NA The moron who tried to kill me tonight NA

Do people just tow huge trailers for fun?? 90% of them I see around here are empty. Same with the crew cab trucks, rarely anything in the bed?? ;)
 
Matthew said:
The roundabouts here replaced 4-way stops that would back up well into neighborhoods at rush hour. Now it does move smoothly, once people did figure out to yield instead of stop. PD is calling them a success, saying that the number of accidents went down very little but they all involved much lower speeds and fewer injuries.

The first time I hit that diverging diamond near St Louis, I think I stopped cold. There were lanes, turns, and traffic signals everywhere. I think I slowly drove through, following the overhead signs, and hoping I wouldn't hit, or get hit by, anything else.
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They cost $3 million to build, the road is shut down for 5 months while they build them, and there is a huge increase in accidents for the first few months after they open. Plus it is harder for the snow plows, and semis have overturned in them. They make sense at a quiet intersection, but a busy one...no way!!
 
Put a ranchhand bumper on the front of that bad boy and make sure the insurance is paid up... Then you won't have to risk wiping yourself out trying to avoid stupid driver tricks... you can just leave your calling card imprint on the side of his dinky rig...
 
timwinters said:
Around here the diverging diamond is used where there isn't room for a clover leaf...they use land far more efficiently and don't require wiping out big chunks of neighborhoods like clover leafs would in urban areas.

People will get used to them...but many are resistant to change...some obstinately so.
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The diverging diamond really doesn't use materially less space than a cloverleaf, and it stops the flow of traffic with lights, where a cloverleaf typically does not. The reason why diverging diamonds are starting to become popular is precisely because people haven't "gotten used to" the proper way to use a cloverleaf, even though they have been ubiquitous for decades.

The state is planning to replace a cloverleaf with a diverging diamond at the intersection of a busy 4-lane road and interstate highway in my area. The traffic lights for the diamond will be back-to-back with lights at close intersections on both sides of the diamond, including a 5-way intersection which is already a mess. The cloverleaf presently does not require lights and does not stop the flow of traffic between the two surrounding intersections, but drivers entering or exiting the highway rarely yield to through traffic, apparently believing that they somehow have the right of way despite the "yield" signs at the ends of the ramps. The big reason for the diamond is that the state believes it will reduce the number of accidents by forcing drivers to obey traffic control. It may, but it will also create delays for all drivers which do not exist now.


JKG
 
JGoodish said:
The diverging diamond really doesn't use materially less space than a cloverleaf
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Man...I want some of what you're smoking!

Compare the amount of land used in the diverging diamond I posted @ 18 and the amount of land used in the cloverleaf below.

Around here, diverging diamonds aren't replacing cloverleafs, they're replacing standard "stoplight and then make a left turn to an on-ramp" interchanges and they're far more efficient than those.
 

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Cloverleaf has highway entering/exiting traffic moving through each other with critically tight turns at the convergence boundaries.

The diverging diamond doesn't.

It looks to me like one design favors the street traffic and one favors the highway traffic.
 
Glad it worked out, Nate. Be glad the road wasn't wet and/or you weren't on a crowded highway full of knuckleheads.

I came back from St. Simons Monday night. That's a straight shot up I-95, then onto the DC beltway to home. Other than the cop traps through Georgia and South Carolina the trip was fine until the last 30 miles. It started raining. And the idiocy of the drivers on I-95 & the Beltway was truly stunning. I remarked more than once that that stretch of road was outright dangerous to deadly. Even though I was in a rather nimble car (not the truck), it was one of the few times that I've been truly concerned when driving on that particular road (and I've been driving it pretty much all of my life, even when living far away as I returned regularly to visit family members).

Take construction of toll lanes in what would be the median of a highway, multiple (4-6) lanes, three-way highway split, drivers that would get into the left or left-center lane & drive 35-40 (speed limit 55), nutjobs that weave through the traffic at 70+, sudden braking, etc in the rain. And a confusing split between the "free" lanes and the "toll" lanes on the beltway (someone got killed due to confusion the other day). I was outright surprised that no one got killed in that traffic.

