A non-solicited peice of advice...

[Bonkers]

I am not usually one to critique other viper owners
driving habits, and I am sure this falls into the "Duh"
catagory of the drivers handguide, but events of tonight
have compelled me to post this.

If you decide to go horsing around on the highway in
the middle of the night, whatever you do DO NOT SCREW
AROUND WITH THE TRACTOR TRAILERS! As a general rule
truckers don't care about some spirited hyjinx on the open
road so long as its not overly reckless or personal. However
anti-authoritarian truckers tend to be, once you've picked
a fight with one, they are very loyal to a vast majority of
other truckers on the road.

Take, for instance, the black viper who wanted to get brake
checky with the rig on the LIE tonight. Once she put the
word out, every truck on the horn followed this car all
the way to the brooklyn bridge. I have no doubts the police
were called by two individuals. Now I am not defending the
trucker, asshats infect every profession, I am just saying
that if a misunderstanding happens with a car, you can
probably outdrive the situation. With the wrong truck you
can become a game of 'Wheres Waldo and whats he doing
now.'

I didn't see the car come into Manhattan, but since no one
else has seen him for a while I hope he made it home safely.

 

[plumcrazy]

huh ?.......

 

[SlateEd]

That is a good point and might not be as "duh" as you would hope.... But to echo Plum...
...What??

 

[PDCjonny]

Brake checking a tractor trailer is probably not a good idea.

 

[slysnake]

There are a good share of semi-operators out there that are complete a-holes.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

Biggest cause of broken windshields and rock chips, when I move to get around one it is decisive and final, I just try and stay away from them.

 

[bluesrt]

ya well when you have dum asses driveing in the fast lane and a tractor needs to gain speed to get up that hill, you tend to be a monster on the road as a tractor driver,people are complete stooges driveing on the hiway, those guys got alot of wieght they are moveing and have to keep it going, most people have no clue i guess.

 

[Twister]

Say whaaaaaaaat?

 

[Silver04]

There are a good share of semi-operators out there that are complete a-holes.

Good point! This also applies to people, as well. Some times it's best just to get outta their way...!

 

[351carlo]

I understood the story just fine, not sure what others are having issues with.

Cliffs:

Driver of Black Viper screwed around with a Truck - Either retaliatory or stupidity
Trucker put out call to all others in area
Other trucks gave him a hard time, following or monitoring him out of town
Some called the cops on him

Moral of the story: Don't mess with trucks


I've gotten plenty of honks as I pace up in front of trucks to race. 99.9% of the time it's a trucker giving me the thumbs up. Hell in "Mexico" I've had a coupe block traffic for us to get good runs off numerous times, and shouting to us how much fun they were.

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

If you're brake checking anyone, you're a *****. Brake checking a semi-truck? You deserve to be crunched. Thin the herd. If someone is all over my bumper, I change lanes and let them pass. The LAST thing I'm going to do is brake check them so they can rearend me and possibly injure/kill me.

 

[cfiiman]

If you're brake checking anyone, you're a *****. Brake checking a semi-truck? You deserve to be crunched. Thin the herd. If someone is all over my bumper, I change lanes and let them pass. The LAST thing I'm going to do is brake check them so they can rearend me and possibly injure/kill me.

I do the same thing, but sometimes that doesn't help, there are assholes out there that just don't know how to act in a public setting, especially when you put 60 mph speeds into the equation. The last time I tried to "ignore" some ********* doing this kind of stuff he got pissed and threw **** at my car b/c I wouldn't "engage" him. Damned if you do damned if you don't sometimes, it just ***** b/c cops don't give a rats ass at least in my town.

 

[ViperTony]

Some drivers **** and there's nothing that can be done about it. Eventually they will be weeded out of the population.

 

[johniew398]

I'm the head of security for a corporation that has 11,000 drivers. Our drivers are extremely safe and will try to stay away from people like whoever was driving the black Viper. In order to help our drivers we are installing systems that automatically make our trucks back off if someone cuts in front of them or someone brake checking one of our drivers.

As some said it is stupid to brake check a big rig. You are talking about up to 80,000 lbs loaded and you can't stop as fast as if you were driving a car or light truck.

 

[Dom426h]

I remember when i was 16 and brake checked a truck because i was wandering why he was all over my @ss. Back then i was ignorant No seriously, I was literaly Ignorant to the situation of truckers on the road.

Some amount of years later(after getting more familar with truckers and working in the shipping industry) i thought back about how stupid i was but now that i think about it again there was NO education on TractorTrailors in my DiversEd class in highschool.

Some basic info like the 40,000lbs that can be hauled and how much force it takes to slow that down and speed it up and how momentum has to be maintained to make it up hills would be highly benificial for the safty of all drivers on the road. This would also make for a smoother running more efficient shipping industry

 

[v10enomous]

Please provide adequate warning the next time you plan to make an infrequent critique.... You had me at Duh ! In other NEWS... pulling the trigger on a loaded Glock while looking down the barrel almost always results in a very painful injury...

Perfect choice of a screen name btw... j/k of course

 

[SlateEd]

oh, no I got the moral of the story.. my confusion is with the tone it's written in... was the OP out in a Viper at the time? was the OP one of the truckers? the sort of vague narrative makes me wonder (being from NY) if the viper driver is anyone we know?

