Drivers that make us look bad

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

Them road gators are vicious!

Yea they are, my dad hit one doing ~75 and it tore his passenger side wheel well to shreds.

[Xist]

People usually talk about the ability to see hazards before the semi reacts to them, not the excitement of constantly being alert, and instantly reacting to hazards.

I do not know anything about the migration patterns of unladen gators, but if semi tires are forty inches tall, then a gator could be ten feet long. If you figure that, on average, they lay at a forty-five-degree angle, they would occupy up to seven feet of the lane, or you could have a jagged obstacle course.

[niky]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Why so? Quite apart from the fact that, as was pointed out above, any crash is going to be less severe if you are very close, maybe nothing but a little paint scraped off, in a rear-end collision, isn't the following driver always legally at fault?

Further, I've never understood why truck drivers are bothered by cars close behind them, but have no problem at all following a length or two behind a car.

As for pieces of tire and such, they fly off to the side much more often than directly behind.

The least severe you can make an accident is if the following driver can see what the truck driver sees and hits his brakes at the same time (or earlier) or swerves out of the way.

If you're sitting up the guy's tail-pipe... say goodbye to your ability to dodge animals, road debris and disintegrating tires.

And you have less time to react to the truck changing speed... which means you will, in either case, be carrying more speed relative to the truck during the collision, as you have less space to scrub it off.

-

It doesn't matter who's liable... nobody wants to be involved in a potentially fatal accident. Not to mention the legal hassle. Liability doesn't stop people from suing truckers for braking in a crash. Even though the judge will likely find in favor of the defendant, court appearances cost money and time. And time is money.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Why so? Quite apart from the fact that, as was pointed out above, any crash is going to be less severe if you are very close, maybe nothing but a little paint scraped off, in a rear-end collision, isn't the following driver always legally at fault?

Further, I've never understood why truck drivers are bothered by cars close behind them, but have no problem at all following a length or two behind a car.

As for pieces of tire and such, they fly off to the side much more often than directly behind.

My dad has been a class A truck driver for almost 30 years. He HATES people following close behind him. On several occasions when I was with him and a car is following too close behind his truck (that has a trailer) he will give them a few warning brake light flashes (tapping the brakes enough to trigger brake lights, but not enough to change speed) and if they continue their transgressions, he pulls the trolley valve. 9/10 Times they get the hint and back off. He told me that an accident, his fault or not, shows up on his record and follows him for the rest of his life. And that's the first thing that class A companies look for. They check for accidents before they check for tickets.

TL;DR If you get brake checked by a truck driver because you are too close, don't get mad at him, he is trying to keep you from ruining HIS/HER life.

[cowmeat]

So the other morning in the Turtle, I found myself on I-4 in the slow lane headed east toward Orlando, trapped behind a semi with another semi on my left, and a jerk in his F250 20 feet off my rear bumper

Normally I'll steer clear of semis, due to the funky cross winds they give off, and the fact that you can't see anything in the road until you hit it, but I was penned it tight, and since neither of the trucks was bouncing, I knew they were both loaded down, and I wouldn't eat a rear end if one of them locked em up. There's a full breakdown lane on I-4, so I had an escape route lined up

I stayed a (fairly) reasonable distance behind, but I was right in their bubble, so for about seven miles until I cut off onto the Polk parkway, my mpg meter never budged from the max 150 mpg, it was like my car was invisible!

When life throws you lemons, make yourself some lemonade!

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

So the other morning in the Turtle, I found myself on I-4 in the slow lane headed east toward Orlando, trapped behind a semi with another semi on my left, and a jerk in his F250 20 feet off my rear bumper

Normally I'll steer clear of semis, due to the funky cross winds they give off, and the fact that you can't see anything in the road until you hit it, but I was penned it tight, and since neither of the trucks was bouncing, I knew they were both loaded down, and I wouldn't eat a rear end if one of them locked em up. There's a full breakdown lane on I-4, so I had an escape route lined up

I stayed a (fairly) reasonable distance behind, but I was right in their bubble, so for about seven miles until I cut off onto the Polk parkway, my mpg meter never budged from the max 150 mpg, it was like my car was invisible!

When life throws you lemons, make yourself some lemonade!

This is kinda a note to everyone, if your gonna draft a semi, pop out once ever 5 mins or so, so the trucker knows your there. Don't switch lanes or anything, just enough so the trucker can see you, and know your there. I remember my dad mentioning that that plus keeping a decent distance and he doesn't mind anyone behind him.

[cowmeat]

trapped behind a semi with another semi on my left, and a dumb cracker in his F250 20 feet off my rear bumper

Lol, that's not always an option, Balto. Note my "trapped" phrase

In retrospect, I guess I could have drove under the semi on my left and waved to let them know I was there.

They were absolutely aware I was there, and they intentionally corralled me in, thinking they were intimidating me. Joke was on them, that's the best mpgs I have averaged since I have owned the car!

[Fat Charlie]

Truckers are just like everybody else: they don't like being tailgated. Sounds reasonable to me. Having a buffer gives you reasonable freedom of movement to react to things without expecting to get hit every time you back off the gas, much less hit the brakes. Truckers like that just like we do.

The funny thing about trucks and drafting is that you don't need to be that close to the big trucks to get a benefit. You can get more benefit by being dangerously close but then you give up the benefits of having reasonable spacing and have long since given up the benefits of having a buffer.

Where I am the roads are pretty crowded, so simply being the car that happens to be behind the truck gives you a drafting effect. It's not like the road is empty except for you and the truck and you insist on being right behind it.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Lol, that's not always an option, Balto. Note my "trapped" phrase

In retrospect, I guess I could have drove under the semi on my left and waved to let them know I was there.

They were absolutely aware I was there, and they intentionally corralled me in, thinking they were intimidating me. Joke was on them, that's the best mpgs I have averaged since I have owned the car!

I'm not even sure why I quoted you tbh. I'm tired I work graveyard ;.;

[cowmeat]

Haaaa!

I knew you were working graveyard, cause it was like 6:30am morning here, making it like 2:30am there. You must have been posting on your laptop from the Insight. Get some sleep!