Me Again wrote:
At my age(will complete my 8th decade on the planet next June) I am slowly deciding that being the first to the top of the hill is not that important anymore.
As a kid learning to drive trucks one of the very first thing the ‘old guys’ taught me was “Don’t chase the governor! It’s hard on the truck & the driver.”. Those words have served me very well over the decades since.
Ontario is pretty flat in this area, just some slow rolling hills and pretty gentle grades, but this is such a massive place that if you venture further out you certainly get into some serious grades.
Generally the only ‘mountains’ that I have to run through, although I can mostly go around them, are the Appalachians on the frequent north / south runs.
In my own rig I’ve found the ‘sweet spot’ is about 68 mph (110 km/h) and if I can hit the bottom of the hill at that speed or a smidge more it makes a huge difference in how much speed bleeds of in climbing the grade. I figure everyone else is in the same boat and we’ll all get the lost speed back on the downhill run after cresting.
