Comments By Villain

Congratulations

The auto-shift on my 2016 Freightliner Cascadia is great...as long as I'm not trying to merge on to the Interstate, climbing, descending, passing. The shift point to upshift is 1450rpm no matter what the position of the accelerator pedal. From a stop or the scales it skips 5th,7th,9th. Climbing it will bog down at 1050 - 1100rpm before stubbornly downshifting. I find myself driving in manual mode a whole lot of the time. Maybe I'm just a manual man at heart.

That is so cool to meet a fellow TTer!

I've uploaded my avatar twice, but it always goes back to the red truck.

"#11. Going for the difficult parking spots at truck stops instead of parking in an easy spot and walking an extra 15 feet. Most accidents occur at truck stops so its a good habit to be extra vigilant in them." - Daniel B.

Disclaimer: I have 3 weeks Solo experience so maybe I'm just doing it the hard way.

Yes it's nice to find a pull through spot. Sooner or later though you're going to have to back in. At first, I would go to a truck stop & find the back row. I practiced backing in to a spot with empty spots on both sides. Then I started backing in to spots with a truck on my near side. Now, I still try to park in the farthest row (it's healthy to take a longer walk after sitting all day), but when I pull in at peak times, if there's a spot open, it's mine. I might pull up & goal 10 times, but I'm getting in. Leave the ego behind.

You have to become proficient at backing. So while you want to be safe at all times, you have to seek out opportunities to hone your skills. For me, the truck stops have been a great place to get better at backing.

"Like many things you tend to get a feel for the wind and when common sense kicks-in signaling to shut down. A sustained wind speed of 35-40 with significantly higher gusts is where I get concerned and reduce my speed accordingly and if need be, park".

That's a quote from G-Town in a post about high winds. Im on I40 at the weigh station just West of OKC. I parked because as I was driving the cross wind had the end of my trailer on the white boundary line even though the truck was centered in the lane. I am empty. There is a high wind advisory and the truck is rocking as I write this. So why am I questioning if I should be stopped? Because I have 5 weeks of experience and I don't yet have a feel for the wind. I don't want to be unsafe but at the same time I don't want to jump at any little thing that goes boo in the dark. Is running empty that much more easy to blow over?

What they should do is some kind of VR thing with sensors. On an overtake & pass see whether you're locating the driver's face in his side mirror to see if his head is down looking at his phone or whatever & when you don't have the other truck take a little swerve at you.

Have you come around a bend & see a cascade of brake lights sprinting at you to check if you are scanning far enough ahead & respecting the need for following distance.

Have you had an encounter with a Super Trucker? Here's one of mine: You might be a Super Trucker if... you blow by me doing like 80mph, with every tire on your passenger side in my lane, and blowing the air horn so that I know your a badass. About 5 miles later I blow by you... doing 5mph... at the weigh station.I toot the city horn as your standing by your rig... watching the DOT guy shake his head as he puts a tape measure to your load! LOL

I just remembered why I don't remove the load locks. I watched a video of truck backing in. Little bit downhill from the start of the lines to the dock. As he was backing, the upper pallet came crashing down. He didn't jerk the truck or anything like that.

Once again I am master of the oblivious, missing the obvious solution!