Stupid? I think so too. But recently, a trucker told me that it’s not unusual for a caravan of truckers out in the Great Plains, etc., to cruise at night at speeds approaching 120 mph. I expressed my skepticism. Wide-eyed, he insisted it was true, adding that state troopers are rarely out late at night and it’s the only way to make a living.
In the 60’s some areas out west had no speed limits on interstates so it was possible then - you just had to do a “reasonable” speed but that was vague. I think they tried to get rid of speed limits again a few years back but I think it didn’t last and they have limits again.
I’m not sure those big trucks can even go 120. Maybe the newer ones can get up to that speed. I’m sure they speed but 120 seems to be too high.
Dude. Have you ever driven anything at 120 mph? I did it once just because my car’s spedometer went up to 140 and I wanted to see if it really could. I was scared spiltess because every slight movement I made to the steering wheel seemed multipled 100 times into some kind of lateral shudder. The thought of possibly sneezing and losing control for a split second was enough to make me slow down after about 10 seconds. I can’t imagine something as unwieldy as a semi being driven by sleepy truckers doing 120 mph for extended periods of time.
I thought large trucks were required to have speed governors in them anyway, unless the owner knows enough about the mechanics that he’s worked around it.
Depends on the car. My Mustang is incredibly stable at 120 - I could quite happily drive that way for a bit, road and traffic permitting. As to trucks, no, it sounds like a trucker’s tall tale. Now true, when they are all slipstreaming together, they can get up to good speeds, but 120 is a bit high.
They are not common at all in the US - well, not nearly as they are in the EC or elsewhere, by an measure.
Sigh. Attrayant, what can I say, dude? I really didn’t want to post this stupid OP and I knew I would take a razzing for it, but the idiot trucker who made this startling claim was so darm adamant that I thought I’d give it a whirl. Hell, he said it in front of several people and we all were convinced he either was telling the truth and needed to be jailed or had simply forgotten to take his meds that morning and needed a hospital stay.
BTW, yes I have driven at 120 mph. Borrowed a friend’s old Porsche and gave it a spin near an airport. It was a blast.
No truckers passed me.
I’ve driven across Nevada’s highway 50 at 140 mph, 420 miles in four hours, with stops for gas and lunch. BMW M3 I had borrowed. It was a thrill and handled quite nicely. I had a heads up on where all the deputies were.
Now, can a semi do this on the straightaways? There is a lot of wind resistance, but these things have incredibly powerful engines. You would get really crappy fuel efficiency. A little better if you were drafting another insane trucker.
The biggest safety problem for driving this fast is that most tires are only safe for about 90 mph. They tend to get hot and want to spin to pieces, so your tires must be rated for the speed you are going to travel.
Yes, Nevada’s highways are outstanding for relativistic auto travel. Other great sites: the Texas panhandle, Kansas, and parts of Montana.
The trucker admitted to drafting and to terrible gas mileage, but said that with certain cargo, time was far more important. He struck me as a world-class bullshitter and great material for Capitol Hill.
I bet you could do it. Lots of trucks, drafting each other, going west-east through a midwest state with a natural two degree incline, in the top of twelve or more gears–why not?
As for the speed, ask any experienced autobahner and they’ll tell you that speed is a relative thing to which a driver can become accustomed. Add to that the relative stability of driving “in the pocket,” which I think is conferred even upon the lead vehicle in a draft column, and I don’t see a lot of reasons why trucks couldn’t do that sort of thing.
Larger vehicles with long wheelbases can feel a lot more stable than smaller ones at higher speeds. I used to go flying through the Jemez Mountains on NM 44 in my 1965 Bonneville at speeds greater than 120, and until you got to the curves it felt solid as a rock. I was a lot younger then, of course.
Well, dang if this ain’t the most frustrating Google search I ever found myself wading through. I am handicapped by not knowing much about 18-wheelers. The phrase “cabover Pete with a reefer on, and a Jimmy hauling–is it logs or hogs?” kept running through my head, and when it got so bad that I couldn’t stand it anymore, Google was able to lead me to the lyrics. It’s hogs.
Anyway, the point is, I was trying to find out if a semi will even go 120 mph, but the three truck websites below are remarkably close-mouthed about specs. Be my guest.
In about 1975 I drove from Utah to Tulsa, OK. The last stretch of the trip was a toll road (the first I had ever driven on) between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Three or four semis got on just as I did. We made that run into Tulsa at just about 110 mph average. The five of us just rolled along, moving left to pass and back again, with first one and then the other taking the lead.
Surrounded by those trucks, I joked to my wife that it was like driving in 100 mile long tunnel!
