have a story to tell, this time a funny one

Germany. Autobahn. The forest behind a fence all the way along the highway. You can barely find a place to stop the truck. Okay, my dad and his co-driver find one and stop. Then, as is casual in those districts, police appears from nowhere. So, having looked a side for a couple of seconds and then return his sight to the initial state, he saw police car already checking out some other vehicle. Okay, it was fine. My dad and his co-driver stepped out of the truck and were about to leave that place for while. The police noticed them and beckoned them. You really must not lie when they ask you questions there. For example, police asked whether they had any cigarettes. The reply was positive since the co-driver does smoke. But the trouble was, no more than 2 blocks of cigarettes could be on hands. So, they confescated the rest and took some 20 EUR as a fine. Then they did their job, asking documents and so on.

After my dad finished with them, he went looking for a toilet, handing the co-drivers documents (including Pase) into his own hands so that he showed them to the police while dad was away. After dad has returned, he asked whether all was okay, the co-driver replied positively. And so they continued their trip. My dad took the wheel.

While driving the highway, dad noticed police to his left as if peeping who was driving the truck and as if looking for someone. The sight of their eyes was connected for about 1 or so seconds. Then police headed faster straight forward. Dad thinking what that might mean has suddenly asked the co-driver:

Dad: "Where is your Pase!?!"
Co-driver: "You were supposed to have it"
Dad: "What tha?!? I handed that to you when I was leaving to search for a toilet!"
Co-driver: "o_O";
Dad: "S*** !!!";

That was some 3 or so KMs away from the police location. They could do nothing but stop. So they stopped and my dad told the co-driver to go back by feet and that dad would find a parking place somewhere ahead, and so that once he took his pase back, he went back looking for the truck. As has already been mentioned, there's not a lot of options to stop on a highway. So having driven ahead for 33 KMs he found some decent going right and a small parking place. Another problem arose - the co-driver would never find him there. Besides, it was late and dark. One thing which could help them was a small radio working within a 3-5 KM distance which the co-driver took with him.

My dad was forced to unhook the trailer leaving it unattended, and drive back to pick the negligent co-driver up. As been discovered later, the co-driver found the police and took his pase, and then police was driving with him looking for the truck with my dad! Obviously, after an unsuccessful attempt, they returned the co-driver to the same location where they picked him up but on the other side of the road. The co-driver did not even realize he was returned to the same location!

So then, my dad, driving slowly and using his radio to track down the co-driver finally heard his voice and so they found each other. And they went back to hook the trailer up again.

Needless to say, all of this took 3 hours to acomplish and litres of fuel were spent in vain.



My dad's personal truck for those of you curious:



It's a brand new (0 miles ... well, recently was) DAF XF105 (EURO 5)

Cheers,
Oleg

[Flagman_20]

Well, defenentley a nice truck.
Funny story, but, i bet the co-driver wasn't pleased to walk all the way back

[JOleg]

well he didn't, he was even taken for a ride in a police car Afterwards he was returned to his starting place and the co-driver waited for my dad there, of course he didn't go back 33 KMs

[doordie]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WPY4IQaK6dc

funny