Runaway Ramps

That could be true with the repairs and all. I do know this if you need the ramp and fly by it you better nope nothing goes wrong. If you kill someone and you make it the case will become criminal.

Can you imagine sitting on the witness chair as the driver and the lawyer asks you why you did not take the escape route?

 

I've seen the ramp on grapevine used several time. More often than not the driver didn't live to tell the tale. That one is another that used to end in a rock wall. Worst one I saw the wreck of was of a cabovers that had plate glass on the trailer. When the truck stopped at the top the truck was wearing the glass.
The ramps are designed to stop a loaded truck at 80 mph you hit it going faster it will ruine your day. If you look on the right side of the pit area there is a pavement apron the leangth of the ramp. It is for the recovery rig to pull you out.
So yes a car can go to the end of the ramp.

 

This is kind of off track, but I just got a truck that the jakes only work when the brakes are applied. Has anyone else ever heard of this? It seems to defeat the purpose.

 

And for the grapevine... not sure how people go to fast down either side of that grade, its not bad at all for the times I crossed it...

Shut your cruise control switch to off position and see what happens

 

i heard that oregon had to lengthen theirs due to over runs over the hills.

 

I've been noticing more of the ramps overgrown with grass and even small trees in them. Maybe the states don't think someone may need them anymore. Used to see them disked up all smooth like a freshly worked corn field. Never personally seen one used, but have been told you better need it if you do. Is supposed to be rather spendy when all is said and done. Don't know how much, but likely a career ender, like MNdriver said.

 

Going down a long steep grade after having gone through a bunch of hills and had to stop to make a left turn at the bottom with a Pickup behind me. Looked in my mirror and a Big dumper was coming fast down the hill and smoke coming from the wheels. I though "oh no! this is it." the dumper hit the ditch just before he would of hit the pickup behind me and as he was sliding through a field to my right, the front end was coming apart. Spring parts were going through his floor board. The driver later told me that day that after all those hills, he had just lost his brakes. I think he was running them a bit fast myself. but I sure felt thankful that he chose the ditch instead of the pickup behind me!

 

My last truck was like that. It's how the truck is set up and your shop foreman should be able to change it in the computer.

I agree that it's a pain in the ###.

 

A lot of ramps now have signs that say, "No penalties for taking runaway ramp"

There are no penalties for ramps in NC. They say that placing penalties reduces incentive to use it, and if you need it they want you to definitely use it.

 

Funny runaway ramp story: A buddy of mine I ride with was up in Colorado with his dad and some other old guys ( this was circa 1984,) and thought he'd ride to the top of the ramp, somewhere on 550. Those ramps are smooth and use the same gravel that they use to top the highway, and look like pavement. It didn't throw him over the bars, but it did nearly give a couple old farts heart attacks, as it took 4 or 5 of them to literally pick the bike up and carry it back to the pavement.

I remember the first truck I ever saw in a runaway: It was coming down Black Mtn, and when he hit the gravel piles his load came off the trailer and rolled the cab of the cabover up the hill a little further than the rest of the chassis. He didn't live to tell the tale of that ride.

The ones on La Veta (I think that's where, anyways...) are interesting, they are very short and have what are basically super-sized jersey walls that narrow and squeeze you to a stop. I figure that must pretty well trash whatever truck uses it.