Pat Hasler:
It’s a steep hill, WTF ?
What has the world come to when a driver asks what it’s like to drive up or down a hill ? … Especially empty
I really feel for some people, I usually take the pee ate the US drivers but if any of them saw this post thread they would be in fits of laughter
I’ve never been near it, it’s the steepest hill in England and one year over 100 trucks got stuck that’s why I asked smart arse
If they get stuck on it they have no right to hold a licence, experience counts, if you can’t use get up a hill give up, I’ll bat you use a sat nav too LOL.
Try climbing a 4,000 ft mountain in snow FFS.
+1 some drivers seem to have no idea how to drive a truck
its funny that those that are not located locally are the ones waving their willys and saying be a man and do it, the local guys are either saying give it a miss or giving the advice on how to tackle it, but one thing is you dont actually see that many local hauliers using it…
I used to use it quite a bit. My loads were plastic drainage so not much weight. In the dry it’s no problem but in the wet you’ve got to get the right line on the hairpin, take a wide swing. I never went up it with any with a lot of weight so can’t really comment other than get the right gear and try to hold it all the way up. Traction was always my problem but lack of power coupled with presumably a retarded auto box will be yours.
Truckulent:
I wouldn’t bother. Too many truck drivers get stuck on Sutton Bank 'cos they think taking an artic up there will make their small ■■■■■ larger.
Follow the route advice of those that wouldn’t!
If a driver can’t get an empty artic in dry weather up Sutton Bank then he/she should probably hand their licence in. That isn’t some macho bull btw, just a simple statement of facts.
1 moaster , always went that way from Stockton - Malton , never had any issues
dle1uk:
its funny that those that are not located locally are the ones waving their willys and saying be a man and do it, the local guys are either saying give it a miss or giving the advice on how to tackle it, but one thing is you dont actually see that many local hauliers using it…
It’s not like they are attempting it with an eaton twin splitter though is it, even the supposedly underated opticruise will overcome sutton bank in auto mode.
But on second thoughts your probably right since there are loads of drivers out there who struggle to keep their truck on a straight flat road.
Their is a similar hill on the A422 not far from banbury (sun rise hill) most of our drivers wont touch it, i have been up it at full weight 44t doing about 10mph started to spin the wheels half way up, so its a case of select manual & don’t give way to now one
Never been on it but I’d avoid the roads if it says unsuitable for hgvs unless I need it for access. If I was driving my motorbike/car I wouldn’t like to be stuck behind a truck going stupidly slow just because he wanted to save a few mins. That being said that thinking goes out the window when I’m in a rush.
Used to drag cider out of Hereford to West Yorkshire at 44t with an Iveco on the A4103 via Worcester.At Fromes Hill(?)found out that auto gearbox couldn’t cope with the gradient and surrendered.Interesting hill start but in future used manual with no problems.
Gidders:
Used to drag cider out of Hereford to West Yorkshire at 44t with an Iveco on the A4103 via Worcester.At Fromes Hill(?)found out that auto gearbox couldn’t cope with the gradient and surrendered.Interesting hill start but in future used manual with no problems.
When I was at Taylor’s of martley in the late 90’s we used to do a lot of work out of bulmers taking the loads back to our yard in martley. We were banned from fromes hill when loaded after a driver or two got the change from high to low range wrong and stopped then as they tried to get going again they snapped the prop kangerooing [emoji23]
There used to be a big sign at the bottom of Sutton Bank said “STOP - ENGAGE FIRST GEAR”. It was a hangover from the days of crash boxes, where getting into 1st on the move was impossible.
I think a lot of the artics that have problems are vans, where the load slides back and takes weight off the drive axle(s). I went up loads of times in the 60s with no trouble; there was a butty bar at the top to get a cuppa and let the engine cool down a bit. On the bend, I just kept going and let the cars sort themselves out; it was a fairly short outfit though, with a two axle unit.
