Dealing with old man winter, a primer on winter driving.

So old man winter is fixing to rear his ugly head once again. This thread may save your life!

A bit of background on me. I grew up in Montana, I actually learned to drive a big truck on the snow and ice. Winter weather driving is not something to be feared, it is something to be respected.

MIND YOUR SPEED:
The first thing I can tell you, when the weather gets bad, slow down! Don’t think because your truck will run 75 all day long that you can once it starts snowin and blowin. When it gets slick your brakes stop working as good and this means it is going to take you longer, and I mean a lot longer to stop.

DON’T GET STUCK ON FLAT GROUND:
Tires generate heat, take note any time you stop after you have been running for a while, your tires will be warm. What this means is that if you roll into a ice covered parking lot, pick a parking space and set your brakes and hop in the bunk, you will find that within 5 minutes your truck is stuck on level ground.

The reason for this is, the head from your tires will melt the ice of the surface of the parking lot. Your tires will then sink into the melted area creating a nice slick little cup that your truck can not pull its self out of.

If this happens to you, you will not be able to put your chains on, you wont be able to pull ahead unless you are able to get some traction. The best thing I have found in this situation is some oil dry, it is a #### good idea to carry some on your truck, either in a 5 gallon bucket, or in a couple of coffee cans.

To prevent getting stuck in a parking lot, the best thing you can do is take a couple of cool down laps around the parking lot at low speed to let your tires cool down. If it is a small lot, simply pull back and forth about 10-15 feet several times and it will cool your tires down and make a little track for you to get a run in.

PARKING AND BRAKE ISSUES:
When parking, unless absolutely necessary, do not set up your trailer brakes. When you are running down the road, snow and slush douse your drums and pads with water. If you pull in to a parking spot, set up your brakes and there is standing water in your drums and on the face of your shoes, it will freeze up your brakes locking them, and when you pull forward the tire will not spin. If you do not notice that your tires are locked up (and they will slide really easy on the ice) you will get out on the big road and either flat spot them, or simply tear a big hole in them destroying the tires.

To check if all of your tires are spinning I will wiggle my truck back and forth so I can see my tires in my mirrors and see them rolling. I will also get my truck moving forward slowly and grab the Johnson bar a couple of times to heat up the brakes and burn off any ice that may have formed on the face of the brake shoes or in the drums.

I will also apply the brakes a few times for the same effect on the tractor. Something to be wary of is that if you have ice built up on the face of a brake shoe it will cause said shoe to become ineffective. This can be really dangerous because if this happens on one of your steers it can cause you to have full brakes on one side and none on the other.

Because of this it is a good idea to apply your brakes a few times an hour when you are going down the road to keep this from happening to you when you are moving. Don’t smoke your brakes, just give them enough of an application to get everything warm.

Drain your air tanks daily, and put a new cartridge on your air system at the beginning of winter, I usually got mine around the first of October. If you have condensation in your air system, it can freeze up your air lines. All it takes is enough moisture to fill up a low spot in the line, and it can stop all air flow completely. Keep in mind, your trailer has air tanks too, keep them drained as well.

This can leave you in one heck of a bind, the worst thing that can happen is it will freeze up one of your service lines and you will wind up not having brakes when you need them the most. You will hit the brake pedal and there will be nothing there. This is another good reason to use your brakes a few times every hour because it lets you know they are still working, you don’t want to find out the hard way in a panic situation.

The other bad situation water in your air lines can cause happens on your emergency line. What will happen is that moisture will collect in a low spot, when still liquid, it will allow air to pass and then settle back in the low spot, but once it freezes, the air will not be able to pass. What will happen then is that your air suspension will slowly deflate, and your brakes will setup.

Running air bags down the road with no air in them is a sure fire way to wind up with a blown bag on your hands or other damage to your suspension. It can really get expensive fast, and can put you out of service. You don’t want to be out of service in the middle of I-94 in North Dakota.

If your brakes setup on you, it is also a really bad deal, because when it happens if you are running down the interstate, if you are not careful it can stop you right in the middle of a travel lane causing an accident. In the winter on the interstate you will get one path worn into the road that is bare, everyone will run down this path, if you are sitting in the middle of it trying to get your brakes to unfreeze it is a ticking time bomb and chances are another rig is going to run right into the back of you.

