By Cheri Sicard
In this fun and informative video, Robin Barrett of Creativity RV chats with people in the know about RV and big rig safety: truckers!
Surprise, it turns out that truckers and RVers can peacefully co-exist and help to keep each other safe on the road.
Robin picked the brains of truckers from TruckersReport.com. The professional big rig drivers have a whole lot of knowledge that can benefit RVers, so the video presents some truly beneficial information from people in the know. In it, they give practical and actionable advice and also talk about their biggest concerns surrounding sharing the roads with RVers.
Truly the awesome advice in this video can benefit everyone who drives, even if it is just a passenger car. But the bigger your rig, the more crucial a lot of this advice will be.
Robin’s interviews with the truckers even sleuthed out some old, outdated passing protocols that haven’t been used since the ’80s.
So what else does this invaluable, informative RV safety video cover?
- What various light signals from truckers are trying to tell you.
- How you can use your lights to signal others.
- How to safely deal with passing situations, regardless of if a semi is passing you or if you are passing a semi.
- How semis can be like “sails.”
- Trucker lingo such as “dragon flies.”
- How to maintain safe conditions for you and the trucker when climbing or descending mountains.
- How to handle an “air wake” that happens when a semi passes you, and the 3 different air pockets that happen when this takes place. (Hint: most people try to over-correct.)
- Driving tips that let you be rocked less when a semi passes you.
- Checking your systems for towing.
- What to do if you are disabled on the side of the road and how to stay safe.
- How to know when road conditions merit pulling over.
- Monitoring weather and wind advisories.
- How to safely drive through extreme winds.
- How to effectively and safely pull over to let others pass.
- High beam protocol and safety.
- The importance of leveling.
- The importance of proper mirrors.
- Etiquette of joining a convoy.
In my lifetime of RVing, I have always had helpful and positive experiences interacting with truckers. I have always maintained a healthy respect for them and will always give them the right of way. They are working while my “work” is simply the act of traveling.
These tips will help me be an even more courteous road companion to America’s amazing truckers.
##RVDT1991
Great advice, thank you. I never considered that the truckers would be worried about us and see us in our mirror. One time one of those half houses passed me going 75 on I-95 in SC where there is hardly a shoulder and lots of little bridges. I know my face showed how shocked I was to see him passing. I was going 65 but just let him go by taking my foot off the accelerator. I could have reached out and opened the door to the house. His Pilot car was almost 2 miles behind him!
Great info but do not stop under overpasses and bridges. In high winds if you need to stop or go 40, get off the interstate and take local roads.
Good information and loved the fun way it was presented!
Thank you very much for this information. I am a part- timer with an older Class C. I respect semi drivers on the road and this video fills in gaps of knowledge about safely sharing the road with them. Well done.
Great information. WIll post info on RV group page.
Another reason never to ride next to a truck, their tires are inflated to 90-110 psi, if a tire blows out it can be just like a bomb if it hits your car. Those tires weigh close to 100 lbs, it will do serious damage to your vehicle.
I love it when they get side by side trying to pass each other resulting in a rolling roadblock for 10 miles. Traffic backs up in the fast lane.
When that happens you’ve got one truck governed at 62 mph and the truck passing is governed at 63 mph. They don’t intentionally do that to upset you. There probably wasn’t any traffic when the “faster” started passing, but because of the amount of time necessary to accomplish that pass traffic is now backed up. Because drivers get paid by the mile they need to drive as fast as their truck will go to make a living. I’ve been there done that. A seasoned experienced driver in the slower truck will back out of the throttle long enough for the other truck to pass. However most of the slow drivers are newbies and don’t back down and will mash the pedal down to the floor even if it does nothing.
Thank you, Very Very good. We have been full timing for nearly 20 years and travel across the country to see our kids a couple of times a year. Interesting tid bit about Interstate 80 which we try to avoid no matter the time of year. We spent a couple of weeks in Cheyenne and the old timers told us the ranchers and local governments tried to tell the Federal Govt not to put I80 in the places they did. I honestly would encourage this video to be “required” for everybody buying a new RV. I think the RV manufacturers should pay you some royalties and put a CD in every RV they sell. Honestly, years of driving an RV and I learned a thing or two. Also my husband and I share the driving. We feel this is safer and fair. I find this is unusual when talking to other couples. I believe your video will give the more timid driver in the duo the tools he or she needs to drive more competently. Thank you
What are the alternatives to I80 in Wyoming??
Sherry, do you think I-80 thru Nevada is a highway to avoid? Thanks
I 70 is another coming across the plains, when I first started trucking I had a load of new empty Coors beer cans in my 53’ trailer going to Memphis, about 11,000 lbs. there was a north wind of about 25-30 mph hitting the left side of the trailer. The trailer was off tracking over a foot outside the fog line. Every time a came to a bridge I had to move over the center line to clear, I was only doing 45 mph, the first truck stop I came to I pulled in. Wind and big RVs will do the same thing.