Classic Marmon Cabover

The trucking industry has its fair share of religion throughout. The "Truckers' Ministries" are stationed in most big truckstops. This Christian organization has multi-denominational services and the "chapel" is always in a trailer as shown. I just love "cabovers," a now rare type of truck that used to dominate the market. Cabovers are a cube tractor with the engine between the seats. When I was young (up to about 1990) most companies made cabovers. Due to the poor aerodynamics they discontinued this style in favor of trucks with a fron engine and long "nose." For some reason I still don't understand, European trucks are to this day almost exclusively cabovers. In Europe, companies like Volvo, Mercedes Benz, MAN, Scania (Saab) still make cabovers and export "noses" to North America. The truck shown is a Marmon--a company that is now defunct.

Some descriptions of routes and grades in the East

Since I drive in the East, I have been on every grade and interste East of Laredo, TX. I stay East of the exact center of USA. I don't say East of the Mississippi Rver because I am often West of itbut not much. The following are just some examples so you get an idea of the most hazardous passes in the East:

Illinois
Interstate 24 in Illinois is a remote, four-lane freeway that travels through hilly rural southern Illinois and the Shawnee National Forest. I-24 is 38.73 miles (62.33 km) in length in Illinois. There are only five mainline exits; of those five, four have services. Interstate 24 crosses into Kentucky via the Interstate 24 Bridge from Metropolis, Illinois to Paducah, Kentucky.

Kentucky
Interstate 24 runs from Paducah to the Tennessee border just northwest of Clarksville. Along its route are Kentucky Dam which forms Kentucky Lake and Barkley Dam which forms Lake Barkley, Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area ("LBL"; under the management of the US Forest Service ), and Fort Campbell. Future extensions of Interstate 66 and Interstate 69 are proposed to overlap Interstate 24 in the Eddyville to Calvert City corridor.

Tennessee
The Olgiati Bridge on I-124 (US 27), spanning the Tennessee River in Chattanooga.
In the state of Tennessee, Interstate 24 runs from Clarksville to Chattanooga by way of Nashville. Just west of Chattanooga, I-24 drops into Georgia for 4 miles (6 km). One of the most notoriously hazardous stretches of Interstate highway in the United States is approximately 40 miles (64 km) west of Chattanooga on I-24 in Monteagle, where the highway goes over the Cumberland Plateau. Compared to grades elsewhere, Monteagle's 4 to 6% grade does not come close to the steepest highway roads (the Siskiyou Pass of Interstate 5 in Oregon has some the steepest grades in the nation), but the slope is protracted over a distance of several miles. Interstate 124 is an occasional (currently unsigned) designation of a portion of the US 27 freeway which runs as a spur into downtown Chattanooga and beyond.[3] Also in Chattanooga is the "Ridge Cut", a 1/4 mile section of Missionary Ridge, between the 4th Avenue exit and the Germantown/Belvoir exit. Accidents and severe congestion are common here.

Georgia
In the state of Georgia, Interstate 24 runs for 4 miles (6 km), running along the southern flank of Raccoon Mountain and intersecting with Interstate 59 before turning back north to the Tennessee River and around the northern flank of Lookout Mountain. The exits and mileposts remain numbered according to Tennessee's mileposts. This segment is also officially State Route 409.

GRADES:not school ones either!

Some of the greatest hazards of driving an 18-wheeler are steep mountain grades. These are hazardous because the weight of a truck (up to 80,000 lbs) and inertia make a truck want to go as fast as possible down a mountain while diminishing its ability to stop. A car, say weighing 7,000 lbs, has neough stopping power where the downhills are really not an issue. A truck "pulling" up a hill will just chug away at about 20 mph, but at the summit it is a whole different story. The truck needs to be in a low gear so to aid it from not picking up too much speed, then the brakes need to be applied every time the rpm's go up to the limit. This is called "stab braking." If the truck is in the wrong gear it is almost impossible to downshif in the downhill. The saying goes: "you can gown a mountain a million times too slow, but only once too fast." Now, in slippery road conditions the problem is much worse. Here, if the trailer brakes lock up, the trailer goes faster than the tractor causing a "jackknife" when the trailer comes around and slams into the tractor causing a rollover etc. In the middle of steep grades, states have found a way to try and avoid an accident in a last resort situation with a "runaway truck ramp." These are gravel or sand steep uphills that the driver would exit onto in the case that he/she has lost control. The truck hits it and, while sinking into it also hits a very dramatic uphill. These damage the truck but save the driver and other motorists lives. Ironically, states charge drivers a considerable amount of money to use these called a "reset fee," the cost of resetting the gravel after truck is towed out. In the East, the steepest grades are along the Appalachian range. In the West, it's a whole different world with grades double the steepness. Grades are measured by percentages. Typical Eastern grades are between 4% and 7%. In the West, like in the rockies and Sierras they can be as high as 15%.