I spent the last few days out of town on a work trip to a buddies scrap yard again to work on his magnet cranes and other heavy equipment then tried to get out of there early yesterday to beat the snowstorm home.
Didn't make it. Last 120 miles were in the full on storm.

Anyhow, about 60 miles from home I picked up a small car behind me who was apparently in a hurry. Problem was the roads were already drifting over pretty well, 6+" rolling drifts, and there was a stiff cross wind to deal with so the guy wouldn't pass me. However, he was happy tailgate me for ~40 miles as I drove.

We did get to a point about 20 miles from home where the road was clean enough for him to pass only to go about 3 miles before it went back to what we had been driving in. He made it about half a mile in that before he was down to 25 MPH and dropping fast.

As he was doing his damnedest to put some distance between me and him, and failing miserably at it, he hit several hard drifts in a row that nearly bounced right off the road thusly slowing him down far enough his snow cloud dropped off enough that I could see past him.
Nothing coming so rolled past him and sped back up to my speed I had been going again and rolled on.

Guess he found out the hard way why I was driving the speed I was. A 3/4 ton pickup loaded down with 1000 pounds of stuff in the back plus pulling ~ 8000 - 9000 #'s of trailer breaks trails way better than a small 3000# car!

He at that point, caught up and followed, but this time stayed about 1/4 mile back instead of being on my butt. I guess he learned about why when you catch a big pickup driving well under the speed limit in a storm you probably should do the same!

For all of his impatience he got to be the leader for about 5 minutes and it proved to not be a very fun 5 minutes to have the job then had to go back to sitting where he was when he started anyway. (probably far less in a hurry and a bit more humble from then on.)

As for my trip this one's trade for my primary pay got me a mid 80's Case 30 x 4 trencher rig. (6" x 48" trenching capacity)

Basically this but without the backhoe and a bit more worn and engine area plus Wisconsin V4 VH4D engine is in bits.

The engine is junk and in pieces beyond being worth rebuilding but I have a similar low hour military surplus Wisconsin V4 I picked up a few years ago that will drop right in which, if the boxes of parts have everything else that came off the machine, shouldn't take more than a few days to get all sorted out and running.

 

However, he was happy tailgate me for ~40 miles as I drove.

My dad always liked telling the story of a guy that tailgated him once in a heavy fog in Ann Arbor, MI. After several miles and turns, with the tailgater fixated on my dad's taillights, my dad stopped. The other guy got out and yelled, "Where are we?". My dad told him, "In my driveway."

 

My dad always liked telling the story of a guy that tailgated him once in a heavy fog in Ann Arbor, MI. After several miles and turns, with the tailgater fixated on my dad's taillights, my dad stopped. The other guy got out and yelled, "Where are we?". My dad told him, "In my driveway."

I know of several idiots who rear ended people, due to tailgating in bad weather, and not one seems to have learned his lesson and all have the same basic defense excuses to this day.

"Well, If the other person would have been driving faster I wouldn't have had to follow them so close."

Okay? So following them that close gets you where you're going how much faster?

If I'm being tailgated I certainly don't put any effort into going faster. Most often I even go a bit slower just to piss whomever it is off more.

As for the guy following me it definitely would not have ended well. Along with my trencher i had two 26' 3'x 8' heavy wall rectangular tubes that were butted up against the front rail of my trailer. either one of those would have impaled his car well back beyond the driver's seat.

Mostly, I really hate tailgaters in any weather.

 

"Drive your car according to the situation" Simple and plain enough.

 

"Drive your car according to the situation" Simple and plain enough.

I wish more did and found it that simple (it really should be). It took me a long time to get into a position of having to justify needing a full Class A Commercial Driver's Licence so when I did the testing to get it I loaded it with everything I could including HasMat endorsements. Not easy and not cheap compared to the normal American Class D one most people get.

Because f that I do my best to drive safely and respect the rules of the road plus everyone who on the road with me that deserves respect as well. Personally I think we give too many drivers licences to the wrong kinds of people and let too many bad drives stay on the road as is.

When my Ex came here from Turkey and got her American licence it sort of bugged me at how easy she said our tests were. Her description of the Turkish drivers licence testing system sounded far closer to what I had to do to get and keep my commercial one. Not everyone gets one and you don't just get a free pass on keeping it just because you have had an accident that was your fault, yet.

