Moving heavy freight uphill requires patience and practice to avoid drivetrain problems.

Among trucking’s trickiest maneuvers is starting a heavily loaded truck up a steep hill from a dead stop. It’s relatively common, something drivers might face every day, and the maneuver includes several possible mistakes that are easy to make and can cause serious damage to a truck – even a driveshaft sheared clean in two.

“The transmission might be the weaker link in the drivetrain,” says Schneider Equipment Purchasing Vice President Steve Duley. “You might twist the main shaft in the transmission, and when that happens you have to rebuild the unit. But now we’re getting to where we damage more differentials: most likely it would be a broken ring gear, and that means the gear set has to be replaced.”

“I’ve seen them snap driveshafts,” says owner-operator Robert Lyonaisse of Fat Bob’s Trucking in Manchester, N.H. “I’ve seen them rip the rear end shackles right off. I’ve seen them split differentials and rip them right off the housings. I’ve even seen them bend frames.”

All of these mishaps, save bent frames, disable the truck; it can’t be driven, and expenses for towing, repairs and down time run high.

With 33 years of trucking under his belt, Lyonaisse has been both a driver and mechanic, and he has detailed knowledge of starting a heavy load uphill: the forces at work, how to control them and what can happen if the driver makes even a tiny mistake.

“The diesel engines nowadays put out so much torque,” he says, “and that effect on the drive train is compounded by the heavy load, the steep hill and the start up.”