No, it’s not a myth. A company I worked for had trucks that would go that fast. We had several tractors with Caterpillar 3406B engines set at 425 horsepower. One was always getting worse fuel mileage then the others. We had the local Cat dealer check out the tractor. They went into the computerized fuel system on the engine and were able to show how fast the driver had been running with it. He had been hitting 118 out on I-10 through Arizona pretty regularly. With a few keystrokes they cut his top end back to 85 MPH and the fuel mileage improved a lot. A lot of the tractors on the road have Detoit Diesel 60 series engines set at 500 horsepower and they will also easily run over a hundered if they are geared right and haven’t had the top speed set down. Is it smart to run that fast? No way. It takes a lot more distance to stop as you get rolling faster. Trucks running close together to “draft” are just an accident waiting to happen.
No, he was coming from Canada, so that was 100 kph. 
While truckers do speed some, especially when no one’s around and they know the road, speeding isn’t the only way to make it there sooner. I don’t know about today, but back when my uncle drove trucks (~20 yrs ago), they also had a habit of, well, not sleeping. Keep driving until you got there, drink lots of coffee, 24 hours of straight driving = no big deal. Both methods are dangerous. Then again, truck drivers are known to be among the more blatant BS’ers around, so I’d never believe anything a trucker said to be the God’s honest truth. It’s not like they have hours on end to hang out talking with friends every other day, so how else to amuse themselves than to try and brag to strangers about how they once drove X-country in snow 3 feet deep in a 5 hours secretly hauling the nuclear warheads that saved the free world and today make $250,000 on a slow year:p.
I work with trucking companies (“Carriers”) in my job so I gave a few people a call after reading your OP. They say it’s impossible; the very fastest trucks might ready 120mph if they aren’t hauling anything heavy, but at that speed it isn’t really that economical and it would be absurdly dangerous; in addition, there’s no way in hell you’d avoid the cops, since at that speed every member of the public you’d pass would be calling the police to report the crazy men in the trucks (and there’s no highway so isolated you won’t pass SOMEONE.) No way you could convoy that fast, they say.
As mmmiiikkkeee points out, truckers generally don’t speed excessively to make deadlines; their preferred method is to avoid sleep and falsify their driver logs so they don’t get nailed for hours-of-work violations. Tired drivers over their legal hours is a very widespread problem in the industry.
I hope Sam is reading this…
BTW, the image of weary truckers jacked up on amphetamines and drafting each other at 100+ mph is not a pretty sight.
A RELATED OBSERVATION…
I can’t imagine what the “wash” (and visual shock) would be like from a truck caravan racing past you at 110 mph while you’re tooling down the road late at night in your Toyota at 63 mph while sucking on a lemon-lime Big Gulp.
[list=1][li]I’ve had my Avenger up just over 120 mph, for ~4 minutes. I know this because I hit 120 just after reaching the 3-lane section of I-75 North of Dayton and I-70 intersects it ~8 miles later. There is a wall on one side and no appreciable shoulder on the other- nowhere for police to hide.[/li]
In a sports car with tight suspension, steering, V-rated tires, etc., it was exhilerating. In anything else with “touring” suspension, big-fat-fluffy touring tires and all the other “refinements,” it’d be suicide IMO.
Driving from Louisville to Lexington, driving perhaps 85-ish, a semi- smoked past me going, probably, 100+. This is over hill-and-dale and with (gentle) bends in the road. he might have been empty, but that cat was hauling.[/list=1]
I commute on a very heavily travelled truck route, occasionally working late and coming home around 10:00. In my old job there was one day a year when I had to work until 2:00 to 4:00 am. I’ve never seen a truck going more than 90 mph; in fact, travelling at 75 mph or so I pass most trucks.
Granted, there’s a big difference between 10:00 pm and 3:00 am, but the northern stretch of this road is near the state border and 40 miles from the closest state police barracks which means it’s almost entirely devoid of police most of the time.
Two things make me think this is a tall tale. Tires on most trucks aren’t in the best of shape; I wouldn’t think most of them could hold up at speeds much over 100 with a full load for any length of time. And, as RickJay pointed out, any truck going absurdly fast will draw police attention very quickly, no matter the time of day.
[only marginally related anecdote]
I was driving on 95 near Kings Dominion in Virginia several years ago, congested and fast-moving as always, when I see a tractor-trailer in the rearview mirror driving like an absolute maniac–close to 100 and weaving in and out of very heavy traffic. It’s one of the very few times I’ve been intimidated on the road–he was out of control. He was out of sight in a flash. About five miles down the road, there he was, pulled over with three or four troopers around him, front and back.
[/only marginally related anecdote]
My Brother!! I also drive an Avenger and occasionally get it up to 125. I have Z rated tires on it and it drives quite smooth at that speed.
um no he’s from the US he was reading his speedo in MPH. he told me 100 MPH, and yes we do know the difference, thank you…
so if its outside your own experience,it must not be true?
