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Title: Fair warning.
Date Posted: Mon Apr/14/14 at 3:29am

Kefka
Posts: 535
Joined: 30-Oct-12

For the smarter people who read this, it'll be a "no shit..." kind of thing. So, here goes. If you are on the highway and you want to pass a trucker, be sure to give that person a couple hundred feet before you pass. It takes a tractor-trailer vehicle a football field (300 yards) to stop if the road conditions are good. If you cut one of us off and then apply your brakes, you're basically committing suicide. On an average, the combined vehicle weight of one of us is 80,000 lbs (40 tons). That give us approx. The same destructive force as a rather large non-nuclear bomb. Don't cut us off. Seriously. It's against the law in a lot of states and carries a nasty ticket. $1,750 for first offense. Leave us room and we won't kill you. Easy right?
Date Posted: Mon Apr/14/14 at 5:55am

Boyachi
Posts: 1553
Joined: 02-Nov-11

First and foremost, glad that you are alive.
Secondly, I back up your claims. I was in a class with a trucker who was talking about this sort of thing right as the teacher got to it.
As far as destructive force, their was a police chase video where the semi went off the road, took out three or so trees, then got back on the road like nothing really happened. The size of those trees? They were twice the size of the ones they plant curb side. A honda civic can cut through small curb tree and then get wrapped around the second. Saw that happen in my neighborhood.
So anyone that thinks they are Usain Bolt, remember by comparison a semi is Juggernaut.
Date Posted: Thu Apr/17/14 at 8:55am

Draco_lich
Posts: 1073
Joined: 07-May-10

i agree... though... one accidents i saw was on an icy highway... 3 vehicle accident, one semi was broken down, the driver went to go find shelter with heat (with flares and flashers on... lots of notice too) and a cadillac slid into the back of the trailer, grazign it, while they waited in the police cruiser for the truck driver to return, another truck-trailer (with a load of steel on the back) slid down the slope fairly slowly, but it was enough to make that cadillac fold up like an accordian... luckily, no one was hurt...

the point here is that even at a slow rate of travel, it does not matter what vehicle you are in, if a semi is going to hit you dead-on... you are likely not going to survive, it's because there is so much momentum in those trucks, and they are much harder to stop than a normal automobile, and take much more time to accerate and slow to a stop, it is simple physics
Date Posted: Sun Jun/08/14 at 1:59pm

Kefka
Posts: 535
Joined: 30-Oct-12

It takes on average 300ft (1 American Football field) to stop a fully loaded tractor-trailer combination vehicle. My truck uses air brakes, which aren't very efficient. Hydraulic brakes are much more efficient, but completely impractical for a tractor-trailer. Mainly because, when the trailer is dropped, the brake lines would have to be completely bled of fluid before the next driver could use it. Also, it would greatly increase the weight of the vehicle. Most people don't know, but a tractor-trailer is legally limited in the United States to 80,000lbs GVW (Gross Vehicle Weight). Next year though, that will be increased to 100,000lbs GVW. Which means all kinds of laws will have to change. Right now, here's how the max weights work out:

Steer Tire MAX weight: 12,000lbs.
Drive Axles MAX: 34,000lbs
Tandem Axles MAX: 34,000lbs.
Total Max. weight: 80,000lbs.

It is worth noting that the tandem axles are on the trailer. Also, the "truck" part of the combination vehicle is called a tractor. The trailer is called a semi-trailer solely because the trailer only has a tandem axle. A full trailer will have an axle right behind the kingpin and at the rear of the trailer. The kingpin is the part that couples the tractor and trailer together.



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