Impatient passers

[gcloss]

Originally Posted by Filthy-Beast

Passers don't bother me, it's those idiots on busy freeways who think the space in front of me is there for them to dart into and hit the brakes.


I assume they have no clue what it takes to stop 8 - 10 tons of truck and trailer. I fear one of these days I'll be distracted when they do this and 9 tons will crush them.

I had someone do that to me once when I had a much smaller TT. I was on the NE Thruway cruisng along in the middle lane. An impatient woman in a Buick shot around on the left to get in front and realized there someone was trying to come in from the right.

I was on the brakes so hard I locked up the TT brakes, they both hit each other and bounced off one going to the left the other to the right, car parts flying everywhere, I slid right between them without touching a thing, not even a scratch. Man were we lucky!

My hands were shaking for about an hour after that one.

[North of 49°]

When I'm towing, I either do the speed limit or go with the flow of traffic, whichever is slower. But there's one stretch of highway around here which has a reputation of being dangerous. One time on this particular highway, some goofball was tailgating me and decided he didn't like being behind a big trailer, even though I was doing the speed limit. So said goofball pulls out to pass, without checking for oncoming traffic -- and of course there was. The guy cuts in front of me, I'm standing on the brakes hoping that I don't jackknife and end up in the ditch or worse, the oncoming car is heading for the ditch himself to avoid a head-on, and the goofball almost clips my front fender. No accident, and the goofball was just some taillights in the distance.

And that wasn't the only time that has happened. But we no longer drive up that highway; the campground we went to there doesn't suit our interests anymore.

[Go Cougs]

Sums up how I feel when driving.