Ive seen truck doing at least 100 MPH.
ever driven rural hwys? Try driving from CA to Prince rupert BC. the yellow head #7 HWY in BC .
well, heres my 2 cents:
i live in Nevada and have seen these bad boys cruising-- steady speed-- around 85-95 mph in broad daylight. On a recent trip across the country, i was having a hard time keeping up with these guys in wyoming and nebraska.
id guess the trucker refrenced in the first post was exaggerating, but not by too much!
check this out: just over the hills from where i live is a “secret” automotive testing sight. way cool shit out there, including semi’s cruising around a huge oval track WITH NO DRIVERS!! remote control or somethin’! kinda freaky to watch. they also do 100 mph blowout tests, but you cant get too close and you never know when they do them, so they are “often talked about, seldom seen”, but some of the test drivers confirm they happen. i also got the see the hideous new jeep a long time ago. thought it was ugly then, and i think its ugly now.
It MIGHT be something like … this. Big sister was moving from LA to Greensboro, NC. I volunteered to fly out (dumbass) and help her drive her Honda Civic and her dog back to NC. Night in New Mexico on I-40, she’s driving and I’m trying to get some sleep. I wake up enough to turn over in the passenger seat and notice she’s doing NINETY! Semi trucks are blowing by like they were launched from an aircraft carrier. So… I figured if I was gonna die, at least it’d be fast and I went back to sleep.
CedricR.
One hundred percent correct, Tony Montana.
Based on the fact that I have personally never seen a truck moving faster than 90 mph, it is absolutely impossible that there can be convoys of trucks on isolated rural highways doing 120. :rolleyes:
I can corroborate Daowajan’s story, at least back when in drove in the 70’s.
Late at night, in Wisconsin, the big rigs definitely are doing 90. I was doing 80 and they were blowing by me. And that is scary, especially when about 4 of them go by you in rapid succession.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by thinksnow *
[list=1][li]I’ve had my Avenger up just over 120 mph, for ~4 minutes… In a sports car with tight suspension, steering, V-rated tires, etc., it was exhilerating. In anything else with “touring” suspension, big-fat-fluffy touring tires and all the other “refinements,” it’d be suicide IMO.[/li][/QUOTE]
Hmmm… I had my then-2-year-old 1990 Civic Si at 110-115 for about 35 minutes – this behind a Cavalier I was using as “bear bait.” This was just a little 4-banger, 1.6L, 16-valve engine. The “Si” was supposedly the “sporty” model. It felt exhilerating, but handle fine. This was a very straight stretch of I-20 (I think) connecting Atlanta to Augusta.
Then my 1995 Civic EX (the “EX” replaced the “Si”) I’ve had Maxed at 115 for about 5 minutes on NB I-35 (I think) connecting Austin to Temple. That was mostly to try it out, since I was kinda afraid of getting pulled over. It handled just as well as the older Civic.
My point being, smaller, well-engineered vehicles can do it, too.
Later, a 1994 Bonneville (3.8L pushrod V6) at 110 for about 15 minutes (I-96 Lansing to Brighton, MI), and a 2000 Bonneville at 120 (3.8L OHC V6) for about 10 seconds at various times, mostly just to see how long it takes to get there. The '94 Bonneville was comfy and pretty much your description of a “suicide” car at this speed, but it took it without any problems. The 2000 is admittedly much sportier, and handles exceptionally well. I wouldn’t hesitate to drive it longer on appropriate roads.
1990-2000 Malibus do 180K/h rather well on straights – I like to say they have kind of a “rocket sled” feel to them. The 2000 Suburbans limit at 200K/h, but I ONLY ever did that on a straight for about 2 minutes, and it was certainly dangerous and wouldn’t recommend that to anyone. Nice and stable at 160K/h, though. The 2000 Ford Marquis (yes, that’s what it was called), topped out at 200K/h, and was absolutely fine on a straight, but it felt dangerous as hell doing 50K/h on a curve!
Sorry to through the KM at you; these experiences were in Mexico.
Oh yeah? Well, um … I got my dad’s Ford Escort up over 75 m.p.h. on a back country road when I was in high school! It was an '84, I think. The poor thing screamed at me 'til I slowed down.
A truck driver I once knew told me a great story. He was driving down a straight highway in the middle of nowhere, nobody else on the road, when a voice comes over his CB. “Hey, 18-wheeler, stay in your lane, 'cause I’m about to pass you.” He looked in his rear-view mirrors, but there was nobody in sight, so he was a bit puzzled. Then WHAM, this black Lamborghini sports car flew by him. Not being in it, he couldn’t see the speedometer, but he estimated it as going over 200 m.p.h. He kept expecting to see it scattered across a mile or two of the highway as he drove on …
Sleepy truckers? Yeah right. They crank right along for extended periods of time, that’s for sure.
I can understand how drafting would increase the mileage, but how would it increase the top speed? The front truck doesn’t get any benefit from drafting.
Yeah, those old Escorts didn’t reach all that high of a speed. I had two Escorts of that vintage – an 84 and an 87 – and notice I didn’t put their top speeds up in my previous post. Doing 80 felt dangerous, and scared the hell out of any passengers there may have been. Come to think of it, I didn’t list anything for a 2000 Ranger. I can barely get mine to 90Mph without feeling afraid for my life.