Your truck would be a goner, 'cause folks here subscribe to what I call the Italian method of driving: don't worry about what's behind you - it's their problem not yours.
 
Got back from St Maarten a couple months ago. I loved hearing those cruise ship horns as they were pulling out of the docks. Kept thinking yeah, I need one of those on my Harley. :)


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wsuffa said:
Glad it worked out, Nate. Be glad the road wasn't wet and/or you weren't on a crowded highway full of knuckleheads.



I came back from St. Simons Monday night. That's a straight shot up I-95, then onto the DC beltway to home. Other than the cop traps through Georgia and South Carolina the trip was fine until the last 30 miles. It started raining. And the idiocy of the drivers on I-95 & the Beltway was truly stunning. I remarked more than once that that stretch of road was outright dangerous to deadly. Even though I was in a rather nimble car (not the truck), it was one of the few times that I've been truly concerned when driving on that particular road (and I've been driving it pretty much all of my life, even when living far away as I returned regularly to visit family members).



Take construction of toll lanes in what would be the median of a highway, multiple (4-6) lanes, three-way highway split, drivers that would get into the left or left-center lane & drive 35-40 (speed limit 55), nutjobs that weave through the traffic at 70+, sudden braking, etc in the rain. And a confusing split between the "free" lanes and the "toll" lanes on the beltway (someone got killed due to confusion the other day). I was outright surprised that no one got killed in that traffic.



Your truck would be a goner, 'cause folks here subscribe to what I call the Italian method of driving: don't worry about what's behind you - it's their problem not yours.
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My shoulders head for my ears in that kind of traffic. I get out of the car feeling like I've just gone 10 rounds with someone who actually knows how to box.

I see people in the lanes next to me, texting.

I really wish Darwin would hurry up and outpace our technological ability to make people "feel" safe. He works way too slowly.

Problem is, he's also kinda indiscriminate and other drivers who aren't in the shallow end of the gene pool would also be hurt. And are. :(
 
You HAVE to drive defensively and be slightly paranoid.

Just last week someone tried to kill me, but I was able to swerve in my new car with 25 miles on it well enough to save both our butts.
 
I'd prefer to drive offensively and run them off the road, but it's frowned upon.
 
Be very conspicuous about taking a cell phone picture, especially of the license plate. That's worked for me several times.
 
Nate, I just got back from Mexico last night and saw this. Glad to hear all is well and no damage or injury. You describe the typical "8 guys and a mower landscape company" with that trailer and driving non-skills.

So since you pointed it out, I don't need to say "go see Rob" :) But seriously, it would be mostly for fun since you're set up nicely already. If nothing else, you can talk airplanes first.

I'm pretty sure I saw a rear disc conversion somewhere on line - YouTube maybe ... And might have been a DIY collection of parts. I did the 3500 GMC rear cylinder upgrade on my 2500 - I think it's a couple mm bigger but your 3500 probably already has the larger cylinder. Something to look at tho. I'll find the part number for you.

What TPMS did you get?

I think I saw a FB post that you had an inaugural outing? Everything works ok?

Your CAT numbers look like mine proportionally, just 20%-ish heavier.
 
gkainz said:
I did the 3500 GMC rear cylinder upgrade on my 2500 - I think it's a couple mm bigger but your 3500 probably already has the larger cylinder. Something to look at tho. I'll find the part number for you.
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Ok, thread drift ... but what's new with that here? :)

from dieselram.com

Pre '97 2500s came with 24mm cylinders
'97 and newer 2500s and all 3500s came with 27mm cylinders
The cylinders GM (Napa #4637337) used are 30mm

Switching from a 27mm to a 30mm cylinder increases applied force area from 572.55mm^2 to 706.85mm^2.
 
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