Hey! I'm workin' here!

The BBQ Pit
41

One other thing. It isn’t always truckers doing this. I know a few, including my uncle, that will do this to keep from stopping for something as trivial as pissing. This is actually an improvement on his part. In the 70’s he told me he would load up a 12 pack for the drive to Minneapolis (this was almost acceptable and normal in the 70’s).

When he had to releive himself it was into a baggie. Said baggie was then thrown from the window to occasionaly splat on an unsuspecting motorist. All he could think of was the great time he was making. I assume this thinking (not his anymore) is still held by some. In fact I know it is. I’ve seen it.

Not every piss bottle is thrown from a rig. Get over it. Bad drivers are bad drivers no matter the vehicle.

The big difference? Truckers are under much more scrutiny than four-wheelers. Truckers that shouldn’t be driving are quickly found for the most part. The rest of the bad drivers simply swerve past the rig giggling on their way to the next accident.

42

Roll On is a much better song. :slight_smile:

43

Is this the song you mean? Searching the All Music Guide site for the title “Roll On” got 87 separate hits, by a slew of different composers and performers.

44

Alas? I hope you mean that you married "a lass’

I gave up the long haul routine back in '93. Been working local jobs ever since. Get to sleep in my own bed next to mama every night now.

Nope. Can’t say I’ve ever even heard of the artist, let alone the song. Keep in mind that I’m a 52 year old grandfather who prefers Led Zepplin to country anything …

Why thank you. I’m really enjoying myself, thank you very much.
Wierd Al is … well, wierd. But ya gotta love his work!

Air horn on a Corolla. I’m gonna have to think about that one. :smiley:

45

Nothing to “get over” really, just stating an opinion about the practice.

And you’re certainly right about the “bad drivers no matter the vehicle”.

I’m not all that sure about the “Truckers that shouldn’t be driving are quickly found …” part. (bolding added) I do think a lot of them tend to eliminate themselves on their own, one way or the other.

Just sayin’.

46

Hey, I’m a 57-year-old bleeding-heart Eastern liberal broad who HATES country music (and likes Led Zeppelin) but she’s a damned fine singer and way above the torch & twang average. You ought to check out her “455 Rocket” sometime, too.

And while I have your attention, I’ve got a gripe about Bad Truckers: an intimidation game. I was doing some serious interstate travelling a while ago, staying right and going with the flow of traffic, leaving safe distances and then some, all that good stuff – hey, I love my Saturn, but it’s no match for the monsters out there. Anyway, this semi comes right up behind me, stays behind me maybe a car length, if that – all I could see in the rear view mirror was grill, dammit. I couldn’t safely pull left to clear the lane for him, either.

The friend riding with me, who does a lot of horse-trailer hauling with her Chevy pickup (boy, you should hear HER rants about crappy drivers who don’t understand stopping distances, etc.) said, “Don’t speed up, he’s just playing a mind game. If you hold your position he’ll back off when he gets bored.” Sure enough, within a few minutes he’d dropped back to a safe distance.

That happened only a couple of times on this long drive, but it pissed me off royally. I could understand it if I was going slower than the other traffic, but I wasn’t.

47

Or they are just one of those people that don’t consider the consequences of their actions. I am not, by the way, refering to a truck on a steep grade. I am enough of an understanding guy to realize that in such instances they are not at fault.

Well, I am not totally naive, and don’t ever, ever fuck with a trucker. I know they communicate with others, and pass on information (like “that red car” is fucking around, lets play a game with him/her). I don’t want to travel 10 miles up the road just to be penned in by somebody that is feeling vindictive due to poor driving attitudes.

48

I’ll check it out as soon as I get the chance …

Yeah. Meeeee toooo. I’ve never understood why some Drivers would put other people’s lives at risk like that. Can’t even dream up any good guesses.

Epimetheus, you probably have a good point there. There are a lot of people in these latter days who fail to engage their brains, let alone consider the consequences of their actions.

Someone, somewhere out there said it best. “Some days it just doesn’t pay to chew my way through the restraints in the morning.”