 

I drive S&R ... Safe and Reasonable.

S&R can be 90 MPH in some locations, 20 MPH in others.

 

A 3/4 ton pickup loaded down with 1000 pounds

This reminds me of some fun on a twisting country road in Kentucky. My nephew panicked when I hit an old, familiar turn at 60 MPH in a Ford Econoline. He's screaming, "You can't do this turn at 60!" I said, "I've been driving route this since it was a dirt road. Shut up and I'll show you how it's done."

What he didn't know was that I had at least 1000 pounds of concrete and steel that put my center of mass about 22 inches above ground level.

 

This reminds me of some fun on a twisting country road in Kentucky. My nephew panicked when I hit an old, familiar turn at 60 MPH in a Ford Econoline. He's screaming, "You can't do this turn at 60!" I said, "I've been driving route this since it was a dirt road. Shut up and I'll show you how it's done."

What he didn't know was that I had at least 1000 pounds of concrete and steel that put my center of mass about 22 inches above ground level.

How did I miss this Thread, Freaking hell funny. I won't add mine but, the road has a lot of Batshit Crazy people with a load of crap that isn't explainable to normal people that haven't left the shire.

OMG, this is funny.

kv

 

A co-worker once told the story of following a semi-trailer truck through Kansas.

He was driving a VW bug and the semi had made a nice track in the snow. He dropped one pair of wheels into a track and barely had to steer. However, when he went to exit the highway the steering was frozen. It was only with some effort that he was able to break it free and get of at the exit ramp.

Apparently freezing from snow was a problem for the VW. He told the above story after using a heat gun to melt the ice from his VW after he arrived at work.

 

My dad always liked telling the story of a guy that tailgated him once in a heavy fog in Ann Arbor, MI. After several miles and turns, with the tailgater fixated on my dad's taillights, my dad stopped. The other guy got out and yelled, "Where are we?". My dad told him, "In my driveway."

OMG,

kv

Edit: I read this to my wife, she practically fell off the bed laughing.

 

How did I miss this Thread, Freaking hell funny. I won't add mine but, the road has a lot of Batshit Crazy people with a load of crap that isn't explainable to normal people that haven't left the shire.

OMG, this is funny.

kv

Feel free to add any driving stories you want. It's what this thread is about.

 

Feel free to add any driving stories you want. It's what this thread is about.

This Thread might go viral, the road with people stuff that doesn't make sense either good, bad, indifferent.

My experience with over 25 years of on the road crap I've seen as a service Tech, some is just unbelievable, others odd and still others that won't make any sense.

I'll be back later tonight, gotta get more junk done today made breakfast popped in and re-read this stuff, I just couldn't resist. Because you just pushed me over the edge, I'll contribute.

You did well with this one.

Made my day,

kv

 

You did well with this one.

It's okay. I promise to screw something up later that probably isn't even my own.

 

Apparently freezing from snow was a problem

Similar: A little Honda 160 motorcycle in Indianapolis. About 2 miles of straight and easy with no stops. A freezing rain as the temperature dropped at night fall. I was putt-ing along at a very casual 30 MPH and came into a turn where it was prudent to slow down.

The carburetor was frozen.
I shifted into 4th gear and used the brakes to bog the engine to a stall.
So grateful that turning off the ignition key locked the steering so I couldn't just turn the engine off...not.

Following at night: I had an English Ford panel truck. Kind of like a baby Ford Econoline with a 4 cylinder sewing machine engine. The rear was so small that I couldn't lay down and take a nap back there.

Going west over the mountains to San Diego. That baby panel truck was so weak that I couldn't get out of second gear without losing speed, so I followed a flat bed truck full of hay for 2 hours. Two hours of looking into a flurry of hay that looked like a minor snow storm.

There was a good side to this. At the top of the mountains I was nearly out of gas, so I turned the engine off, put it in neutral, and coasted downhill at about 70 MPH for about 25 minutes. Then I saw a gas station and pulled in just after dawn to buy fuel.

Take-offs: I never cared whether my vehicle was stylish or powerful. I never cared whether it was day or night. I never cared what the weather was. Riding a motorcycle in a freezing rain, driving until dawn, didn't matter. When I decided to go, I went.

