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Teton Pass runaway truck arrestor


dinneR

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We have the gravel traps here in AZ. They work well and save lives, but can cause some major under carriage and drivetrain damage to the trucks. That looks like it's much less likely to rip the axels out from under the truck..

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I just watched a bunch of videos of trucks using the gravel ramps. The ones using the smooth gravel ramps looked like they came out of it pretty good. I saw one truck using the Pennsylvania type ramp with consecutive gravel piles going all the way up the ramp. That looked brutal but it did stop the truck, that driver was going to need a new truck. This looked like a smooth gravel ramp.

 

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31 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I just watched a bunch of videos of trucks using the gravel ramps.

Years ago... WoBG and I were on vacation, If I recall Colorado. We noticed the truck run away pull outs in the mountains.  I figured they were there for a good reason. 

Then I noticed an 18 wheeler with not only smoke coming from the brakes, but they were glowing red.  My first thought, that guy has never driven in the mountains before.  My second thought... I don't want him behind me going downhill.   It was kind of scary...     I was in my Z28 Camaro and soon were were WAY ahead of that truck.  

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One year on Ride the Rockies we were going up Wolf Creek Pass, and 2 trucks from the same company were going down the Pagosa Springs side with out bothering to stop at the top to check their brakes.  They didn't have any.  One truck took the ramp at the hairpin turn at the bottom, the other had nowhere to go and tried the curve, flipping over onto its side.

 

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Thanks!  I've been wondering how such lanes worked.  I've been on a few roads, mostly in the PA Appalachians, where there were signs for a runaway truck lane, but I had never seen how they work.  I guess there are different solutions.  I could see that one had a road that went uphill for a ways - it must have had those capture straps like this one at the end.

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4 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

I am surprised that the driver can fit in the cab of that dump truck with the size of his balls.

That was my thought.  Who in the highway department volunteers for that job.  Duane with no teeth who's wife just left him?

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10 hours ago, jdc2000 said:

One year on Ride the Rockies we were going up Wolf Creek Pass, and 2 trucks from the same company were going down the Pagosa Springs side with out bothering to stop at the top to check their brakes.  They didn't have any.  One truck took the ramp at the hairpin turn at the bottom, the other had nowhere to go and tried the curve, flipping over onto its side.

 

 

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18 hours ago, Philander Seabury said:

My home town used to regularly have runaway trucks wind up in the river.  Then they put in a gravel trap and I have never seem it messed up.  I wonder if I can find oot if it has ever been used?

It's probably been used.  They leave a rake in there, you're supposed to rake it flat after you get your truck out.

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6 hours ago, sheep_herder said:

Yes, I some times traveled that road going between eastern Oregon and eastern Washington. Loved the views around Enterprise, OR.

Did they actually shut that down?  Tear it up?  Or did they turn it into a Scenic Hwy?  I would think that would be tourism dollars if they kept it available.

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