◊ USA Trucking ◊
USA Trucking and around Britain and its roads and life style.

Here we visit the USA for a change. Wayne who is a Canadian driver, often into the USA, mailed me the following photo and text. I thought it was very interesting and a good insight into HGV on USA roads. When reading it I was thinking of another photo in the gallery, from Australia, which is three times as long, I am sure if it tried to go up a hill it would get wheel spin and bust clutch! So here is Wayne’s account.

John, in addition to the page I’ve sent you .......I don’t know who was driving trucks and trailers are interchangeable I have driven that unit fleet number 115 its about a 1998 Kenworth Cummings powered about 475 BPH the trailers are older about 1990........the gross legal weight is 63500kgs the load would be gas or diesel or combination from 49000 litres to 57000 litres (gas is lighter than diesel)The hill is called Field its a six mile drop ,there is a mandatory brake check at the top the direction of travel is west. The speed of the truck would be around 40kmh with descent held by a Jake brake retarder which saves brakes (very noisy and use is banned in most towns) the destination of this unit would probably be Golden British Columbia. After this hill the highway smoothes out until 10 mile out of Golden when there’s another brake check a ten mile drop (with the exception of a mother of a hill) into Golden where there’s a weigh scale where you get a good rollocking from inspection staff if your brakes are smoking. These hills are minor compared to the Salmo in South eastern British Columbia which is 17 miles up then 17 miles down takes 1 .5 hours to run loaded.

That’s the end of Wayne’s account and thank you very much for that excellent taste of HGv American style. I am not sure where the longest hill in the Uk is, however I can recount a event that I personally had when on the run from Biggin Hill to Westerham Kent. This is not a long hill USA style but steep enough in parts, and continues near all the way to Westerham. The Vacuum brakes on the HGv were all that was available, the hand brake was adjusted for two clicks or near enough. I had to stop for some minutes before entering Westerham to allow the brake drums to cool and shrink back down to size, if I did not do this, then when I arrived at Westerham which had a halt sign on an inclining hill, the vehicle could not be held by the brakes, hand brake included which would now touch my collar and I lost count of the clicks. The first time I did this run I held the vehicle on the clutch and prayed that a gap in the traffic would come, if not the vehicle behind me would have been my sandpit stop. After that first event I always stopped for a rest. I don’t know how drivers get on today with modern trucks, that was the late 1950 early 1960 period. Do trucks have a retarder today in the Uk and what is the ratio of drums to disks. Mail your account (click here) or story names withheld if required.

below are photographs of,, Accident Response Units at Telford Services,,,, Shearings Coaches low flying under Keele Services on the M6,,, Professional Toastmaster Services who could await you at your next Transport Cafe stop,,,, A Motorway Photograph in the Uk, actually this is a dual carriageway connecting to a Motorway in Britains green and pleasant land.

USA Trucking.

Standing by at Telford services on the M54, complete with mops and buckets waiting for that tailgater to crash.
Personally I would not like to do their job, to gungy for me, Ugh!

This photo was taken from a flying saucer hovering over keele services.

I am not sure which Transport cafe had these Toastmasters available for that tired driver who wants meat and three veg, followed by a bottle of the best wine (or mug ot tea) with toast,,,,, or have I got that wrong somehow!
Seriously chaps very smart outfits they have there, could be better than an office job!

I get asked for Motorway pics quite a lot so here is another taken with a ten times optical zoom on a hazy day as you can see.

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