Comments By Dave H.

If you swerve hard, you will probably clear the road before it goes over, but it depends on a lot of factors. You most likely wont keep it right side up though.

You can see in the video that he swerved, got over to the guardrail, and then tried to save it after clearing traffic. You can also see that he got it straight, but the surge kept pushing the tank towards and over the guardrail so the tractor had no choice but to do the same.

Swerving is a last resort. It's really not even considered an option if you are loaded. If you have the ability to at all, you keep it straight and hit those brakes.

Agreed. Get the placards at the shipper before you head out. you just need the check your load and BOL and make sure your placards match up, for the most part. Don't be afraid to use your books as a reference if you aren't sure about something, or if you aren't sure you are placarding correctly.

I would also ask for a spare set of placards if you are planning on going through significant weather. Just a good idea I figured I'd pass on. I have had placards get so wet that they literally found their way out of the placard holder on the trailer and flew off. Fortunately I found it before DOT did when I stopped for my 30.

You cant even do that. I pull a tanker; a tanker is a different animal as it is a live load and the fluid in the tank makes it a challenge to drive (shoves you down hills, pulls you back up hills, makes it hard to shift (depending on the weight and viscosity of what's in the tank) and most important, it is VERY easy to roll over. The surge you get used to, but if you stop hard enough and aren't expecting it, the surge can be enough to shove you through the brakes into an intersection.

Best thing you can do in that situation is hit the brakes and pray. You can certainly swerve, but even if you do get it under control, the side surge will probably put you on your side. There is a small chance if you think about it fast enough you can get it straight and hit the brakes to change the direction of the surge before it knocks you over, but nothing I would risk a rig on.

As a tanker driver, I would say he knew the risks, and was trying to save lives. You know if you swerve at speed that it's over.

I find when I'm driving, I always ask myself 'what if' questions and try to keep that following distance open. 4 wheelers make that difficult sometimes though, they don't understand the risks around them. Asking those questions help you react quickly in an emergency.

For what it's worth, I would do the same thing. If I was out of options, I would rather make myself an exit and only put myself at risk rather than drive right into traffic hauling any sort of hazmat, especially anything flammable. Its a risk that's more elevated by pulling liquids. I personally feel if you can't see the logic in that, you have no business driving a tanker truck.

This is tragic, but I commend the driver for saving lives by sacrificing his own.

I was taught how to simply mark down that 30-minute break and continue beating the batteries until you couldn't deliver any more for the day. Then, just add that 30-minutes to the end of the day! My trainer said, "The break is when you are driving from location to location." What? I was tired!

You were taught wrong. Some guys do that to maximize time but you better be careful with that. If you get audited, there are ways DOT has to find out if you did that. And if you did...it's all on you. Stop and take a legitimate 30 minute break. Don't log a break unless you are actually taking one, and if you are driving, you better be logged as such.

If you cant make a decent wage doing that, you either have the wrong job or are living beyond your means.

Dave is looking for a:

double ended mini RCA (or whatever it is) cable

The cable connecting your audio device (phone, tablet, iPod - if you still have one, etc.) is a 3.5mm Stereo plug/patch cable. Now it's being called a "AUX cable".

That's what I got. I ran into one at a pilot I've been using. Kind of a pain in the ass to change stations on the move, but it'll work for the time being. I would rather have a stereo to change the stations and whatnot, but this'll do for now.

Really? hmmm...I'll have to check that out then. I could be wrong there, in which case, I'm set.

Only question for now is then, can I find a cable like the one I mentioned at a Pilot or a Loves? Or am I SOL on that one? I'm about to head out to AL here pretty soon.

My 'new' truck is an '08 KW with 350k miles, vs the 900+ on my current '06. I doubt it has XM in it.

I could always swap the deck with an XM capable deck and take it with me. My company is pretty cool with things like that.

Maybe I should stream for now until I get situated with the new truck with it's own equipment? That would be fine if I could find a double ended mini RCA (or whatever it is) cable. My current truck for whatever has a mini headunit out of a freightshaker in it. Don't know why.

OK, so I've been driving enough that I think it's kind of dumb to have XM in my car and not in my truck. I'm getting ready to get a 'new' (to me) truck, and trade in my '06 KW for one that isn't about to roll over a million soon. It'll also be a T600B, and doesn't have a Cat ACERT engine, which is fine for me. I just hope it has a 13 speed too. Anyway, I already have an XM account in my car and the wife's car. Curious if I should stream off my phone, or if I should just buy the little XM box that you see at truck stops and use that, though I'm sure I'd have to pay for a third line if I did that. I'm mostly worried about eating up my data, since I use that to do school work for those times I'm not at home. Also, is there any issues with delays or whatnot when streaming on a phone vs using the XM box? Thoughts?

The process for a twic card is pretty much the same as applying for hazmat. It's done through the TSA. You don't need hazmat to get it, but I always recommend everyone get both to expand the range of jobs you can apply for.

That's basically the same kind of stuff I do. House projects or car projects. I find myself alternating between them and it can get kind of tedious.

I'm hoping to find another decent place that could use some TLC to fix up to rent out, to help supplement my income as a driver and diversify my portfolio so to speak.

By all means, if you have the skills, use them! If not, its wasted talent my friend. Have fun on your downtime. I'll be doing the same tomorrow while I'm taking my 34.