Posted by The tractor vet on September 17, 2012 at 08:12:15 from (75.24.7.240):
In Reply to: Ice Road Truckers posted by Phil Scarborough on September 17, 2012 at 04:17:39:
Watched it a couple times and thought it was the biggest joke i have ever seen . I have driven big trucks since 1964 and on all kinds of road conditions . Been involved in three accidents witch none were my fault. Thank god. one speeding ticket in a big truck and yes it was my fault there . Driven every major snow storm and blizzard that has hit east of the Mississippi and never got hung up due to the weather . Learned long ago that when roads get bad never drive any faster then your comfortable with and still maintain control . Let the guys that think they are invincible go ahead and go you will catch up to them down the road someplace . know your truck better then ya know your best girl . Do not tailgate do nothing stupid and above all things keep the fithwheel well greased and keep the drives loaded . I trained many a guys to pull coal buckets over our local state roads and the back county roads in the winter and we were out going after the first load of the day while the state boys were still in there warm beds . Breaking the path at 3 in the morning with a empty coal bucket going to some strip mine down in the hills thru a foot or two of snow and ice was always fun and made for about and hour or so of shear white knuckle driving up and down steep hills and around sharp curves with 150 to 500 foot shear drop offs and no guard rails . Then a lot of times on the back county roads you would get hug up and somebody had to make the hike on foot back to the mine and get a loader or dozer to open the road . Ya got what ever would start. Most mines we loaded out of it was self service loading and once you were loaded you still might have to fill the bucket on the loader with slack coal and treat the hills to get out . Back then the state did not salt the roads much and on the hills they would place piles of ash and some salt mixed in and leave a broken handled shovel for you to spread the ashes and salt mixture yourself .and when the piles were gone you were on your own . There were times that for us to get up a hill the first truck would make a run on the hill and trip the tailgate and spread some coal and do this till he spun out then back down and out of the way while the next guy in line would make a bonzi run on it and do the same . One hill coming out of Bergholtz Ohio and another down by West Point Ohio were plum nasty . Back in the day of the 318's and 335 Cummins's you knew how much you had on by what gear you pulled the hill in With 4.33 -4.44 gears in the rear if you had 30-33 ton on it was forth gear if you had 33-37 ton it was third gear If you had 40 -45 ton it was second gear You made a run on the hill for all ya had and usually that ment you hit the bottom in seventh or seventh over ya got on split then ya started skip shiften and ya had best not miss a shift. I have a cousin that ran the west and was always telling me about the BIG hills out there . In 1977 him and his wife came to visit for the weekend . Saturday morning i had to go load a load of coal for monday and Toby went with me and my buddy , i had just bought the new 1977 4300 Eagle with the NTC 350 cummins and it was reworked big time 13 speed and 4.44 gears Toby thought that it was a super nice truck and seamed to like it better then his KW The first ten miles of the hour and a half ride was on nice two lane but once we went thru Kennsington He went from just setting there to one hand on the dash one hand hanging on to the vent window frame and OH MY GOD where did you find these roads and it got even better as the hills got steeper the curves got sharper and the road got narrower , then came the back dirt and gravel road back to the mine and down into the bottom of the pit to load . Then the load drag home . He informed me that we were completely NUTS and that little trip was the wildest and crazy ride he had ever been on . Dropping off them little humps and bumps and hitting the bottom with the Jake cracking at 70-75 MPH and topping the next one at 20-25 with the Pyrometer pushing 1250-1300 with the Lt.ft of the tractor twisted up from the torque . And that day was Sunny and about 75 degrees Not mins 10 degrees with a foot of snow.
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