The High Road (it's Great) But I Have Questions

My first question has to do with oversized loads (wide, tall, heavy). In THR we are told that these cannot move on Sat. Sun. or any holiday. Is this just in IL, as I have direct experience that contradicts this. I live on a long steep grade of a hill. The up hill run is north; the down hill run is south. When trucks used to try and climb the hill they would impede the flow of traffic and if you were to try and come down if your breaks failed there is nowhere to go where you are not going to die and likely you're going to take others with you. For these reasons, and because we're a designated emergency evacuation rout away from the heavy industry park a couple of miles away, trucks are banned on this stretch of road. For some reason though the oversized loads are brought down the hill and it is always on a weekend in the mornings. Now, I would swear it was my mind playing tricks on me and believe I was just wrong on the days, but I know for a fact that is true based on two occurrences. One was this past summer when I met a wide load truck and his accompaniment as I was on my way to Mass on Sunday morning. I only go on Sunday mornings so it had to be Sunday morning around 10:00am. He was coming down and I was going up and I ended up having to back all the way down the hill about 800 yards or so. The other time I am absolutely 100% sure of was known in Cincinnati was an "event" called The Convoy. There were three separate trucks they brought down. They were so large it got news coverage and how I know it was a weekend was that Jerry Springer had just gotten on as a weekend reporter with local station WLWT after a fall from grace as mayor. These things were so huge they had to take down most of the overhead utility wires. Anyway, they filmed the thing from my front yard and after it was over Springer knocked on the door and asked to use the restroom and of course we let him. I actually ended up on the news because they thought it would be cute to see what a little kid thought of the big trucks. If it would have been through the week I also would have been in school, as I never missed school. As I recall they had something to do with filtration of either water or beer. The truth is it seems like all the time they bring oversized loads down is on the weekend. There is way too much traffic during the week to do it any other time.

The other two questions have to do with tires overheating and fires. There were several questions which said if the tires become over pressurized to cool them with water and not let pressure out of them. OK, in a perfect world that would be nice, but unless I am pulling a reefer full of bottled spring water just how does that work? If I will be crossing the desert I will be sure to bring enough water to survive until I am rescued, but your not going to fit enough water in the cab to cool 18 hot tiers. Wouldn't the proper thing to do be to let the pressure out of the tires till specs are reached and move on until the first truck stop you see and pull in there, hose them down, and put in more air? Wouldn't that be a better way to prevent a blow out?

The other thing was tier fires. It says to put them out with water. Again, we don't have that much space and I have personally witnessed people trying to put out a burning tire that was around someone's neck when my family took me on a missions trip to Haiti and civil unrest broke out. They called that practice Necklaceing. Pretty common there. The guy died before they got the fire out and they put a ton of water on him trying to save him. He was lashed to it somehow so they couldn't just knock it off of him. Anyway, if a trailer tire does catch fire should you try to drop the trailer so both are not lost since you're not reasonably going to have a shot of putting it out?

I am loving The High Road too. I am doing great and loving it. Many thanks Brett.

Q1: The laws regarding when oversized loads can run vary from state to state. Some can't run weekends, some can't run nights etc...

Q2: They say not to take air from high psi tired due to heat because they will then be low when cooled down, which can also result in a blowout. Whenever my psi raises due to heat, I simply pull over briefly to allow them to cool. It generally doesn't take long. 10-15 minutes gives you a chance to take a look around the truck for any other issues, maybe clean windows, mirrors and take a bathroom break. Oftentimes, truck drivers keep an 18-24 pack of bottled water in truck, most truck stops have them for a few bucks if wanted to go that route. If a trailer tire caught fire, I would disconnect truck after calling for fire department immediately. I would do what I could if had a reasonable amount of water on board.

Billtheslink I have never had a problem with an overheated tire or tire fire. Under-inflated tires are far more likely to overheat and blowout than correctly inflated tires. The inflation pressure is a "cool" rating. If you check your tire pressures at the start of your day, adjust accordingly, and maintain the pressure rating listed, as long as the tire is in good working order, the likelihood of an issue is very low.

Every CMV must have a working fire extinguisher. Fortunately I have never needed to use it...if there is a fire grab the extinguisher. A 9 ounce bottle of water would be useless with a brake/tire fire. And yes, get out from under the trailer if the fire persists.

The absolute best way to reduce the risk of a trailer fire is to perform a thorough pretrip on the tires, brakes, and axles. Second, you will be taught the proper techniques for controlling speed while descending a grade to reduce the chance of overheated brakes which could cause a fire.