Anyone ever hitch a ride on the fly?

[train in vain]

Saw it in a movie once. Dreamcatcher. Not the stephen king one. Dude hops on the ladder of an rv and climbs on up.
Seems dumb in real life. Cant imagine it working.

 

[Gwasher]

Facebook live while youre doing it, id like to see it in real time. But I cant imagine youre serious.

 

[muff cabbage]

Yeah man just keep ur thumb up the entire time

 

[Matt Derrick]

not sure how anyone would think this is a legitimate question, it's like asking if anyone has jumped on an RV moving full speed. no one on the RV is going to be okay with that, and your chances of dying or being seriously hurt are about 90%.

 

[LysergicAbreaction]

You are asking about jumping onto a moving truck/van/car?

How does that work? Just out of curiosity.

Are you jumping onto people's rides without them knowing?

I have hoped freight on the fly before, and honestly I think it's a bad idea. An old hobo rule of thumb is if you can count the 3 bolts on the spinning train wheel that it should be going slow enough to jump on, but that doesn't necessarily mean you are safe, as the story below elucidates:

once I was trying to hop on a unit on the fly, both my road dogs jumped on before me, and the train had sped up when it was my turn, I had a large pack and couldn't keep up, I grabbed the rail on the side of the unit leading to the little stairs up onto the thing, and the train just started dragging me, my feet and legs were being dragged across the rocks, it happened so quick that it took a minute before my brain could register what was happening, and I didn't think to let go until the very last minute. So, I let go and got rolled on the rocks, I jumped up and tried to catch the next car, but my ankle was fucked, I could barley walk. I had to stay in town until my ankle got better, then I had to hop out alone, as my road dogs were long gone. ( ...I haven't jumped a freight since I was 16 years old, and looking back its incredible that I made it through it all, specially as such a young kid. )

In the story above I had tripped, the train wasn't going that fast (thank God) but I lost my footing while my hand was still gripped onto the unit and got dragged for 100 feet or so... it's a miracle one of my legs didn't get caught under one of the wheels...

 

[Gwasher]

when I was a kid I lived near so many miles of train tracks. we would get bored and throw rocks at boxcars bc we were little assholes. Ill never forget the day I saw someone throw a rock and watch it bounce right back and hit the same kid in the face. His lips and nose were destroyed. Trains are no joke.

 

[Laundromatt]

The thread was just a joke. Like ya know, that thing called humor

 

[roughdraft]

damn im feelin more gullible than ever

 

[siid]

that video didn't even really show his technique or anything how can we learn from this I thought you said you posted a tutorial

 

[LysergicAbreaction]

I certainly had issue taking the thread seriously, but still had to inquire as it was not very clear what you were actually getting at, at least not to me. For all I know you could have been dead serious, plus I only skimmed through most of the posts here.

 

[Jackthereaper]

Ive had good luck skitching in nyc in the past.. dont know if that counts, but once you get used to it its easy af on bmx. Much more difficult on a skateboard, those tiny wheels and all

 

[Laundromatt]

Ive had good luck skitching in nyc in the past.. dont know if that counts, but once you get used to it its easy af on bmx. Much more difficult on a skateboard, those tiny wheels and all

That totally counts , haha

 

[wokofshame]

There are a couple semi setups one can hitch a ride on successfully. A lot of people in the northeastern US take old van semi-trailers and cut half of the back doors off so they can blow wood chips in, like so.

One could easily hop on at a stoplight from behind, you'll eventually end up at a paper mill, and there are very few mills in any given area so if you know where that mill is you know where the truck is going. There is generally a decent amount of space between the chip pile and the top of the half-doors to hide.
Another setup is this

, used to haul apples and other fruit from the orchards to the packers "wet house". If you are in eastern WA in the fall you will see a lot of these. Obviously you can only fit in a bin when they're empty, so there's really no telling where you're going.

 

[Billy Cougar White]

I longboard, and I have grabbed the back of busses and taxis at stop lights as they take off, but thats riding on the fly i guess.