Just wanted to share one of my most frightening experiences as a truck driver that happened last weekend. I was heading up OR hwy 58, which goes from Eugene area to central Oregon. The road is in the cascade mountains and goes from sea level to a little over 5,000 feet in elevation. The main part of the hill is about 30 miles long varying in grade. Alright so here we go, I was in my truck about 70,000 lbs or so, so whenever I come to a passing lane I don't accelerate as hard as I can, as to let the other traffic that is always in more of hury than me. So after a short climb the road levels off and there is a passing lane, I notice a large SUV pulling a 20 foot or so camp trailer and he is movin so I let him pass me. Well I'm not sure if a gust of wind got him or if he just jerked the steering wheel while going thru the curve but next thing I know he is fish tailing all over. He finally got it almost straight on the opposing traffics shoulder when a car came around the curve and panicked and went right for the same shoulder, which the SUV driver again over reacted and came sideways across the road in front of me, I had aliens down to 25 mph to give the guy room so I wasn't in the way. Anyway, please everyone inspect your vehicles and trailers for suspension and steering wear, load your trailers properly, make sure your brakes and hitches are adjusted and working properly before heading out. If something like that happens to you remember no hard braking and no sudden hard movements of steering wheel. I have only been driving for 8 or 9 years but I see lots of accidents involving pickups and SUV's pulling travel trailers, and most of the time it is because of driving too fast or improper loading of vehicles. The part that scares me the most is that they have their families with them and kids don't need to get hurt because parent's are unsafe drivers. So let's all be safe and have a good camping and traveling season with our families.

 

Luckily nobody was hurt. That's some good advice on towing for those of us who aren't professional drivers.

Michael

 

I have seen 2 campers and trucks flipped, one was on fire. The dude was pulling it with an Explorer and may have been overloaded.

 

If you do nothing else, know your vehicle's capabilities, know your vehicles weight, know your vehicle's speed limitations in ALL conditions. What may be fine on a level piece of road may not be fine on an incline. Slow down, it's better to get there late than not at all.