I drive a manual and mentioned that I knew that lower gears would hold back the truck. Not that you were really calling me an idiot 
Nope, just elaborating , wasn’t sure it it was “why the sign” or “why the lower gears” was the focus of your Q.
Anyone ever see those gravel filled off-shoots for runaway trucks? Thats gotta make you wet your pants to have to use.
What would wet my pants more would be the have the breaks go out right at the sign that says: Runaway Truck Lane 17 Miles.
It was just after dark when the truck started down the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania…
The signs might look odd to flatlanders, but having driven down more than a few hills my life using low gear to break my little car, I’m in favor of whatever it takes to encourage those driving big heavy trucks to do likewise.
Should I mention the time we were behind a guy pulling a camper down the Troll’s Ladder, and his brake lights didn’t go off once the whole time? :smack: Sure glad we were behind him and not in front of him, though in the end he made it down safely…
Is that an American or European Suburban?
…And he passed a sign that he should have seen,
Saying, “Shift to low gear, or fifty dollar fine, my friend…”
The song was based on a true story:
From this site:
[sub]When I first saw this thread last night, I was going to post this, but forgot. Thanks, flodnak.[/sub]
Whenever Barb and I used to drive south from our old hometown, we’d go through the Scranton-Wilkes Barre and break into that song – which I was aware was founded on a true incident, but didn’t know the details. Thanks, Robby, for supplying them. (Our town was the scene for another Chapin song, “A Better Place to Be,” and two circumstances from that song have personal connections: When I was growing up, I had a neighbor, father of one of my friends and classmates, who worked at Miller Tool & Die, and the bar where the song is set is still in existence, though now home to a younger set – one of my boys DJ’d there on Friday and Saturday nights, and I used to go there regularly with “our kids” when going back to visit.
Downshifting also works fine with an automatic transmission.
Why the sign? Because someone unfamiliar with the road won’t know how steep or how long the grade is. The rule of thumb is to go down a hill in the gear you need to use to climb the hill or one lower.
If I’m bobtailing, pulling an empty or a very light load, I can usually just set my jake brakes to 6 (all 6 cylinders) and I’ll generally not gain much speed coasting down. Maybe touch the brakes now and then.
The truck I have now has an automatic transmission but I can manually shift it and lock the transmission in what gear I want it to be in. So if I lock it into 9th and put the jakes on high, I can usually keep it in the 45-55 mph range on a 5% downhill. What I’ll keep my eye on is the tach most. When that goes higher than I like, I’ll check the speedometer and brake till my speed has dropped 5 mph. Then I’ll release the brakes to let them cool off and the air pressure build back up (if it’s dropped to 105).
I’ve come across some downgrades where they have a maximum speed posted depending on what your gross weight is. My attitude on those is that they probably have a really good idea what this grade is like and I’ll do what I need to do to stay at least 5 mph below that posted speed.