You want to try 365 miles from Regina to Winnipeg accross the Canadian Prairies with just 3 sets of lights to break the boredom,then swap trailers and turn and burn back to Regina,yawn,all in a days work.Well it used to be whilst serving my sentence to obtain permanent residency,nowadays I have a life but plenty of blokes still do that on a daily basis.
A nice little earner if you can tolerate the tedium.
Not sure if it’s a trance, but pitch black and heavy snow.It gets to me 
I have this same with handbrake too 
The mortuary’s full of richard heads who dont pull over when they get drowsy. Bugger the timed delivery, if im’e tired I stop.
Hell 
You learn something new every day.
I thought all those skid marks you see on motorways going onto the hard shoulder were caused by broken air lines 
4whatitsworth:
Hell
I thought all those skid marks you see on motorways going onto the hard shoulder were caused by broken air lines
and why is it there always miles long
SmashedCrabFace:
Squiddy:
Anyone else have these issues?Yes, I do.
I’m always tempted by the parking brake too, not tried it yet but I don’t think it’ll be too long before I give in.
I also play this kind of memory game where if I’m on an unlit road that I know quite well in the middle of the night, I’ll switch all my lights off so I can’t see anything and drive from memory.
I have done this also, but not the “from memory” bit, driving down a unlit road just with the ambient moonlight, amazing how much you can see once your eyes get used to it.
I always found climbing into the bunk with the cruise control set was ever so relaxing, the tramlines will steer the truck and if the roads are quiet, you can stay there for about 5 minutes before the lorry starts to veer over the lines.
I think it is the reassuring buzz of the engine that is so calming…
wirralpete:
always find putting down the window and hurling abuse at cows in fields helps and god help if im overtaken by a transporter full of sheep
Ha ha ha! Class. I’ll have to try this myself.
Putting the handbrake on at 56mph is probably not the best idea I learnt not to do it a few years ago, it was 1989 I think, anyway it was when F reg was new. I had a new Scania 113 first day out (no familiarisation training then) driving over the M62 with a DFDS tilt on from Immingham. As I was going down the hill from Saddleworth she crept up to 65ish so I decided to apply a little bit of trailer brake and pulled the wrong lever. I was so lucky it stayed in a straigt line and I managed to take it off again, those old tilts had crap brakes so you had to give it plenty on the lever and as I pulled it it went far enough to lock on, and for a second your brain cant quite decide whats happening or what to do about it. I can assure anybody that hasnt tried it they try and stop very very quickly (and that was all on drum brakes) My wife who was my girlfriend at the time ended up in the footwell after impacting the dash. It was a Topline model so it had seatbelts fitted but in those days nobody used them. I was very lucky that day, traffic was lighter then and it stayed straight, nothing broke or sheared off, thats an amazing amount of load suddenly put on the running gear and brake components. I dont think my boss would have been too happy either first day out in a new truck. I soon learnt that when I used the trailer brake in a Scania to put my thumb on the handbrake and pull the trailer brake with my fingers, then you cant get it wrong even in the dark. 
Its not something I have done twice
Braking at 65mph, ya wuss, it was 1989, that was a sacking offence
good lord , the park brake thing is a curious one ? even i’ve thought about that one too !
whats that all about?
although i wouldn’t call it an overwhelming urge or even had to sit on my hand to stop wanting to do it but yes the thought has occured to me
never wanted to try the eyes closed thing though , bad enough trying to keep them open !
my worst feeling when on auto pilot is driving on a road i’m familliar with , but suddenly not knowing where i am
Wheel Nut:
Braking at 65mph, ya wuss, it was 1989, that was a sacking offence
Fair point Wheelnut, it was 1989 so I should have run upto atleast 75 before braking
After the recent motorway accidents, and the public’s general opinion of truck drivers, I really hope the tabloid press don’t read this thread… 
wirralpete:
always find putting down the window and hurling abuse at cows in fields helps and god help if im overtaken by a transporter full of sheep
you wanna try pipping your horn and barking at sheep… brilliant…
Seems to be a lot of crazy people on here
It is nothing for drivers here to drive on an interstate for over 10 hours non stop, but not me… I refuse to travel more than 4.5 hours without taking a break, much to my dispatchers anger, luckily me actual manager backs me up.
I used to run team sometimes with a guy who used to be on here (no names mentioned) but he could drive non stop for 11 hours and pee in a bottle as he drove. For the first month we ran two trucks and running with him kept me awake but on my own it was not long before I stopped to sleep.
EastAnglianTrucker:
After the recent motorway accidents, and the public’s general opinion of truck drivers, I really hope the tabloid press don’t read this thread…
Most of them make it up anyway, so they are not going to take any notice of a load of sleep deprived drunkards
I think the urge to pull the handbrake up is probably psychology like standing on a cliff or a bridge part of the brain urges u to jump while the majority og ity holds u back there is probably an official name for this phenomina but it is quite common I think!!
I can remember doing night trunk for Swifts in the 80’s and going from Woodall to Watford Gap without any memory of the journey
10-08:
I’ve come to the conclusion that I must be awake just nothing interesting has happened so brain hasn’t bothered to remember.
I reckon this is the most likely explanation. I night trunk up and down the M6/M74 a lot which is truly mind numbing on the return run though I’m fully alert if there’s anything near enough to potentailly affect me, I use satnag to help keep my brain stimulated and have the window at least partially open.
One thing I have found though is just before dawn I sometimes have trouble sharp focusing, in predawn light on the M74 between Gretna and Lockerbie it can give me a real headache. I know the quality of light (predawn and dusk) plays a big part and the road surface on that section is ■■■■■ but I also find it is worse in an Axor so maybe the shape of the windscreen plays a part.