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About Me
I'm the Pickups host here at Edmunds CarSpace.com - be sure to check out the Pickups forums if you have or are interested in one!
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The Big Rigs
We're gonna talk about the big ones... trucks and buses that require those 3 marker lights front and rear. Everything from dual rear wheel pickups to class 8 trucks to the bus that takes you to work.
 I was talking to Vikki (pilot of the red Pete on your left) the other night, and she told a story that emphasizes a point I made in my CarSpace Guide Driving With The Big Rigs - specifically item number 4.
Vik said she was hauling a piece of construction equipment on a flatbed. She was slowing down for a traffic light when another vehicle not only changed into her lane, but did so while slowly coasting, causing Vik to really lay into the whoa pedal. At that point, Vikki said she heard the terrifying sound of a tie-down chain snapping due to the change in weight transfer force. "All I could think of was that bulldozer joining me in the cab," she said. After a barrage of bad language into the CB, Vik pulled over and replaced the chain before proceeding.
The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles includes the following stat in its driver's manual:
- stopping distance including reaction time from 55 mph in a car is 190 feet
- stopping distance including reaction time for a loaded tractor-trailer with hot brakes is 430 feet
Before you make that lane change to "jockey for position" at the red light, make sure you have not cut the available stopping room for a much larger vehicle behind you. Unless of course, you like the idea of potentially being pushed into an intersection of cross traffic at speed. Or as in the situation Vikki had, if the other chains had not held, you could cause serious injury or death to a trucker without ever making vehicular contact.
 Too much information, or TMI... a phrase of the current time that pretty much refers to the disclosure of data you did not need to know under any circumstances.
This is the dash of a 2007 Kenworth. Compared to what's in front of the average car driver, this would indeed qualify as TMI. Most folks driving a Chevy Aveo aren't the least bit interested in having an exhaust pyrometer, but it's required reading for a trucker.
So the question is, what should drivers be aware of, and what information is lacking? For me, the minimum gauges are: speedometer, tachometer, oil pressure, fuel level, voltmeter, coolant temperature. Any turbocharged engine really should have a boost gauge, and with the clear majority of transmissions being automatics, a transmission temperature gauge should also appear a lot more often. Unfortunately, too many people are out there on the roads who know speed and fuel level... and that's it. They have no idea anything else is wrong until some big red light comes on. A proper set of gauges can actually warn you that things are headed in the wrong direction before damage is done or you're left stranded calling for roadside assistance.
Unfortunately, drivers have been given so much to play with beyond the gauge cluster. Instead of trying to finely tune the dual-zone electronic temperature control on a hot summer day in stop-and-go highway traffic on the way to the beach, they could notice the coolant temperature rising, signaling an impending blow of the radiator cap. Instead of programming the navigation screen to find things they drive to all the time, the voltmeter is letting them know that the battery isn't up to the job and will be shutting down shortly.
No, I don't need personal details of someone's life, but I'd rather have TMI from my vehicle.
Interesting article in the July/August 2006 issue of Road King magazine regarding the use of turn signals. It cited a survey where the majority of Americans revealed they don't use them to change lanes, and the reasons cited are pathetic...
- The number one reason, given by 42 percent of drivers: “Don’t have enough time.”
- Twenty-three percent admitted they are just plain “lazy”
- 17 percent said they don’t use turn signals because when they do, they forget to turn them off.
- changing lanes too frequently to bother (12 percent)
- it’s not important (11 percent)
- because other drivers don’t (8 percent)
The article worded the last group best: And then there’s the 7 percent of drivers whose thought process makes sharing the road a whole lot scarier. They said they avoid flicking on their signals because: “It adds excitement to driving.”
My personal pet peeve of purveyors of piratical performance (I always did well in alliteration exercises) are those I call the "One-Flashers" - those people who think just one quick blink of a turn signal is sufficient warning that they're going to cut me off. What these wonderfully attentive and respectful drivers fail to realize is, when one immediately cancels the turn signal, the other drivers now have no idea whether you thought better of the lane change and are staying put.
So in the interest of avoiding an unnecessary bumper-to-fender encounter, I offer my personal solution. People had trouble determining following distances in actual feet, so the Two-Second Rule was developed which works at any speed. Similarly, I came up with the Three-Flash (for lane changes) and Ten-Flash (for full turns) rules. When changing lanes, activate your turn signal in such time to get three full flashes before you actually make the physical move, and leave it on until the change is complete. When you're about to turn a corner or enter a driveway, try to get ten flashes off - the faster you're traveling, the sooner you have to activate the turn signal to do this. Both of these "rules" will give other drivers enough time to understand and react to what you're about to do.
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