Braking Conundrum

40 hours? 5 days of driving and class room? Scary!

Mile High:I know what you mean but driving in the left lane is an invitation to an accident. If you are on an Interstate with a 75 mph limit and drive under 70 the other drivers get frustrated. If you move over a lane change may result in an accident. If you stay in the outside lane the 4 wheelers get excited and frustrated. That leads to more accidents. Slower vehicles should always stay to the right. Tropical: There are a lot of bad semi drivers. But 80 % being bad is a an exaggeration. I would say that 75% are good and 25% horrible! As the older guys retire it does get worse. You can get a CDL with less than 40 hours training. What a joke!

Moisheh

The problem with the "Safe Zone" is every High School blondie in her Daddy bought Ford Focus believes that is her open invitation to take that space without notice such as a turn signal, and to leave it the same way, all the time texting how her date was last night :)

I can move back to leave room again, but it gets filled pretty fast. One of the reasons I don't bother with the right lane in the city Interstates.

moisheh wrote:
The area in front of you is your "Safe Zone. I always watch the traffic and the brake light on vehicles in front. I have a CDL and drive long haul in the summer. If you think a Class A MH has a greater stopping distance than a car a Class 8 truck and trailer @ 80,000 lbs. is even worse. The guys in a 40+ ft. MH that are constantly changing lanes and passing everything in site are the ones who should have to take a driver's test. Sometimes on a nice freeway I will jump up to 70 MPH. Usually I stay @ 65. Some units pass me and must be doing 80 MPH. Very Bad.

Moisheh

I believe ya for sure and always trying to figure out why they tailgate each other when the front runner won't get out of the way fast enough.
I gotta say in all our travels I only see about 20% of truckers, that are true professionals, so I hope you're one of those as well. The rest fall somewhere in between.
Now when is the DOT going to require a phone number on the back of every truck to a central reporting agency? Not that every call would create some sort of disciplinary action, but when you keep getting calls on the same truck, then it's time to do something.
I say this, because some of the best drivers I've seen, have nice trailers, say how's my driving on the back and include an 800 number as well. Most of the bare beat up dirty looking ones seem to be the most dangerous and downright discourteous as well.

The area in front of you is your "Safe Zone. I always watch the traffic and the brake light on vehicles in front. I have a CDL and drive long haul in the summer. If you think a Class A MH has a greater stopping distance than a car a Class 8 truck and trailer @ 80,000 lbs. is even worse. The guys in a 40+ ft. MH that are constantly changing lanes and passing everything in site are the ones who should have to take a driver's test. Sometimes on a nice freeway I will jump up to 70 MPH. Usually I stay @ 65. Some units pass me and must be doing 80 MPH. Very Bad.

Moisheh

Ya, stopping distance is easily overlooked. That's how I know my anti-locks work unfortunately.

Tom/Barb wrote:
If there is anything about driving a motorhome that requires a bit of learning it is the stopping distances of the coach ,, how to mash the pedal, not so much.

And why I stay far far away from anyone in front of me. Pretty easy to do, when you're the slowest on the road. Now, those who feel that they should drive their coaches, the same as they would a sports car, I'm not so sure it's all that easy, so they might want to study the charts on behemoths for stopping distances.
Evidently people in little cars aren't even able to figure it out by witnessing all the highway accidents, one always sees, while traveling anywhere these days.

slickest1 wrote:
That's kind of Funny! Over the years I have helped a few people along the side of the road including a couple of people with air brake problems.
None of them called me a Dimwit.

Safe travels to you!

I knew I should have worded that better.

That's kind of Funny! Over the years I have helped a few people along the side of the road including a couple of people with air brake problems.
None of them called me a Dimwit.

Safe travels to you!

If there is anything about driving a motorhome that requires a bit of learning it is the stopping distances of the coach ,, how to mash the pedal, not so much.