Quote:
Originally Posted by BigMeatballDave
Damn. Blowing a steer was one of my worse fears while driving.
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Me too, back in 1989 I drove a R model Mack with a 40' tank hauling chemicals. I was SB on US 29 just north of Charllotesville,Va, around 2AM, never been on this stretch of road before. Coming off of a small hill I rounded a downward curve 60MPH to the left and had the LF steer blow, hauling 40,000 of Xylene.
Good thing it was a 4 lane divided highway, I used the whole damn road to get that bitch under control. The weight of the liquid had me leaning right and the tractor wanted to go left. Left we went and quickly since I had started my turn going left, them the zylene wanted to shift to the left as the slope of the shoulder was to the left.
Braking with a sloped shoulder to the left only made it more difficult to come to a stop. Not knowing the roadway was troubling as well, especially at 2 AM in the morning. Good thing I had a long straight away after the curve, little did I know that both sides of the roadway had a good 30 to 40 ditch awaiting for me land in.
Traffic behind me had no clue as to why I went from the RH lane to the far edge on the left shoulder, then back out to the middle of the road before getting it slowed down and under control on the right shoulder. It took ever ounce of strength in my arms and legs that night to be able to walk away from it.
I did then and even today consider myself to be a blessed man that my life didn't end up in flames that morning.