- Thread starter R Kraft
- Start date
round hear we just have an escape lane, it looks like a gravel trap. it stops before the bridge.
and in 1993 there was the bolton brow disaster (which was a few miles from here) where a lorrys brakes failed and 6 people died as a result. ( the news report shows the carnage of the disaster.
and in 1993 there was the bolton brow disaster (which was a few miles from here) where a lorrys brakes failed and 6 people died as a result. ( the news report shows the carnage of the disaster.
Bobupndown
What could possibly go wrong?
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They must be expecting a lot of runaway trucks if they go to the trouble of installing a catch system do they have this on every hill??? 
8ob
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Trucks are driven like cars these days and the drivers taught that gears are for going and brakes are for stopping. We we always taught to use the gears to slow down and approach hills or junctions at the speed you intend to negotiate them, these days they roar up to junctions so fast and anchor up at the last second 
Bob
Bob
Red'n'Black
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Same here, was always taught to go down through the gears on bikes and cars and still do it today. I see it regularly coming down Birdlip Hill, most people are dabbing the brakes evey 100 yards. Fourth gear controls it quite nicely, no brakes needed at all.Trucks are driven like cars these days and the drivers taught that gears are for going and brakes are for stopping. We we always taught to use the gears to slow down and approach hills or junctions at the speed you intend to negotiate them, these days they roar up to junctions so fast and anchor up at the last second
Bob
Having experienced complete brake failure once, coming down Mt Vesuvius of all places, if I'd been using the 'new' approach I wouldn't be here. What was the thinking behind that?
Other Daniel
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I remember that part of my HGV test was, from a standing start, to accelerate
up through the box a few gears, then to come back down to a standstill using
only the gears.
up through the box a few gears, then to come back down to a standstill using
only the gears.
Wildefalcon
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The official word is that brakes are good enough these days that this no longer applies. " Gears to go, brakes to slow". Or so my kids were taught when at the kids car club.
I still prefer to use the gears. Mind you my vehicle still has drums all round.
Interestingly, electric cars use the engine to slow, driven correctly you should only use the brake to pinch off the last bit of movement before coming to a dead stop.
I still prefer to use the gears. Mind you my vehicle still has drums all round.
Interestingly, electric cars use the engine to slow, driven correctly you should only use the brake to pinch off the last bit of movement before coming to a dead stop.
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Most drivers these days have never driven a manual truck, and those that haven’t probably don’t know how to manually knock down a gear in an auto.Trucks are driven like cars these days and the drivers taught that gears are for going and brakes are for stopping. We we always taught to use the gears to slow down and approach hills or junctions at the speed you intend to negotiate them, these days they roar up to junctions so fast and anchor up at the last second
Bob
Cobbler
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I was following an artic down from the Air Balloon, Birdlip some years ago & suddenly realised the drivers door was open & the driver was climbing out & jumped. The truck rolled on several hundred yards crossing the 2 up lanes before burying its nose in the opposite bank & jacknifing. Turned out the truck had lost his brakes & the driver decided to abandon ship. This is a busy hill with a constant stream of traffic, I think it was probably the only time that day when the road was clear. He could have easily killed dozens, caused complete carnage, totally stupid thing to do, some brakes must have remained as it wasn’t rolling away that quickly when he jumped.
zx9
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That is the way my Dad taught me to drive in the early eighties, the way he had driven trucks since learning to drive road vehicles for the railways just post WW2.
Prior to taking my test I had a few lessons with an instructor, one of the first things he said was 'don't use the gears to slow down, clutches and gear boxes cost more than brakes', that would have been in '82 or '83 so not a new way of driving at all.
round hear we just have an escape lane, it looks like a gravel trap. it stops before the bridge.
Pretty sure that was there when I moved up here in 1978 - it was installed after a HGV hit what used to be the Post Office at the bottom of the hill in the mid 60's. Its a long steep hill.
It used to be regularly ploughed up and loosened - you hardly ever saw weeds growing in it. It used to be pretty regularly used too - often used to see trucks, or vans, deep in it - saw two in it once! Used to often see people parked in the approach to it too, ignoring the many signs - so idiocy isn't a new thing!
I guess if it gets too compacted, and somethings makes it to the end, there's a pretty solid embankment from the old Baliff Bridge branch line!
Baliff Bridges was the home of Firths carpets - they had two enclosed bridges over that road at the bottom linking the two factory buildings either side - used to see their little single seater shunters towing specialised trailers with several carpets rolls in between them. Now one side is a housing estate, the other many little units, or even apartments.
So not only engineering where the public bought cheap elsewhere.
Bobupndown
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Changing down through a gearbox when slowing down is the way I was taught, it's second nature to me. I find the way my son drives alien to me, but he's been taught the modern way, who's to say who is right?
chriskelland
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Exactly the same as the old Talma retarder on coaches years ago. The power produced is used to put charge into the battery.
Morrisman
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That's how I ride my bike, using throttle and gears for slowing down, rather than ride the brakes. I still have the same front brake pads in it that it came with, 30,000 miles ago. The BMW engine braking is phenomenal.Trucks are driven like cars these days and the drivers taught that gears are for going and brakes are for stopping. We we always taught to use the gears to slow down and approach hills or junctions at the speed you intend to negotiate them, these days they roar up to junctions so fast and anchor up at the last second
Bob
With that truck stopping system, it seems a little over kill. Depending on what load its carrying the driver could get his head taken off. Why not just have a gravel run out, with the gravel getting deeper the further you go? Thats how they used to do it here in the UK. They have it on race tracks too.
Morrisman
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Stay in whatever gear you are in until you stop, that's what my daughter was taught a couple of years ago. Then change down to neutral, or first, once you've stopped.
Whatever happened to being in the correct gear all the time, or you aren't in control of the vehicle?And why do people stop ten feet short of the line nowadays, when joining a main road? I see them all the time, stopped several yards up the road, as if they are scared of the traffic.
