Things I Learn - Runaway Truck Ramps

Things I Learn – Runaway Truck Ramps

January 30, 2018

Route 94, toward the sunrise. Coming down the mountains in central Montana. A quiet morning – but when are the mountains noisy? The low hanging blanket of clouds is separating, revealing mountain peaks in the distance, and puffy, rolling clouds soaring above. The sun’s brightness is just beginning to glow between peaks and clouds.

After a low gear, grinding ascent, the truck faces a long, curved, downhill grade. Its weight, including 44,000 pounds of boxed, palletized Fuji, Gala, Daisy, and Red Delicious apples, and a full load of fuel, push forward. Instead, the Trucker flips a switch. The truck responds with a loud, continuous roar, but obediently holds back.

A compression brake, developed in the 1940’s by a man named Jacobson, commonly referred to as a Jake brake. It puts pressure on the exhaust valves, not allowing them to open fully. The blocked exhaust backs up and builds pressure in the motor, hindering its ability to turn freely, thus slowing the motor, and in turn hindering the truck’s ability to roll freely. This helps control the truck’s speed without depending entirely on the brakes.

Necessity truly is the mother of invention, as the saying goes. Mr. Jacobson had made a trip to California with a friend. Their vehicle lost brakes traveling down Cajon Pass in California, along old Route 66 between Victorville and San Bernadino, California.

Modern brakes alone can safely bring a truck to the bottom of a mountain. The trucker needs to start down very slowly, at times first coming to a complete stop, and know how to use brakes without making them overheat. A light, steady pressure is better than an on and off pressure, for keeping brakes cool.

Midway down the grade, though, is a clearing on the road’s right shoulder, leading to a sharp uphill. Unused, thankfully, for some time, as evidenced by a smooth sheet of snow and ice over the clearing. A runaway truck ramp.

A runaway truck ramp is placed at various locations on steep downgrades to give the trucker an option to stop his truck if he sees his speed is too fast to safely continue, and/or if his brakes fail. Ramps are made with deep, loose gravel. Most are aimed in a sharp upward incline from the road. The loose gravel will suck the truck down, and, along with the uphill grade, bring it to a stop.

 In some locations, where there is not space to build a long ramp, heavy timbers are buried crossways in the gravel, to stop the truck before it reaches the ramp’s end. The loose gravel will damage the truck somewhat, and require the services of a tow truck to extricate its victim. But the buried timbers will knock axles out from under the truck, most likely totaling it in the process of stopping it.

Route 84 in Oregon, August 2017.  This trucker needed a ramp to stop, though it didn't take much of the ramp.  Note at end of video, his front axle is twisted.

The alternative? An out of control truck, 80,000 pounds if loaded to the legal limit, taking out anything and anyone it its path before finally crashing.

The Trucker’s daily prayer is for safety and protection; that he would not harm anyone else. He will sacrifice his livelihood, and himself if needed, to protect those around him.