semitone wrote:
A question for you truckers. What makes a truck jacknife - especially on a fairly easy bit of the A14 like the one I had to divert round this week?
Good question, it’s usually caused by sudden heavy braking. However, on the one occasion I have been unfortunate enough to suffer a jacknife, it was caused by poor maintenance.
The air brakes on a truck rely on pressure to keep them off. This is a safety measure as theoretically if you have no air pressure you can’t move. Unfortunately in my case, an air tank became disengaged from the unit when I was travelling at 50MPH and the sudden loss of pressure caused the brakes to engage fully. This is not an experience I would care to repeat, as soon as your brakes are locked on like this you are effectively a passenger in a very dangerous environment with no control whatsoever. I was very fortunate that no-one else was involved in my accident – apart from the laundrette!