Thirded. The trucker was a potential dick, but your preemptive dickishness never afforded him the opportunity. You admitted to going under the speed limit at least part of the time and you had no idea how long the trucker was going to be on that road, nor how fast he planned to travel. Your assumptions about what would happen do not confer permission to be a dick.
This is my thought also. If I read the OP right, the first car is going somewhat under the speed limit and the OP was “complacent” and just coasting along behind. It sounds like the trucker just wanted to do the speed limit, so they were holding the trucker back. They are both dicks here IMO, not the trucker.
Where the heck do you guys live? (I’m guessing Texas, Wyoming or the such) Around here a two lane rural road would be somewhere between 45 and 55. Even the multi lane interstates max out at 70.
On 4 lane highways (two lanes going one direction), I have FREQUENTLY been stuck behind two semi’s driving exactly the speed limit side by side. The seem to intentionally want to block traffic for some reason?
Anyway due to this, I don’t see any problem with your preventing the semi from passing. They do it to other people all the time.
According to Wiki the highest speed limit for rural undivided is 75 and only in Texas. None have 80 as a legal speed for that type of road.
Damn skippy. As soon as the OP said he goes 85-90 on a two-lane rural road, I voted “dickishness”. 
And also makes me confused about “passing lane”. If it’s a two-lane road, does “passing lane” really mean the opposite lane, with a dashed line?
I’m with Brother Cadfael and Broomstick. You took an action to make it more difficult to pass. You are being a dick. Made worse because it was tanker truck, with possibly flammable cargo.
I’m with those who say speeding up when somebody is trying to pass you is definitely dickish and quite possibly illegal.
The way it sounds to me is the trucker was trying to build up momentum for the upcoming hill, where the cars would have a passing lane so they could easily go past him as he inevitably slowed down on the uphill.
On rural highways there will often be sections where the road widens to three lanes and one direction or the other is designated the middle lane to pass slower traffic.
because apparently it wasn’t a big enough space for him. If that was the space that the trucker was intending to fill then it would have to made the OP have slow down and so the trucker was a dick to try it in the first place.
This. The fact that you would put others’ lives at risk on matter of principle (or etiquette, as you put it) is the dickish part. It sucks that you would have to drive slow for a while, but the potential consequences of blocking a semi who is trying to pass are so much more dire and indeed, potentially fatal, that there is no law or point of etiquette that can justify your behavior. Even if the semi was in the wrong for trying to pass, you are in the more wrong for making it more difficult for him to pass, because you made a dangerous situation even more dangerous.
Maybe the space wasn’t big enough or it was. OP didn’t find out, as he sped up to prevent the truck from passing - thus being a dick.
Speeding up when someone is attempting to pass you is a dick move and fucking dangerous.
I don’t know the OP but I’m sure he is a very nice guy… just like all Dopers.
That said, I have to vote on the side of the OP was a dick.
If you were complacent driving a bit under the speed limit behind a car, why wouldn’t you be equally complacent behind a truck?
Any time you purposely do something to impede the actions of another driver… truck, motorcycle, car, or otherwise… you are being a dick.
IMHO, that right there is dickish behavior.
When I was 20 and driving cross-country at night by myself, at some point near Milwaukee (I think) I tried to pass a tractor trailer on the left. It sped up when I was beside it. What I didn’t know was that the lane I was in was about to end, with concrete guard rails forcing the lane closure. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to a fatal car crash.
I’m not impressed with any reason at all for speeding up when someone’s trying to pass.
If you want to get into statistics, most fatal collisions occur on two-lane backroads, mostly because of head-on collisions. It stands to reason that many head-on collisions probably occur because of cars getting trapped in the oncoming traffic lane when they are passing. I almost never pass on a two-lane road for this reason.
I deeply regret the one time I did, although remarkably nothing serious happened. Traffic was slow and someone else pulled out to pass and I thought that seemed like a good idea. But there was no way back in. Common sense told me pull over on the left but somehow I kept chancing it. And it was pitch black out. I ran out of dashed line :eek: by the time I got back over and realized why traffic was slow – a cop pulled me over. I just said thanks and marked “guilty” on the ticket.
To this day I don’t know what I was thinking and I realize how lucky I was. SO bad. I too almost never pass on one of those roads now.
I think the OP stated the gap wasn’t big enough.
Therefore if the trucker started the move and wasn’t relying on that gap…no harm done to anyone.
If he was relying on a gap that was too small and forcing other drivers to move for him then he was clearly the dick in the first place.
I don’t claim total lack of dickishness on the part of the OP, but the trucker initiated the move.
But he would never be able to do that, unless he was able to clear both cars and pull away for a bit.
Again, the maneuver the trucker attempted here–even if successful, even if eschereal had done nothing but maintain speed and position–would have gained the trucker nothing meaningful. He’d still be behind the lead car, which was traveling no faster. And this zero gain would come at the cost of (a) the passing maneuver itself, and (b) reducing another driver’s visibility.
Right. That’s why the decision to attempt the pass, especially in a bigger, less maneuverable vehicle, represents the critical introduction of new hazard in this scenario.
Truckers as a class are better drivers than four-wheelers, but this one was thoughtless at best.