Right guys & girls,having passed me test a couple of months ago i have a question to ask,i have been driving around milton keynes today & due to the amount of roundabouts was having to slow down & negotiate these,but whats the best way to slow for them?do you just brake,let the box do the work(mines got opticruise)then go round,do you back off 500 yards away & stand on the exhaust brake then just brush the service brake if needed,what do the more experienced among you people do■■?
i back off from a few hundred yards away with the exhust brake on at the lowest setting and let the autobox get on with changing down nice and slow. i only touch the brakes if needed. this saves the brakes and whilst the exhaust brake is on you dont use any fuel.
then on a friday i keep my right foot on the gas and use my left foot for braking like every other rally car driver on the mad rush home (joke).
DT@Leightonhaul:
Right guys & girls,having passed me test a couple of months ago i have a question to ask,i have been driving around milton keynes today & due to the amount of roundabouts was having to slow down & negotiate these,but whats the best way to slow for them?do you just brake,let the box do the work(mines got opticruise)then go round,do you back off 500 yards away & stand on the exhaust brake then just brush the service brake if needed,what do the more experienced among you people do■■?
When I’m in MK i normally just let the truck slow down on its own if its quite as i approach the roundabout or use service if trafffic busy,
if its quiet im normally looking ahead to see what the roundabout is doing how busy it is etc, making sure im going slow enough to stop but the right speed to pick up if the roundabout is clear…but you have to watch out for the car driver who see’s a clear roundabout and does not even bother breaking and doesnt think about you pulling onto it as when you left it the roundabout was clear,
It dont always work on that double roundabout though…
One think about the A421 i wish they had of carried on with the dual carriage way a bit further towards buckingham,
But in MK you cant always see what’s the other side of the roundabout,
with the opticruise box, scania themselves advise you to keep the box in the manual setting,changing down in advance and leaving it in a suitable gear to pull away in without stopping if the road is clear. I tend not to use brakes that much, backing off the throttle well in advance to give extra “looking time”. The aim is to keep it rolling rather than come to a complete stop which wastes time and fuel.
thanx guys,it wasn’t just roundabouts or MK but slowing down in general,when i was training,the instructor just wanted me to slow down then worry bout gears/traffic when we were ontop of the hazzard,so now i’ve got toys to play with it raised the question!!!
DT@Leightonhaul:
thanx guys,it wasn’t just roundabouts or MK but slowing down in general,when i was training,the instructor just wanted me to slow down then worry bout gears/traffic when we were ontop of the hazzard,so now i’ve got toys to play with it raised the question!!!
shouldnt really be playing with your toys in the cab while driving, tut tut 
When my instructor was telling me about slowing down etc he said and i quote…
“Imagine you have got your boss’s new green house in the back of your truck (learned in a box reefer) and its not strapped down”,
point i think he was trying to make was to slow down gently, smooth driving etc…probablty not the best phrase to use…“your boss’s green house”. sorry boss 
I must think about putting a link to this in the newbies forum - slowing down advice from the professionals 
Perhaps its me but i seriously cannot believe that anybody would ask such a question.No disrespect to the newbie but what sort of instructor did he have? Is this a wind up? “Whats the best way to slow down” . Jeez . . . what next?
“How do i open the cab door” .
Tin hat ready
Suedehead:
Perhaps its me but i seriously cannot believe that anybody would ask such a question.No disrespect to the newbie but what sort of instructor did he have? Is this a wind up? “Whats the best way to slow down” . Jeez . . . what next?
“How do i open the cab door” .Tin hat ready
The way I see it is this(and this is probably how I would ask the original question)
Ok, I’ve passed my test but I know that driving a fully freighted truck is different to a test spec truck, so in the real world I am looking for advice on how best to slow down as opposed to test standard.
Semtex:
Suedehead:
Perhaps its me but i seriously cannot believe that anybody would ask such a question.No disrespect to the newbie but what sort of instructor did he have? Is this a wind up? “Whats the best way to slow down” . Jeez . . . what next?
“How do i open the cab door” .Tin hat ready
The way I see it is this(and this is probably how I would ask the original question)
Ok, I’ve passed my test but I know that driving a fully freighted truck is different to a test spec truck, so in the real world I am looking for advice on how best to slow down as opposed to test standard.
Well i dont know about you but i learnt the “old fashioned way”, basically a bit of blagging and get on with it!!
Totally agree with the “test standard” but a bit of common sense kicked in after being “tested” in a Cargo with a 28ft flat but that was before the days of the “interweb” asking “whats the best way to slow down”
no offence
ROG:
I must think about putting a link to this in the newbies forum - slowing down advice from the professionals
those who can do those who cant teach
Semtex:
Suedehead:
Perhaps its me but i seriously cannot believe that anybody would ask such a question.No disrespect to the newbie but what sort of instructor did he have? Is this a wind up? “Whats the best way to slow down” . Jeez . . . what next?
“How do i open the cab door” .Tin hat ready
The way I see it is this(and this is probably how I would ask the original question)
Ok, I’ve passed my test but I know that driving a fully freighted truck is different to a test spec truck, so in the real world I am looking for advice on how best to slow down as opposed to test standard.
Remember how we was taught to drive a coach■■?
I took my C+E test with a nearly full glass of water on the dash, when I was asked why it was there I told the examiner that if I spilt any it means I wasn’t slowing/braking or taking corners properly. My second test and I got only 9 minors, so Shag’s (my PCV instructor) advice worked.
Not only that, but I dare anyone to drive to Disneyland Paris with a courier onboard serving hot tea and coffee to passengers while your on the move. Thats when you have to drive very carefully otherwise it’s your arse on the line when the company gets sued.
Churchill:
ROG:
I must think about putting a link to this in the newbies forum - slowing down advice from the professionalsthose who can do those who cant teach
EH
the lad was only wanting to know if anyone else had a better metheod than what he had been taught, i have been at it 35 years now and i have used this site for advice , i would be daft not to there are a lot of experienced heads out there who may have better ideas than me
I was out with a bloke last week who never ever used the exhauster on a Volvo. He had been driving a couple of years but no one had ever really explained it to him. I was telling him about how abroad you could have a 10km run downhill and if you didn’t use it you would end up with the brakes on fire, he was amazed.
i use the engine brake on the actros pretty much all the time, its quiet enough not to come under the noise pollution regs
now if i was driving a kenworth around, thatd be a slightly different story