Jean-Claude Van Damme's Epic Split for Volvo Is Insane

[RAMd®d]

…according to Volvo.

Volvo: We want you to to the splits from standing to full extensions while standing on the mirrors of two moving down the road.

JCVD: WTF?! Are you insane. You are INSANE!

JCVD's Agent: Easy peasy, you just stand there with the trucks separate. You'll be on little platforms, there'll be connecting safety wires. A little digital touch up and you'll look great, Bubala!

Volvo: Yes, perfectly safe. Our computer model predicts 97% success.

JCVD: I picked the wrong week to give up drugs.


Trés cool commercial.

[RAMd®d]

Duplicate post.

I swear I don't know how I did that.

[space-time]

Interesting, I think Speedy knows his stuff

[mrlynn]

Speedy wrote:
Pretty amazing how he can do that. The pavement must have been very smooth to minimize any bouncing.

The trucks are going in reverse because it is far easier to stay a straight course using the truck's mirrors. The drivers use the line of sight along the lengths of the straight sides of the trucks to maintain a fixed distance and there is a pylon or something they are using to hone in on. They could not do the same going forward.

Interesting. The truck on the right is a tractor-trailer and stays straight. Only the easier-to-steer box truck on the left moves away from the straight line.

/Mr Lynn

[morlock]

I could do that. Here, hold my beer...

[RAMd®d]

The trucks are going in reverse because it is far easier to stay a straight course using the truck's mirrors.

While this doesn't diminish my appreciation for JCVD's clanging, it's very cool to this from somebody who know's exactly what they're talking about.

And it does help explain something I once saw. A 53' tractor-trailer was running late to pick-up a load and came into a "rolling" parking lot (as in the old drive-in movies) at a very brisk pace, made a left turn to get perpendicular with the dock, then backed up making a left turn to the dock ending up with a wall on his right just a few inches from the trailer, perfectly parallel.

This sounds like a piece o' cake and maybe it is for a decent driver, But even the backing was done very quickly, in just two moments that looked like one. Seriously, if he had been off just a bit, there would have been some serious damage. This impressed me much more than Hollywood endos.

Much smaller scale and now is the second coolest thing I've seen done with big-rigs.

[Speedy]

As a truck driver, I always preferred to back into a tight space rather than drive ahead into one. If you ever go to a truck stop you will see the trucks backed against the back line, all straight, separated just enough to swing open the cab doors. Much harder to do going forward because our eyes/brains need the cues that are available going backwards.

space-time wrote:
Interesting, I think Speedy knows his stuff

When the Feds started requiring retesting of drivers during the implementation of the commercial drivers license requirements in the 1980's I took my test in my daily driver, a five axle semi truck-trailer belly dump (gravel hauler). I routinely backed up any number of times a day. So the first thing the license examiner had me do was back around a corner and end up next to a painted line without touching it. One shot, no correcting, and I was full length an inch from the line. He said, "You pass," and I was on my way without wasting his or my time taking the rest of the test. Not bragging, routine for all the drivers where I worked, backed around the corner, pass. I knew of no drivers who failed the entire test. The Feds quickly ended skills retesting and now concentrate on drug testing.

I can parallel park a truck on a street more easily than I can a car. I just need a bit more space. I once had people applaud me when I did this because they thought doing this in a truck must be harder than in a car. It's not.

[Paul F.]

I'm guessing ONE of the reasons they're backing up in the commercial is that if he falls, less chance of going under the wheels if they're backing than going forward...

[Racer X]

the muscles from Brussels. I just loved him in the original Universal Soldier.

[rich in distress]

That's pretty cool Speedy.
I had the pleasure of driving a car with 20ft.trailer for 200 miles, while transporting long poles and whatnot.
I know what you say about driving in reverse. It ends up being easier, but the required twist in your brain -holy...
It was a great experience. Mad respects to pro drivers everywhere.