FWIW I don't brake-check trucks ever. I will however brake-check someone who is tailgating me when I have nowhere to go... ie: I'm already in the left lane, safe distance to the next car who will not move up or over and someone comes up behind me as if tailgating me will make the person in front of me go any faster... I also won't do that in the Viper, but in the DD.

 

[slysnake]

Here's the problem I have with truckers. Sure, they need to speed up to make the nect hill. On the hill they can't pull so their truck slows down. No problem. I'm in a family car with cruise set. My speed is constant. I pass the guy on the hill and he passes me going down hill. Some truckers get pissed with that but I'm thinking, Who's problem is it? He's the one speeding up and slowing down. I've had truckers act like total asses in that situation. Even had one try to run me off the road once.

 

[FrgMstr]

This thread reminds me of something my dear old mother used to say, "Shut the F*ck UP and Mind Your Own Business pinhead!"

 

[Dom426h]

Who's problem is it? He's the one speeding up and slowing down.

Courteous/Consideration are two positive traits that are not factored into the above response

 

[351carlo]

oh, no I got the moral of the story.. my confusion is with the tone it's written in... was the OP out in a Viper at the time? was the OP one of the truckers? the sort of vague narrative makes me wonder (being from NY) if the viper driver is anyone we know?

FWIW I don't brake-check trucks ever. I will however brake-check someone who is tailgating me when I have nowhere to go... ie: I'm already in the left lane, safe distance to the next car who will not move up or over and someone comes up behind me as if tailgating me will make the person in front of me go any faster... I also won't do that in the Viper, but in the DD.

I'm going to assume that he's a trucker based on the tone of his advice, and seeing as he's condemning the actions of the guy in the Viper. Not to mention he would have to be a trucker or a friend of a trucker to hear the story and know about the outbound calls from the trucks.

Just a guess though.

 

[ViperTony]

In other NEWS... pulling the trigger on a loaded Glock while looking down the barrel almost always results in a very painful injury...

THIS!

 

[mattdillon]

Guys, I can tell you EXACTLY how it feels to get run over by an 18 wheeler. This was a long, long, long time ago & I was coming home from a date around midnite in my 77' blue Corvette. I was on the interstate coming over the Ouachita River & the next thing I know everything turns pitch black & for some reason (only the Lord knows) I layed over in the passenger seat (hand still on the steering wheel) & my roof has been completely ripped off & all of a sudden my car slams into the side railing & after that it was pretty much a blur until we finally came to a stop after the length of 4 football fields (I remembered that from what the cops had said). They actually had to cut me out because the door wouldn't open & the other one was against the railing. The rear passenger tire was sitting on the passenger seat, I was laying across the console by then & believe this or not but the cassette (yes, cassette) was still blaring out & the song was Van Halens (Running with the Devil) some of you older guys might remember it (but I just reached up & turned it off). When they finally got me out (not a scratch on me by the way, just a lil' dazed & confused) the trucker at first told the cops I was toying with him, then later on the other driver in the truck said he never saw me. But you could see by the skid marks they had come over on me. I've got a few pics of the car afterwards (I'll try & find them & post them up) you can see a hole in the hood about the size of a softball, where when the truck come over on top of me something went thru the hood & held on to the car someway or another (because the cops said there was NO WAY that truck when it come over on me shouldn't have just rolled completely over my car, something had a hold on it & wouldn't let it go. Needless to say if that would have happened today, I would own a trucking company right now. They also had the audacity to send me a bill for something that had broke underneath their truck (needless to say I never paid it) Nothing never really came out of it except I bought a new car. But, it took me several months before I was able to get around them on the highway.

 

[Bonkers]

I apologize for any confusion with my original post - I typed it up on my cell
phone sitting on the side of the road. It ended up being more difficult then I had
expected. I didn't mean to start a lecture on Tractor Trailer safety, just wanted
to give everyone something to think about.

The situation that occurred was that a Black Viper was driving recklessly on the LIE
that night. Maybe it was innocent fun, maybe not, but it had nothing to do with
my point. Whatever caused the original tangle, the woman truck driver got on her
CB and notified police and other truckers. Apparently at some point this guy took
off and was traveling at speeds well above reasonable and prudent. Other
truckers started joining in, and by the time the guy reached the BQE every
truck on the radio was making a game out of finding him and reporting his
location. I was sitting in Manhattan at the time and I could hear the conversations
bouncing all the way in from the Northern State Exit. If any cops were listening in
(which some cops do) they had a pinpoint location all the way up until he crossed
the Manhattan Bridge. All that NYPD had to was sit on the other side and wait -
maybe they did, maybe they didn't, like I said either way I hope he made it home
safe.

So my point was - I seriously doubt this guy had any clue about how much
attention he actually drew to himself. Instead of trying to intimidate/engage the
trucker, had he just waved off the initial situation no one would have really
thought twice about him. A speeder on the LIE is like a liar in congress.

And like I said in my original post - I'm not saying either the viper driver or the
trucker were the cause. Sometimes crap happens and its no ones fault, and
sometimes the two wrong people meet on the same road and things get real
bad real quick. My advice is simply that, as a rule, truckers take so much crap
on the road that they don't take a single stupid maneuver personally, however,
the moment you make it personal with one truck (especially if its a woman driver)
you run the chance of making it personal with every other truck within
earshot.

Just please be safe out there!