You must be an owner operator or someone that gets paid by the load to risk that run. I will say this if I had a pick with no clutch I would go with the big rig.Not a one up but a similar story.
Clutch went out of the Pete as I pulled under the load rack.
Jerked it out of gear and got stopped.
Threw on 8500 gallons of gas and like you said, put it in first gear (18sp) and start the motor.
I was able to make the rest of my 406 mile trip, timing stop lights and rolling stop signs, got unloaded, truck refueled and parked all without a clutch.
So yeah it can be done but would I want to do it every trip?
Not really
Reasons ? You’re in the crows nest and can read traffic 100 % better than a car. You can control your speed with Jake brake and more gears.
When I drove I would for the most part roll up to a stop without hitting by brakes and come to a complete stop.
Good job on getting your truck out of gear under the rack. As most would not know you could never get it out of gear without tapping the accelerator to take the load off transmission.
And I will say this only about 2 % of real drivers could actually pull that off, good job.
Especially with a load of fuel, you have a set.
The only way I knew how to drive my car home like that was because I used to drive my uncles 10 wheeler that had a 5 and 4 browning transmission.
And if anyone ever doubted a guy in a big rig could not come to a complete stop in a fully loaded big rig in city traffic without hitting his brakes I would say how much money do you have ?
Honestly it’s not really that hard you just have to know how to read traffic.
My whole CDL driving career that was about 10 yrs was all %, need I say more, lol.
Driving 80,000 fast and furious and 106,000 in Idaho in a truck and pup.
Loved driving but the pay sucked.