Game: Stupid Things You Have Done On The Road

One time I thought my brake shoes had frozen to the drums. I got out and started beating them with a hammer. No dice. I worked my way along the air lines trying to see if I could find ice buildup in there. No dice. I went to pour some alcohol into the airlines of the trailer to melt any ice that might be in there and when I went to disconnect the air lines I realized I had them reversed. When I put them on the right way the brakes released and I drove away. You wouldn't believe how much of a difference that makes!

For fun, or if you're ever bored, or if you ever get in a situation where you might find this helpful - if you put the blue airline from the tractor on the red air line for the trailer and then get in the truck and press the brake pedal it will release the trailer brakes. Of course you can't drive with the brake pedal pressed but it makes for a good trivia question at a truck stop.

"In what situation would you release the trailer brakes by stepping on the brake pedal?"

Most people won't be able to figure it out.

So if you do have the air lines on backwards you will release the trailer brakes by pressing the brake pedal and you'll apply the trailer brakes by pressing in the red knob which normally releases the parking brake

I have no idea what good that will ever do you but now you know.

I forgot to lock my tandems once. They slid as I was coming to a stop. The result was a sound and a feeling of impact that had me thinking someone hit me.

The Swift main office put out a short safety video about driver cams recently. At the end, the announcer, in all seriousness said here is a series of videos of a mysterious event that is happening to drivers. Watch this.

You saw several drivers "minding their own business", then WHAM! They seem to have been rear ended! (Somebody forgot to lock those tandems!)

Is it as common for "truckstop terrorists" to unlock the tandems, as it is for the random idiot to pull the kingpin locks?

Most of this is probably driver forgetfulness, but still...

Rick

I've never had either happen to me, but I usually check both the kingpin and my tandem release arm before driving off, especially if I ****ed someone off before I left my truck. The driver who helped me get on the Miller Coors account told me it happened to him at a customer while he was backed into a dock, and he dropped the trailer.

An easy way to prevent someone from pulling your fifth wheel is to set your trailer brakes first then put some tension on the fifth wheel by tugging forward and setting your tractor brakes. It will be impossible to pull the release.

A dumb thing i did tofay was went to open trailer doors to back into the dock. Been here foreveh and just woke up and tried to open the wrong door first and couldn't figure out why i couldn't get the trailer doors open..

Stupid things I've done? Well for starters, I drove into a forest and had to back up over a half mile on a winding dirt road in the dark and then back onto the highway while police guided me and then stopped traffic for me. BEAT THAT!

I coasted for over a minute on three separate occasions, not knowing it was illegal.

Flipped off another driver who was trying to act like my boss at a customer, telling me where to park and where not to park and yelling at me. Turned out he was the yard dog... (Yes, I apologized)

Locked my keys out of my truck.

Left my Enforcer Lock on the bumper of the trailer and had to buy a new one.

Guys I'm GOOD at this game!! Let's play another round, eh?

I forgot to lock my tandems once. They slid as I was coming to a stop. The result was a sound and a feeling of impact that had me thinking someone hit me.

The Swift main office put out a short safety video about driver cams recently. At the end, the announcer, in all seriousness said here is a series of videos of a mysterious event that is happening to drivers. Watch this.

You saw several drivers "minding their own business", then WHAM! They seem to have been rear ended! (Somebody forgot to lock those tandems!)

Omg.... that is funny. Not sure if I could keep a straight face and watch that.

This morning I woke, poured in antigel, fueled up, walked the truck for PTI.... Lights check... Tires check..brakes check.,.reefer temp..reefer temp.. OMG!!! My reefer is off...it's 30 degrees out..my last load was 55...was temp is this load???

Oh wait...I didn't pick up the load yet. I'm empty. Lol

One time I thought my brake shoes had frozen to the drums. I got out and started beating them with a hammer. No dice. I worked my way along the airlines trying to see if I could find ice buildup in there. No dice. I went to pour some alcohol into the airlines of the trailer to melt any ice that might be in there and when I went to disconnect the airlines I realized I had them reversed. When I put them on the right way the brakes released and I drove away. You wouldn't believe how much of a difference that makes!

