Ouch! That hurt. The famous Grapevine grade on the north side of Tejon Pass in Southern California is legendary for its five miles of 6% grade, especially with truckers. It’s a pure test of horsepower going up, and of braking going down. Plenty of truckers found out the hard way that if going down in a gear or two too high, the consequences can be severe.
This Ford went over the side and spilled its load of new Falcons and a pickup. Note the “drip cloth” on the underside of the red Falcon; that’s how the cars on the lower deck were protected from the inevitable drips. And there’s an open suitcase on the far lower left side of the picture. Looks like it went flying out the passenger side door that opened up.
Here’s how it looked back in the 1920s, when it was a slow and winding narrow road and not very suitable for serious haulage and traffic
This is from 1947, some years after it was extensively widened, regraded and straightened in 1934. . We can only speculate how slow this truck is going. I remember flying past semis working their way up the Grapevine in the extra-slow truck lane, probably doing no more than about 15, maybe 20 mph. That was in the late 70s; this tanker is probably going half that fast.
Diesel engine (“Jake”) brakes and improved wheel brakes have made incidents much less common. Unless of course a winter snow storm hits. I remember sitting for four hours one winter, waiting for a jackknifed big rig to be cleared off the highway.
I never heard of this dangerous drive. Thanks for the information. Love that truck in the 1947 photo. I wonder if that is Diesel-powered.
“Hello, Pacific Casualty?”
I had heard stories from my Dad when he lived out there in the 40s. He mentioned a couple close calls with trucks navigating that stretch in his `40 Mercury coupe. He had passed some nasty wrecks where people died.
“Pulled out of San Pedro late one night
The moon and the stars was shinin’ bright.
We was drivin’ up Grapevine Hill
Passing cars like they was standing still.” – “Hot Rod Lincoln”, written by Charlie Ryan
I’ve driven it a few times, in it’s modern incarnation, of course. I’ve also driven Davis Dam Road, in northwest Arizona, which is the site of the SAE trailer towing test standard. Second gear, 45mph, cheeks clenched.
The Grapevine lyrics I remember are from Red Simpson’s 1971 song “I’m a Truck”:
You’ve heard songs about truck drivers
Many times their story’s told
How they pulled out of Pittsburgh
For six days on the road
‘Bout that Feather River Canyon
And climbin’ that Ol’ Grapevine
‘Bout that old roadhouse down in Texas
And the girls they left behind…
Seems like the Grapevine and places like Monteagle Mountain in Tennessee are places just made for songs.
The marvellous title of this post did not allow me to determine what it would be about.
I wonder how the driver fared? The framing for the car platform gave a measure of roll over protection.
Wait. What? A “drip cloth”? On a new car?
If anyone is still saying “they don’t build them like they used to”, they aren’t meaning it the way they should.
Now a days the grape vine is mostly straight, no hair pin turns. A modern car should be able to handle the uphill at or near the legal limit. The truck slow lane can sometimes have a heavy truck going at below 10mph. I even recall there being two truck lanes in some places, one for super slow.
I towed an 8000lb travel trailer up with my F250 with 460 gas engine, no problem even with A/C on. But if you lose momentum, you are doomed.
Even back when I drove my 74 Datsun p/u with 1800cc engine, I could maintain the speed.
Two funny things I saw was, one time I was behind and to the side of a pickup hauling a “race car” on a flatbed. He must have goofed with the tie downs since I got to see the racecar speed past me downhill, without the tow vehicle.
Second funny was watching an old 1950’s ish half ton with plywood side walls filled to well over the top of the cab with water melons. That was slow.
“That’ll buff right out.”
(someone had to say it 🙂 )
The idea of cars being wrecked during transport has been something that’s always fascinated me. This unfortunate truck accident, a derailed train full of auto transport cars (which I watched one summer at my Grandmother’s house which was right next to heavily-used B&O freight lines in MD), and of course capsized auto transport ships…there’s just something about the thought of factory-fresh cars being laid to waste that is compellingly sad to me.
Started driving the Grapevine between San Diego and the Bay Area in June 1972. Daytime and nighttime. Once I even put my 86 Mazda 626 into neutral and let it go downhill just to see what speed I would hit at the bottom. The car handled it well. Did the same on the down side of the Altmont Pass and the west side of the Caldecott Tunnel just so I knew. The Grapevine was the winner by a large margin.