49

Ha! That was Emo Phillips:

(With a tip of the hat to elucidator – you know why.)

50

Nope, just most of them.

51

That was fun. Thanks for the link.

52

Interesting read. I knew it was getting bad – I seem to be tripping over those damn bottles whenever I get out of the rig – but I was unaware that it had grown to that level. Wow. I’m even more ashamed of those Drivers. Thanks for the link.

To one and all, Thank you for and intersting day. I’ve really enjoyed myself. Gotta go grab some chow then log some sack time. 4:00 AM stops by rather early these days (Damn internal alarm clock doesn’t have an ‘off’ switch!)

Will log back in early tomorrow.

Have a Good Night.

Lucy

[Speaking of logs, anybody from DOT out there? Need an official ruling here: Do I need to log all of this as ON DUTY NOT DRIVING time?] :confused:

53

Ah, you seem to be confused. The article you linked doesn’t demonstrate at all that most of them are from truckers.

Why did you feel the need to lie?

54

Good morning.

Hope y’all got a good nights sleep.

Okay, boys and girls. Just looking over the thread here. Remember this is, after all, ‘The Pit’. Good grief! We haven’t even had a drive-by from a Mod telling us to keep it down!

Surely you have other bitches, moans and assorted complaints about Trucks and Truck Drivers. I certainly expected more questions about the more technical side of my profession …

We need to kick this thing up a notch or two or we’re gonna get kicked out of here for having a ‘hug & love’ fest.

Okay, let me be the first to welcome our next (and apparently dimmest) contestant:

Okay. Did you read the article in question? I mean actually read it? Ya know, like, all the way to the end? Did you notice that there were two pages? Perhaps I’m asking the wrong questions. Let me rephrase it in a little simpler fashion so your mind can grasp the concept I’m trying to understand:

Can you read?

Maybe your browser got stuck? Or you nodded off? Pehaps you were too lazy to scroll down past the “Click for related content” bar? It might be that you got confused by this one paragraph:

Since you seem to be incapable of reading for content, let me explain that this one paragraph suggests that there are some sources other than truckers. The other 95% of the article is about **‘Trucker Bombs’ ** and what various state agencies are trying to do about the problem.

It should be clear, to anyone with an I.Q. higher than that of an average potted house plant, that, indeed, most of these things come from truckers who are to lazy to walk to a restroom.

Hence the name: “Trucker Bombs” [as opposed to “and even non-truckers’ bombs”]

My apologies to any average potted house plants who may feel offended by the above analogy.

Lucy

55

Kudos for a very good rant.

As far as tailgaiting goes, add tailgating truckers to the list.

I drive across the top of Lake Superior in a small SUV. The road goes up down and around, up down and around, up down and around; winter storms off the lake a fierce; and most significantly, a lot of large critters (moose, bear, deer) enjoy strolling along the open road, particularly at dusk and overnight. Consequently, I drive for conditions, which when clear and dry for this section of road means travelling at or not much more than the speed limit.

Unfortunately, some none-too-bright truckers don’t seem to understand this, and ride my ass. I’m not going to speed up, and if the tailgaiter gets extremely close (e.g. I can’t see it’s bumper in my mirror), I will simply slow down significantly and wait to be passed (pulling over is only occasionally an option given the narrow erroded shoulders and rock cuts), for I don’t want to be the splat mark between a moose on the road in front of me and the truck behind me. Some truckers just don’t have a clue about this. Perhaps they are used to driving the multiple lane highways to the south, or the wide open roads of the west, or perhaps they are just plain brain dead from spending too much time behind the wheel driving in the middle of nowhere.

For example, on Friday I drove from Manitouwadge to TBay (about 400km). There have been five trucks wrecked along this section in the last month, and it is not a busy section (e.g. only five vehicles – all trucks – pulled up behind me when I had to wait for half an hour in the middle of the day for road repairs). You would think that driving past the impact craters would impart a message, but for some drivers it does not.