That was 25 years ago, so it’s no stretch to think they could roll 120 now, at least on the long flat runs (which pretty much describes all of Oklahoma that I saw!)
I don’t buy it. Sorry. Maybe 90, but even that is pushing it. I’ve done a LOT of highway driving on some very large, very smooth roads. Lots of it at night. I have never, ever seen a big rig going faster than about 75.
Big Rigs are not geared for such speeds. They have 12 speeds because they have to go through a lot of gears when fully loaded just to get up to normal highway speeds. And they are not ‘incredibly powerful’ when you consider how much weight they have to haul and how much wind resistance they have.
It would be an insanely reckless, stupid thing to do. ESPECIALLY if you are ‘drafting’. And remember, the whole convoy has to go the speed of the slowest truck. Some of those old trucks could barely make highway speeds.
I think your friend was telling a very large tale.
My pony car is also stable at speed, driving between Vallejo CA and Prince Rupert BC. I’d hit speeds up to 120 MPH in rural areas(2000mi run). there were sraightaways where I wouldn’t pass truckers,they were just moving too fast,I could’ve but didn’t have the huevos…
I wouldn’t think too a tall a tale.
also a friend just drove from Prince Rupert to Seattle. He related a story of driving 100Mph and truckers were keeping up and wanted to pass!(he was driving a new toyota solara,so the speedo was fine)
Side Note: In the Northern Territory of Australia there are open highways which means you can legally go as fast as your vehicle can (safely) take you, in between towns.
Most people drive about 70 - 80 mph but some crazy people cruise at 110+. (its a strange feeling when you think you are driving a reasonable speed and some flash car passes you like you’re standing still).
Another side note (sorry): You remember that 80s movie cannonball run. Well they tried a real life one of these in the NT. Some Japanese guys in a Farrari lost control and smashed into a checkpoint killing themselves and 2 officials. Needless to say that was the last event of this kind.
You’re shittin’ me, right? I roll with trucks all the time at 80-90. This is a daily occurrence.
It’s true that the DOTs around the country have cracked down in the last 10 years on drivers going too far, too fast. Logs are checked much more often, and if you show a lot more mileage than you should, they know something is wrong.
Also, tattletales and governors are more common than ever, so drivers for the bigger haulers are more likely to keep it down.
But the independent drivers running short haul still roll hard and fast. I have three brothers who have been professional truck mechanics, as well as driven truck. My ex brother in law runs a small trucking company. I know for certain at least some trucks will run at 110, because I’ve driven with them. I don’t know for sure about 120, but I’d bet they could, especially empty.
Come live in Wisconsin. Big rigs here routinely do 80-90 on the highway at night. I’ve never seen one hit 120, but from everything I’ve ever heard, trucking is a damn rough job and all that matters is getting that cargo there on time. With tired truckers, deserted highways, and a big mean engine, I wouldn’t doubt they go pretty fast in order to shave off time.
Yes, there are some trucks that can go that fast (and faster – 130 - 135mph or so on flat land with no trailer). However, I wouldn’t say that truckers make travelling that fast a habit. In fact, I know they don’t because they aren’t stupid people. That’d be really dangerous, traffic patterns aside, because they would kill themselves.
Convoys… Been there, done that. The speed limit in Ohio SUCKS (what is it? 65 for cars, 55 for trucks or some crap like that) so you might see a long row on the Ohio Turnpike every so often. We didn’t go a whole lot faster than 80mph. Not because we couldn’t, but because it just wasn’t safe.
Governed trucks - With certain trucking companies (SWIFT comes to mind), the truck’s computer system is programmed by the company so that it can not exceed a certain speed. This is not a “natural” govern (like every Peterbilt of such a year has one), but one appointed by the company with a speed limit that the company deems appropriate.
The bottom line is that while it’s possible for them to do so, truck drivers do not make it a habit to go a million miles an hour between loads. It’s not practical, it’s not safe, and it’s insanely obvious to everyone how many laws they’re breaking. (I’m not going to deny the fact that there is some speeding involved, but it’s not as drastic as 120mph. Ten to twenty miles per hour over the posted limit is “normal”, I would say. Depending on the speed limit.) Someone mentioned poor gas mileage and logs, etc. Yeah, well everything is documented. For each load there is a paper trail a mile long that lets your company and the DOT see exactly where you were at what time for how long, when you fueled, how many miles you traveled in what time frame, etc. So it would be awful easy to say “Hey, Driver Bob went 1200 miles in an hour and a half. Something’s not right here…”
Silver Fire, trucker-in-training (and daughter of a trucker for 18 years)