Drivers that make us look bad
 

Here's one for you. Not sure what day this week, Monday or Tuesday I see a Honda Insight drafting a semi on the highway like he's on a Nascar race track. One carlength or less. There's no way that driver could see the car behind him. They were doing about 105km/hr ~65mph. They passed me as I was pulsing and gliding to work at about 90km/hr avg.:turtle:

This was on Highway 75 going south 30 miles from the US border into North Dakota. Dude had Minnesota plates. Not cool.

At least in that case he is just asking for a hurting if a tire explodes.

If hes in the middle lane doing 40 mph, that hurts everyone behind him. :eek:

Doesn't matter what he drives still an asshole.

Why exactly does a truck driver need to see the car behind him? I have always wonders that. "If you can't see my mirrors I can't see you." What is he going to stop and start backing up on the interstate? I've been far enough back so they can easily see me and they still drive side by side in the passing lane for 5 miles, seems like most could care less what's behind them.
Also with close following wouldn't the impact in a sudden stop actually be less forceful the closer you are? If you actually got up and rested your bumper on his there would be no impact at all, the brakes of the semi would just start slowing you down at the same rate, so if you were really close the truck actually wouldn't have slowed down very much in a panic stop resulting in just a bump at a few mph. If you are sitting back the recommend distance the car in front can almost make a full stop and if you aren't paying attention you hit them at full highway speed.
Just food for thought, I hope someday electronics allow all cars and trucks the ability to move along in high speed trains bumper to bumper.

If the truck has to hit the brakes hard and a car crashes into him not only would he probably not notice and just drive away he would lose his job and not to be able to get another. His life ruined and his career gone.

trucks are dangerous
 

Hersbird, haha funny post and good points.

I do my best to avoid trucks when driving and consider them dangerous. I did try p&g'ing a legal distance behind them but found no benefit. One time a few years ago I was coming up in the left lane to pass a truck in the right lane, still a ways behind it, when all of a sudden it had a blowout and started swerving across both of the lanes, yikes! I hit the brakes and stayed a safe distance behind it as it slowed, but was not able to avoid running over the remnants of the tire. Fortunately there was no damage, and I continued onward as he pulled off to the side.

I always keep the farthest distance away from big trucks, and remain on high alert when passing them.

When he eats a gator through the windshield, he might wise up, if he survives.

regards
mech

Them road gators are vicious!

Your wish has been in the works for some time.
 

The exercise is called "platooning". I have seen some of the experiments zipping along the diamond lanes here in San Diego.

Green Car Congress: Platooning Reduces Drag and Cuts Fuel Consumption and Emissions

http://www.overdriveonline.com/truck...-detroit-show/

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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!

I never known a semi to stop on a dime. One reason I like to follow them. Now if its a dump truck loosing part of its load I love to shadow far enough back I dont hit the stuff hitting the car and watch all the aholes behind me dart in front of me just to pass the guy. :thumbup:

Hey, if it is a gravel truck, the safest spot might be right behind them!

Or in front of them... :)

Semi stopping distance has been discussed on here before. I think that someone said they braked surprisingly well, but that was never my experience with buses or Army trucks.

It's not about how far the truck takes to come to a complete stop, obviously a car can do that sooner. But with no warning of what's happening ahead, when the first clue you have that soething is wrong is when the truck is already braking, can you get your superior braking done before you run out of buffer space? Less wind resistance isn't enough of a payoff, and you can still get a good benefit from a safer distance.

Xist- Ask some of the guys who remember 5 tons from back before the brake fix. Hitting the brakes at over 40 mph used to get pretty dramatic results. :eek:

I take it you never driven in Northern VA? Its like being in a NASCAR race, 2 ft from vehicles on all corners. One slip up and 14 cars end up in an accident. I do it twice a day as speeds vary from 35-80 mph within minutes too.

You arent on the throttle and you let 12-15 ft open up between your bumper and the guy in front of you and several vehicles will slip through to the other lane and one will become lodged between you and the vehicle that use to be in front of you. :eek:

On the rare occasion I draft a truck, I try to stay at the trailing edge of the eddy the truck creates. Basically the same MPG gain and gives extra reaction time.

Still doesn't explain why, if they hate being 'tailgated', they're so willing to tailgate others.

Also, it's kind of hard to think of closely following a semi as tailgating, when there's 40-60 ft of trailer between the cab and the following vehicle :-) Then the worst part of being tailgated, IMHO, is the glare from the idiots with high-mounted bright headlights, which is not a problem that a semi would experience.

