Yep, or burn up the trailer brakes to save their own brakes in their self owned rig.

I submit that there is a happy medium whereupon braking effectiveness can be significantly improved while keeping costs at a reasonable level.

What i'd really like to see is better truck bumpers, maybe incorporating some sort of airbag technology.

That's where the driver skill comes in. Planning ahead, projecting traffic.... The driver can do quite a bit to ensure safety.

The downside is, the safer truck driver slows traffic in congested, otherwise fast-moving traffic. It's like having the stupid kids in public schools holding up the rest of the class.

We could improve things. I think the problem with "making the rigs lighter" is that to improve the braking, things would have to get more sturdy. So now they need to be light and sturdy?

So you've got a trailer with what 10,000#, 20,000# or 40,0000# (or is it more) of crap in the back. The rigs running 32 super-wide R compound tires and 36" disk brakes on everyone with ABS. He slams on the brakes, then all 40,000 pounds of peanut butter want to go through the front wall of the trailer. So we've suddenly had to heavily reinforce the trailer to keep the stuff in it from destroying everything in it's path. Not only that, but because of the new forces put on everything between the peanut butter and the ground, we've had to reinforce everything, making it weigh twice as much as it did before. Now we need more, bigger, grippier tires.

Honestly, I think the big thing is that the truck drivers need the proper training and checks and balances, but even more important, car drivers need the proper training. It's way to easy and I see it happen all of the time, for a car to whip into the gap in front of a semi that's stopping at a light. Suddenly the space that the driver thought he had to stop in in shorter.

I'm sure that there are some numbnut truck drivers, but I suspect a bigger problem is oblivious, idiot car drivers are a bigger part of the problem.

Are the 80,000lb tractors + trailers really running over that many cars because the car in front is out braking them?

Stopping Distances for Cars Versus Trucks

Speed Reaction/Braking Distance Cars Reaction/Braking Distance Trucks Stopping Distance Cars Stopping Distance Trucks

40 mph 44' / 80' 44' / 125' 124' 169'
55 mph 60' / 165' 60' / 275' 225' 335'
65 mph 71' / 245' 71' / 454' 316' 525'

* Above estimates are for 80,000 lb., loaded tractor-trailers and mid-size passenger cars traveling on a dry, level road. Source: National Safety Council's Defensive Driving Course for Professional Truck Drivers.

http://www.ortrucking.org/stopping.htm

Trucks are involved in well over 4,000 vehicle fatalaties per year. It's a good bet some of those are rear end collisions.

I've also got to think that getting 50,000# of loaded truck to stop as fast as a car, would put a strain on roads.

That's where the driver skill comes in. Planning ahead, projecting traffic.... The driver can do quite a bit to ensure safety.

if some folks in cars would try this..
it would be so much easier for all..
most folks focus on the one car in front of them..if that.

Rika

I agree that drivers of all manner and shapes are largely idiotic, and that proper policing of existing laws would help. But so would better brakes on these gigantic beasts.

Maybe from that Japanese 'silly putty'... :D



KT

Actually they were designed to transport military equipment. The modern DOT standards for interstates are still based on these requirements.

- - - - -

Most over-the-road trucker guys are fantastic drivers and professional. I have WAY more problems with the idiot out there with a Class C "crackerjack box" license who's chugging down the interstate in an 18,000 pound motorhome or the guy who's in some jacked-up, unstable, 8,000-pound small-penis-compensating SUV/truck thing endangering everyone else by driving it like a prick at high speed, weaving in and out of traffic lanes.

Yes, better brakes, bumpers, road design, tires, pavements, etc. help but eventually you get to a point of diminishing returns where innovations and technology (and the dollars to implement them) can only offset so much stupidity.

In the battle between technology and human stupidity, stupidity will always win long-term. It's like the house odds at the casino.

I suspect many of the truckers I see here in So Cal are Mexican Nationals here illegally, but I have no proof. I find it hard to believe that they have not invaded that work force when they have taken over most of the other blue collar jobs.

And if so, what kind of training do you think they have? Are they the caliber of driver Rika and others defend?

I was actually thinking the same thing myself.

David,can't speak for CA...
NAFTA opened a can of worms..
inspections of trucks coming into the US.. their trucks came okay..
as for training received in Mexico..?
who can get a CDL in Mexico..= how many Pesos you got most likely.
Getting a CDL in the US is not that easy and getting very regulated...
before long it will equal the like of obtaining a concealed carry permit..

Rika

Why do we allow cars on the road? They can't stop as quickly as my motorcycle. If only they spent the money on brakes, they could stop just as well as my motorcycle...

A massive R&D effort HAS been put into cars to increase their traction and decrease their braking distances.

If we went by your logic we'd all still be driving 4wheel drum brake equipped cars with no ABS and no traction control.

legion has a very good point..
cars don't want to share with MC..
it's like..WTF are you doing out here..
same for trucks..
it's all about them..

Rika

One thing is certain; trucks should keep right.

I was going to ask the same, but m/c's don't/can't always out-stop cars.

To be honest, I don't want to pay for the price increase on all consumer good to make sure all semis are sporting plus-sized Brembos.

Not only that, but the moment they put new brakes on all of those rigs, the car drivers will become even BIGGER idiots, because now those trucks all around them are "extra safe".