THE MOST IMPORTANT CONNECTION

e [Music] [Music] the breakfast special I guess Danny black coffee sure Wally m's on the low path bu oh yeah yeah no more truck talk with a kid she sort of laid down the law before you come in no I don't want to hear any more about it now you go on out and tidy up the restroom oh ma not now no [Music] mighty good Ma how do you feel today okay Wally but I got something to say and I might as well say it like I told the others no more truck talk with my Danny if you don't mind well whatever you say ma but how come rally you've been coming here for years and I like you but Danny well he sort of idolizes you and your job well all I know is these nuts about trucks and there's always a job for a good truck driver I just I know Wally I know but I don't want to lay awake nights worrying about Danny fighting some heavy truck along a lonely highway it's not safe especially for a youngster like him well Amar just a minute maybe way back when us old dogs started in this Trucking you'd have had some reason to worry but not today Well's right about that Ma why heck in those days we did our breaking from the seat of our pants yeah and steering the old rigs was really horse and Hall a blank oh yep with one foot up against the dash on those sharp corners and the cabs Wally colder and a park bench in January yeah it sure was rough in those days but look at it now Ma the rigs Are Better Built and easier to handle the cab is comfortable in all kinds of weather and when you're pushing her over the road you know you got power brakes you can depend upon and steering almost like a pleasure car then the job itself was changed used to be a tough racket sure but today we're part of a big industry it's important and respected a good living M good pay and plenty of responsibility and besides they don't usually put kids like Danny on the big rigs so if he really wants to do some Trucking he probably make out all right that's what I've been trying to tell her Wall-E but she won't listen what you got against Trucking anyway huh oh nothing nothing I just thought oh never mind look kid if you're dead set on doing a little driving I mean if you don't want M to say I told you so maybe some tips from the old hands here oh gosh Wally what's so tough about driving a truck well it's not as easy as it looks Danny with today's requirements and as's a whale of a lot in doing a job right there are truck drivers period And there are guys who take pride in work and some can get more out of a truck than others just by driving it right take speed for instance some of these young lead foots are always figuring ways to beat the legal limits knocking out their rigs so they can spend more time with some haslinger and brag about their hot shot driving well if they were half as good as they talk they think of a truck and realize illegal speed saves brakes tires gas oil and the load easy around the driver too Cuts fatigue and fatigue is what gets you in the most highway accidents ask any experienced driver Danny and he'll tell you that safe driving is just plain good driving you take care of one and the other comes along with it you fellas agree no you can't argue with that Wally look maybe a rough diagram will show Danny that saving gas at the legal speed isn't just something the boss preaches I look kit let's make this line miles per hour and this line pulling power in pounds now the torque or pulling curve of the engine would look something like this while the horsepower line would go like this but here's the important curve gas consumption notice that through here it's low and flat so that's why this is called the economy range and within that economy range you also get your best power performance and you're able to make good road speeds at the same time make sense sure I think so but you don't have to be an engineer to drive a truck kid you can tell when you're in the gas saving range by the feel of the rig that's a Power Range too right there my rig just purs along smooth and easy of course it varies with different trucks Danny sure but you learn to feel it on your truck and keep it there that way you use your head to save your truck and your neck too if you have to pull pull up in a hurry you know when it really comes down to saving your truck how about lugan nothing beats up engines worse than that and there's no reason for it these days what Rogers means is that today almost every heavyduty truck has a modern two-speed axle some of them even have synchr mesh transmission so there's no reason for the driver to let them lug you see kid when you come onto a hill with a heavy truck you got to keep up your road speed when that speed armor the needle starts to drop you're losing momentum and the engine has to strain if you try to stay in the same gear you have to act fast because of the heavy load behind by itself a tractor can glide along like a kid on Roll escapes but with a heavy load it takes plenty of power to get moving well the good driver gives his engine every Brak he can to keep moving the minute he starts losing roads speed he either switches from high to low axle or shifts down or maybe both but he doesn't wait until the engine screams for Mercy he pops her right into the right gear at the right time to keep rolling same with traffic and lights you can save a lot of wear and tear on both yourself and your truck by timing lights and traffic to hang on to your momentum and avoid shifting of course you can't make them all but by hanging back you can make a great gradual stop or maybe you only have to shift down one gear that way you're saving brakes tires gas oil and yourself and here's another thing Danny with smaller rigs like mine you make a lot of stops and starts well if you sit there worrying the accelerator at red lights you waste about a teaspoon full of gas every time your RAM down on the same thing when you start up feed her faster than she can take it and you just throw gas away way and senseless things like slamming into the curb on stops riding to car tracks all the time whipping around corners or roaring up to a stop sign and then Jack rabbiting away bad driving habits that don't help you or your truck having some consideration for your own rig makes it easier on you Trucking is hard enough work so why make driving harder with needless wear on your equipment being jealous of his equipment never hurt any driver I guess that's why you'll find good drivers like Blake here checking over his equipment before every run things like tires fifth wheel rear views and only starting out after they've warmed up the engine but Danny that's the way it is with good drivers and you'll find them in every kind of rig Farm trucks City deliveries tankers Stakes pickups High racks off the road jobs it doesn't matter they all take pride in being able to get the most out of their Rigs and they'll qualify as good drivers in anybody's League well kid there's a lot more of course but we got a roll Bye Mom hello bye boys think about it for a while maybe you'll change your mind not me I'm sold on it Wally even if my isn't well I'll say this much there's a lot more to truck driving than I realize we'll both think about it oh one more thing you ought to know Danny the most important Connection in any truck is the one between the steering wheel and the seat maybe you'll want to remember that along with the rest of it