While I was driving 5 kph above the limit, a truck was tailgaiting me when we passed a cop sitting behind a snowbank. After we passed the cop, the truck flashed his lights at me, as if to warn me about the speedtrap. The cop caught up and pulled the truck over. Yay cop! I don’t know what had been going through the mind of the trucker as he had been tailgaiting me, but I suspect that it was not much. Folks with that level of skill should find another job that does not require intelligence and maturity.

56

Well, ya gotta understand that Martin Hyde is not compelled to waste too much brain space around here, as we can see from this tasty quote.

Cite.

57

Is Martin Hyde licensed to drive?If yes, then we have a very good reason to up the requirements.

58

I thought I heard there was some invention out there that would turn the urine into a solid block that could be tossed?

Although, if the article is any indication, there would just be blocks of urine littering the highways instead of milk jugs full of pee, so maybe that’s not a solution either.

59

Hi Muffin, thanks for kudos. What flavor are they?

Sorry it’s taken so long to compose this.

And, I’m sorry you keep getting those jerks behind you. Please allow me to offer some advice:

When you get one of these rigs tailgating you on a two lane road, the best plan of defense is to simply maintain your speed (allowing for existing conditions). It is possible that the the Driver is following close and waiting for an opportunity to pass you safely. Do not slow down, as this will just aggravate the situation. There is a reason why you don’t see us entering these things in the Indianapolis 500: these rigs do not accelerate like Ferraris. It is especially difficult on a two lane road to pass safely from too far back, but the Driver should pass at the first opportunity. Try to keep in mind that the Driver can see a lot further up the road than you can. Also, please note that your definition of a safe opportunity may be very different than ours. I know you wouldn’t, but I have seen four-wheelers pass in some of the strangest places.

[Caveat: I’m assuming a fully loaded truck on flat and level ground here. If you are climbing even a gradual grade, it may not be possible to pass you without one hell of a long safe zone. For example: there is a section of U. S. 93 about 26 miles north of Wells, NV, where it can take me six or seven miles to get the rig up even one or two mph higher. Most people think this is some pretty flat ground, only about a 1% grade. (Road surface rises 1’ in elevation in each 100 linear feet.) But I’m always doubled up on that run, and at 105,000 lbs, the effect is pretty dramatic. This is where I usually run up behind the “RV from Hell”.

Once I get to where I know I’ll be able to see about 8 miles of roadway, I’ll close the gap. This will take anywhere from 3 to 5 miles to accomplish. When I can see that there are 8 miles of clear roadway I will begin to accelerate for the pass.

From the point of view of the RV driver, I have now been tailgating for 5 minutes - and it will take me 3 or 4 miles or about 4 to 5 more minutes just to get my rig traveling faster than the speed of the RV so that I can initiate the pass. (OG help them if they slow down!)
Other things that affect or delay the decision to initiate the pass:

  1. Windspeed and direction
  2. Snow, ice, rain, fog, etc.
  3. Hi, Opal!
  4. Weight and length of load
  5. Available horsepower and RPMs

BTW, now, I’m gonna have my ass hanging out in the oncoming traffic lane for the next 4 to 5 miles. At 55 mph, it seems like it takes forever to complete the pass.
If you’re ever in this situation, this is the time to back out of it and reduce your speed a little so I’m not hanging out there so long - not while I trying to build momentum to initiate pass.]

If, on the other hand, the driver lets several good opportunities to pass go by and just hangs behind you and continues to play the intimidation game trying to get you to increase your speed, do what I do: continue to maintain your speed, hit the cell phone, call 911 and report them to the nearest law enforcement agency as an aggressive driver. If they do eventually pass after playing this game for a while, grab the name of the company, and a unit number on the tractor or trailer as they go by.

Too many motorists are loathe to do this because they feel it’s not a true ‘emergency’. It is. If that driver is playing the intimidation game and the rig is less than four seconds back of you, they effectively have a gun pointed at your back. Make the call.[ul]
[/ul]

60

Contrapuntal why do I alway read your name as ‘carpnal tunnel’?

With regard to the poster you mentioned, well, yeah - that’s why I did the into the way I did.

Martin, Martin, Martin … you seem to attract attention in much the same way a 92 car pile-up attracts rubberneckers.