For fun, or if you're ever bored, or if you ever get in a situation where you might find this helpful - if you put the blue airline from the tractor on the red airline for the trailer and then get in the truck and press the brake pedal it will release the trailer brakes. Of course you can't drive with the brake pedal pressed but it makes for a good trivia question at a truck stop.

"In what situation would you release the trailer brakes by stepping on the brake pedal?"

Most people won't be able to figure it out.

So if you do have the airlines on backwards you will release the trailer brakes by pressing the brake pedal and you'll apply the trailer brakes by pressing in the red knob which normally releases the parking brake

I have no idea what good that will ever do you but now you know.

I've switched the lines once as well, took a while to figure out if something was broken or what? As a partial excuse, it was very dark, the hoses were generic, not color coded, only the gladhands. Should have used my flashlight to see the remnants of red and blue on truck and trailer gladhands to get it right.

However, since then (rookie days, right?) I realized that the emergency (red) line will always be closest to the outside edge. And I think I know why. If there ever was a situation where you needed to quickly disable a truck and stop it from rolling, just yank off the closest line. This could probably be done even if the truck was moving at jogging speed without getting run over.

There's videos on YouTube of trucks that roll from the fuel island into parked trucks and nobody could stop it. Don't even bother with trying the door (is it locked?) and trying to get halfway in a truck to press the brake or pull a knob. Just pull off that hose closest to you without getting your foot crunched by the drives and you can save the day! Ok, I'm not actually recommending anyone do this, but it is possible....

I'm pretty sure the trailer brakes alone can not hold the tractor while it's in drive. It will just pull the trailer with tires laying rubber on the pavement. Ask me how i know. Lol.

I just posted on another thread about leaving my laundry in the dryer at the terminal.

What stupid or funny things have you done on the road?

I'm out with my trainer now, about 178 hours into my 200 hours before upgrade with Swift. I signed on to the flatbed fleet and was sent with a dry van mentor, who then went regional dedicated reefer with Target. Well we have made the same run from Denton, Texas to New Orleans probably 6-7 times in the last 3 weeks. About a week ago, I was driving at about 0300 and suddenly there was a fog so thick that I couldn't see beyond 20 feet in front of the tractor. After probably 50 or so miles at 35-40mph, I decided I need to pull it over and let dispatch know I needed to shut it down before I was in an accident, because I had already passed quite a few of them and all of the more experienced drivers(aren't they all more experienced than me right now lol) were shut down on various ramps.

So I break out the Trucker's Path app and look for a truck stop to at least pull into the fuel island to send a message to dispatch(because if they tell me to do something dangerous or unsafe, I want my objection and their response for safety to see).

Well I'm in luck because Trucker's Path says there is a mom and pop truck stop right here at the exit I'm approaching, and they are far more likely to have parking. Take the exit, follow the route GPS is giving me. Take the service road and get ready to make the left into the truck stop... Weird, it's a dirt driveway. Ok maybe I'll drive to the next truck stop then. Satellite view says that this service road goes to the next exit and there is a Loves. So I drive about 3-4 miles down this service road and come to the next exit. Just kidding, it's a dead end. No place to turn around. No visibility to back up. I begin drafting my letter of resignation on the Qualcomm and wake my mentor up to let him know the situation and ask if he will back the trailer for me because I'm not confident that I can back it down a dark, winding road, with fog thick enough that you can take a bite out of it.

He's like screw that, I'm not getting a preventable. Long story moderately shorter... He stood outside in his underwear on a back road parallel to an alligator and snake infested swamp, in a thick fog, holding a maglight to mark the edge of the road and a steep drop into said swamp, and talked me back down 3 miles of road on the phone.

Wish I could say that's the dumbest thing that I've done. Certainly it's the dumbest thing that I'm willing to admit to ;)