I've got another truck story.

I inspected a project to replace one of those big overhead signs, on I-75 in Northern Kentucky. It seems a bathtub dump truck going north on I-75 raised its dump body and took out a huge overhead sign. How would you like to have been drafting that truck?

I avoid following trucks on my motorcycle, because the turbulence behind those trucks is just awful.

Harry

 

That would not be a good truck to draft!

 

I don't think i would be drafting that truck.

1. They don't cover their loads all that well, so the do drop rocks a bunch.

2. They are mostly driven by independants on a per load basis, so they are interested in making as many trips as possible (read: fast wreckless drivers).

3.Those rigs are usually not maintained very well.

4. Those rigs don't have enough of a profile to really create enough cover.

On top of that, the beds don't raise that fats, and I would be able to see the bed start raising well before they could hit anything overhead.

BTW, I deal with gravel trucks on my commute, the gravel pits for concrete supplied in the Houston region comes from Austin County and Colorado County or in other words, I live where they deliver the gravel and work where they mine it.

I also have a Truck story, I was driving to work today, and I counted over 25 OTR Trucks, and not one of them had a problem.

 

An all-too-common problem.

By the way, the trucker's insurance won't pay for your cracked windshield. Your insurance has to pay for it.

Don't ask me how I know that.

Harry

 

Unless you can find the rock that hit your windshield and prove that it came from his load.

But good luck doing that.

 

Isn't "drafting" illegal?

 

My son was driving my car, and something fell off a truck, which cracked the windshield. Despite my son being able to have the truck pull over, and exchanging information, the system would not have the truck driver's insurance pay for the damage. I had to turn it in to my insurance company. Luckily I had glass coverage.

Harry

 

Correct. It is also dangerous because following too close does not provide enough time to react to anything that suddenly shows up on the roadway or falls off the truck. There are several 'rules of thumb' posted:

• one car length per 10 mph
• 2 seconds between truck and car (human reaction time ~0.25 sec)
• 3 seconds between truck and car

I prefer the boundary of turbulence, which appears to be ~2 seconds at 65 mph. It is my 'comfort zone.' I'm not trying to draft the truck as much as:

• use it's bulk to avoid impatient tailgaters - seeing the truck seems to wave them off. I have had a few near road-rage drivers who drove as if I must either change lanes or drive their speed even if the adjacent lane is open and they could pass. When they 'flash' their lights, I bleed off 5 mph and hit my emergency flashers.
• use slower truck speeds on interstates - a few states have 70 mph for cars and 65 mph for trucks. I prefer to be in the 65 mph traffic.
• follow smarter truckers - some trucking companies and drivers are fuel sensitive and drive 65 anyway. They provide perfect cover for the hybrid electric following them and getting +50 MPG.

When I was young and drove a 1966 VW Microbus, I would draft trucks on the Interstate. It was dangerous as heck but I was in the Marines, poorly paid and indestructable. Since then, I've resolved all of these problems.

Bob Wilson

 

I once saw a person drafting a large SUV with a tow hitch and ball sticking out of the back. The driver of the SUV flashed his brake lights a few times to warn off the drafter, but the drafter wouldn't listen. The driver of the SUV then locked up the brakes! The drafter was then stuck on the hitch and the SUV drove another 1/2 mile to the next exit.

 

And what NASCAR drivers do, as well as professional (competitive) cyclists (See: Tour de France).

It's also what I do when hiking on a trail first thing in the morning, except in this case it's not aerodynamics and conservation of energy benefits but rather to have someone blazing a trail ahead of me and letting THEM eat all the spiderewebs spun across the trail.