Don’t try it down the Cuesta Grade on the Southbound 101 approach to San Luis Obispo, it may not end well…The Camarillo grade (NB-101) gets interesting too!
I think the last time I was on 101 was in 1993 heading south in the 626 and north in 1972 in the Cougar. I had a passenger from Singapore in 93 so behaved myself especially since December and very damp. I really have no recollection of this grade you talk about. How does it compare to 17?
Cuesta Grade is very steep and fairly long, not very curvy though so speed builds deceptively quickly and the curve at the end right before one enters SLO catches people out.
Camarillo (might be called Conejo (?)) grade is also long with a couple of curves that people have trouble slowing for. It’s north of the north end of the Thousand Oaks/Newbury Park area and descends down into what I call the Oxnard plain…It’s been so long though since I’ve driven it that I may be off a little geographically.
Both very different than Hwy 17 which is more of a rollercoaster if anything and quite enjoyable IF you know it well. But with just as little runoff room or space for error!
JIM :
Boy howdy you said it ! .
Many years ago I bought a 1931 ‘A’ Model Ford pickup North of that grade, the truck had an added overdrive and the original ‘push & pray’ mechanical brakes I had not yet tested / adjusted .
I came down that grade in third gear over drive to see what the old girl would do and I forgot to lock the overdrive unit so when I let off the foot feed it began to speed up freewheeling .
Happily I understood what was happening and so managed to get it back into overdrive then direct and slow it down but by then I was passing all the normal folks on the left .
-Nate
Maybe because I used to drive Hwy 17 daily (both directions) and still travel on it regularly, it doesn’t bother me much. I’ll take it over the Grapevine any day. A few days ago I crossed Siskiyou Summit in Oregon, which is signposted as the highest pass on I5, but it’s only about 150 ft higher than Tejon Pass (the actual pass at the top of the Grapevine) and far less of an elevation delta.
Never heard of this one—but the whole incident with the new Falcons is striking. Here’s a recent-ish account of a no-brakes runaway truck descending at 100 mph: https://mountainenterprise.com/story/lebec-men-pull-drivers-from-fiery-crash-on-i-5-see-video-interview-20E0/
I’ve been going over the Grapevine since 1969, it’s a good road but has steep bits and can be very scary indeed .
Thankfully a good portion of the original 192? road still exists and I occasionally drive on it .
The sharp curves have to be experienced to believe .
I know an elderly Japanese fellow who’s uncle drove trucks to Bakersfield and back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, he had some scary tales .
Back then before A/C the smart ones propped the driver’s door open with their left foot and spent half the day going over it .
Hot as hell but those one didn’t die .
-Nate
Our oldest daughter married her high school sweetheart and moved to California. Two years later they divorced and my wife and I made a quick trip to Southern California to move her and her stuff back to Indiana. This ws 1997 and we were driving my ’95 Ranger short bed with V6 and five speed manual. I noticed how long the grade was on the way in and prepared myself mentally for the trip back up later in the day. We had that pickup bed packed full and pulled a packed U-Haul trailer. That day I was doubly glad that I had not bought the four banger. I got a real good run at the bottom but was barely doing 35 by the time I crested the top. I think if my truck had an automatic I might have been in trouble.
As to vehicles damaged in transit, I have a local story. Our local Chevy dealer ordered a fairly plain pickup in the early 2000s for stock. It was damaged in transit. If I remember right it had a dent in the roof. Anyway, GM refused to release it to the dealer who wanted to use it as a service truck. Instead they donated it to the local automotive trade school with the understanding that it could never be driven or sold and the school had to destroy it when finished. I used to see it parked in their lot just sitting there for a couple of years, complete with window sticker. Finally they yanked the drivetrain, made the bed into a trailer and cut up that nice rust free cab. What a waste.
I’ve probably been over the Grapevine 15-20 times or more. When I was driving 40HP VW Bugs, it seemed awfully steep, but slow steep, not dangerous. In 6 cylinder BMWs I don’t even notice I’ve peaked at times. But I do have a story.
I was moving north in ’75, heading north past the summit. And I went by 3 or 4 different trucks with flames coming from the brakes they were so hot. Flames, trailing flames, not sparks, not smoke. It was almost like a scene from a cartoon. I’ve never seen that before or since and I’ve been on a lot of steeper, higher passes.