 

Apparently freezing from snow was a problem for the VW. He told the above story after using a heat gun to melt the ice from his VW after he arrived at work.

Stuff freezing up on a longer trip is common to every vehicle. Brakes rotors, pads, drums and shoes getting iced over is still common here when the conditions are just right. You go to hit your brakes and they are suspiciously firm yet have no real braking power for several hundred yards until the ice wears or melts off then all of a sudden you have normal brakes again that are over applied.

It doesn't happen a lot but I have had it happen enough to be very wary of what might or might not happen when I go to stop after being on the road for a while. Typically if I think the conditions are even close to being possible for that to happen I will purposely test and even ride the brakes every 10 - 15 minutes just enough know they are working properly and to keep them warm, if they did feel iced up, while traveling just to make sure they are good.

 

I needed to commute to work, it was 1 and 1/2 hrs to the town the Main Sears unit was at, in Price Utah. I think it's Route 6 a canyon and should you take it be aware it's one of the most horrible Routes in winter. I would stay a week in hotels then commute back home, I didn't want to move at the time had a girlfriend anyhow I was trying to make it down off the summit into a town called Spanish Fork Ut.

I came around a corner my gas tank sloshed it was the shady side of a turn around 5pm when suddenly I found myself in Sliding this car was a 72 Thunderbird more like a Lincoln 2 door green, loved it. So, Big car big heavy spin rear wheel drive, I then began to do the rate of wheel turn opposite of spin on one side is a steep drop off the mountain and the other a mountain grade up, I was in "slow mo" time stops still, I could see the oncoming traffic and their faces paralyzed with death and horror of my situation.

I rounded the corner and now am apposed with an inside turn in the opposite direction to a full after 360˚ turn to do with two 180˚ in opposite directions, Now I'm forced to control the first 180˚ and back to a 180˚ I begin to regain control on the sunny side of the turn, I pulled over to breathe just a quick check to make to remove the seat from my posterior. I can still see the faces of the people from the oncoming traffic, it's just one such experience on that road, I might have been an article in the news paper had I not started driving at 12, an Old 1950 pickup in the backwoods, with a bad worm gearbox, it had a Knob on the steering wheel with it you had to do a full 180˚ in either direction, to go left or right.

kv

Edit: BTW, I stayed within two lanes on my side of the road the whole time. Ya, so lucky.

 

Same road in the morning now, summer just after the summit Route 6. I came round the corner just outside "Helper Utah" to find a guy standing in front of his blue Gremlin or other small car, I can't recall the small car model, no matter anyway his arms are on his hips looking at the Rock on his hood, I pull over to ask are you ok, he's angry over the fact he can't continue traveling. He say's what am I going to do now? I'll call for help when hit the next town.

The sight seen was a rock in the middle of his car above the motor which ground it to a stop and the front wheels were tilted in from the top from the weight and force of the rock pinning it to the road.

He was flabbergasted, I was taken by the moment with the fact this guy just escaped death by bolder. Go figure. You just can't make this this stuff up.

Again, strange road stuff.

kv

 

it was the shady side of a turn around 5pm when suddenly I found myself in Sliding

That reminds me...Going to Big Bear ski resort in an Olds Toronado. Huge car with a 454 engine and front wheel drive. Probably January in Southern California. I was on a 2 lane road sliced into the side of a mountain. I couldn't see 100 feet ahead because of a curve to the right and the mountain on the right. A little stream of melt water naturally ran across the road, and it was frozen. My car changed to the left lane in the blink of an eye. Good thing nobody was coming the other way at the moment!

If that stream had been twice as wide, I would have gone 2 lanes to the left and dropped like Wylie Coyote in a cartoon.
I survived that out of pure luck.

 

Following at night: I had an English Ford panel truck. Kind of like a baby Ford Econoline with a 4 cylinder sewing machine engine. The rear was so small that I couldn't lay down and take a nap back there.

Ford Escort? Had one back in the early 70's, a 1960 model. Vacuum wipers that wouldn't work going up any type of grade, even on city streets.

 

Ford Escort?

No, an English Ford panel truck, as in, "British Lorry" or Ford Anglia. Little tiny fellow shaped like a 1970 Ford Econoline with the hood and engine out in front of the front seats. I could almost see over the top of it if I stood up as tall as I could get.