(X'ers) don't like being cut off... doesn't stop some (X'ers) from cutting other people off.

Substitute X for bikers, private drivers, taxi drivers, etcetera... still the same. Still the same argument.

Running into the back of the trailer is no less dangerous than running into the back of the tractor. Actually... I'd rather run into the back of the tractor.

This guy wins on all counts:

Http://youtu.be/lnYp4srEooI

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that 18-wheelers have more ground clearance than the average car. They can easily straddle things that can destroy the average car. (dead deer, road gator, dead elk, torque convertor, folding barricade, whatever...) And they would probably tell all their friends about it on the CB radio and at all the truck stops they visit. :p

Perhaps for the person driving the vehicle that runs into the rear end, but honestly, how likely is it that the truck driver would even notice something on the order of a Civic or Metro hitting the rear of a trailer?

One reason why many people keep so close to whatever is up front is that they get fed up with other road users darting in between, as that's what happens all the time on the busy 4 lane highway on my commute.
You have to slam the brakes from time to time, whether you keep a good distance or not.
You cannot always anticipate on whatever is coming two lanes across.

The exception is when following semis at a respectable distance in the slow lane.
Usually nobody gets in between except at on and off ramps, and that too seldom causes problems.
If there is no side wind the draft effect even works at those distances.

There is no such thing as absolute safety on a busy multilane highway, no matter which strategy you take. Keeping a safe distance and being alert helps, but even then bad luck may find you.

If the trucker doesn't notice being hit and drives away while the other vehicle is incapacitated, then he's breaking the law. And as stated before... any incidents will go on a driver's record, whether he's the guilty party or not. And if you've got damage back there from a hit you didn't even notice, guess whose paycheck it's coming out of?

Cobb- I had to spend some time in NOVA back in 92. Bumper to bumper at 90 miles an hour, everyone standing on the brakes to get down to 25 for a minute and then back up to 90.

That was a survival run, not hypermiling, and you couldn't pay me enough to go anywhere near a truck on that road.

Wow, it's awesome to come back and see all the trouble I started. Good conversation guys.

I usually don't end up drafting (at a distance when I do) as most trucks are going too fast for it to really end up helping me out unless the wind is perfect, and that almost never happens anyway. Every once in a while I get a slow truck and I get a nice boost from 4-6 seconds back where I can react to whatever silly thing eventually happens. I'm blessed to drive in really light traffic compared to places in the States I've been. Chicago stressed me out.

Liked the vid with the bicyclist going 90km/hr drafting a truck. Can't see him having a long career doing that. Imagine even a dead racoon or 2X4 on the road smoking his front tire...

Sage statement: "If YOU can not see the trucker's MIRRORS, HE(she) can not see YOU."

Here is a good example of what I have to deal with. Im on the left as I need to make a left. If I dont get over early I cant get over. :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fshgWX2yVo#t=68

I get all kinds of this crap driving my truck. Four wheel unassisted drum brakes and these idiots are cutting me off and braking. It doesn't stop at semis- don't do this to anyone. Old cars don't have the stopping power new ones have and not all classic car owners swap to discs. I always try to be nice to trucks, and if I'm behind them I make sure they can see me often. I've drafted before but it's just not worth it.

No matter what you're doing, if you're driving, cycling or walking on or near public roads, expect that everyone else is out to kill you. Be alert and be courteous.

And so? If we're driving down the highway (so the truck won't be backing up) why on earth does he NEED to see me?

If he needs to brake suddenly to avoid hitting the car in front, then he needs to do that regardless of what's behind him.

If the truck is going to pull over in front of me with 1.5 stripes separation and I maintain 3 stripes separation, whether he likes it or not means nothing to me. I would much rather have the JERK 1.5 to 3 stripes, OR MORE, in FRONT of me than 1 or 2 car lengths BEHIND ME, with his 30 tons climbing up my 2285 lb cars arse which he could run slam over and barely slow down.

regards
mech

Whatever your opinion of tailgating safety, there are always those who take it too far.

Going to work yesterday, I saw a bloke on a postie bike (Honda CT110) tailgating a truck.
He was so close, from a distance I thought it was something mounted on the back of the truck.
As I went past them (downhill EOC ;)), I saw there was 10 feet at most between truck and bike.:eek:

For those who've never ridden a postie bike, at 80kph (nearly top speed), those tiny brakes wouldn't have a hope of stopping you in time to avoide hitting the truck, even if the rider's reaction time was perfect.

On a good note, there wasn't any mention of a rider being squashed on the news, so I guess he was lucky this time. :)