You really don’t want this to happen when you are laying under a trailer trying to figure out why your brakes won’t work.

If this happens on your trailer and your truck will still roll, you need to get under your trailer and back the slack adjusters off so the trailer can roll. Preferably you need to get the trailer off the road first though. Do not travel at highway speed with your trailer brakes backed off. The only reason for doing so is to be able to slowly move the truck to a safer place to get everything working again.

CHAIN LAWS:
September 31st to May 31st, have chains on your truck, personally id carry 1 set of 3 railers, and 6 singles. DOT will check to see if you have chains, if you do not, they will write you a ticket, they will not care if you plead ignorance. In fact that will probably make them want to see what else you don’t know they can educate you on by writing you more "driving awards"

When it comes to chaining, if the chain law is up, put your chains on. If you are facing a slick hill, you are worried about making it to the top, but the chain law is not up, put your chains on. Don’t be the guy who closes the road for everyone else because you were too lazy to throw some iron.

As far as chaining goes, throwing a set of singles on your drives in most cases is enough to get the job done. There will be times when things are a total mess that you will need maximum chain on your truck, and a drag chain on the trailer. You will need 1 drag chain on each trailer axle. This is to prevent the trailer from sliding sideways.

As well in big cities, there may be times you want to chain up IE Portland Oregon when they get a heavy rain and a freeze at the same time. Everything gets coated in ice, lots of hills in town, and if you need to get out of town, grab your chains throw em on, and take it nice and slow.

You don’t want to wind up sliding down a hill out of control bouncing off cars as you go in an 80,000 lb truck. It is a good way to get a bunch of people hurt and killed and to make some one's lawyer richer.

IDENTIFYING ROAD CONDITIONS:
One of the most important skills one must learn to drive in adverse weather is to read the road. In the summer time you can run all day long without a worry of what the road underneath you is like for the most part.

In the winter it is a whole different story. The first thing you need to be concerned with is Black Ice, what Black Ice is, is when a thin sheet of ice covers the road, and it will make the road look wet or even bare. It is very slick and very dangerous.

Black ice is often formed when moisture builds up on the bare asphalt that has been warmed by vehicle traffic in the day time, and then freezes, the wind blowing snow over the top of it can polish it to a glass like shine giving it that wet appearance.

How to tell if the surface of the road is frozen or not is easy enough. You need to look at vehicles passing you, or in your mirrors, if you see lots of slush or moisture spray flying it is a good indicator that the surface of the road is not frozen.

As well an outside air temperature gage will give you a good warning as to when it is cold enough for the surface of the road to be frozen, if it is 38 degrees with the sun shining you are most likely fine, but if it is -5 and the sun is shining, it is very possible there is black ice on the road.

Another thing to keep in mind, Ice can hide under snow, so can good solid pavement. It is not uncommon to have the wind kick up, or to have snow start falling, after the road has frozen blowing snow over the road. What may have been bare dry pavement earlier in the day can now be snow covered. Due to the fact that most vehicles will follow a single path in bad weather, one path will get worn on the road and it will be melted off due to the heat from the friction of tires passing over the road surface, this can cause a condition where the travel lane is slick, but off to the sides of the road in the snow there is plenty of traction.

This is especially important to understand when coming down or climbing a hill. Sometimes you have to find traction to get yourself to be able to maintain control of or stop the truck. You don’t want to be in an emergency situation when you start figuring this out.

SURVIVAL & EMERGENCIES:
In the winter you will need to have certain things in the truck that you normally wouldn’t carry in the summer time. The question to ask yourself is “If it was 40 below zero, and I was stuck in the truck for several hours or perhaps a couple of days with no help what would I need”

First look at the blankets you use on your bed, do you think they are enough to keep you from freezing to death in severe subzero temperatures? Blankets are cheap, bring many with you. They may save your life.

I know this from firsthand experience, I ran out of fuel one night out in the middle of nowhere Washington and it was 10 hours before I could get some fuel delivered from a town that was 15 miles away. So make sure you have enough blankets.

Also make sure you have a good set of coveralls, I always carried a set of Carhart overalls with me, they were great for keeping out the cold, especially if I had to get under the truck to work on anything or to grease it.

A couple of pieces of heavy plastic is a good idea too, they are great if you have to lay down in the snow or mud under the truck, and if you have to stay dry you will be very thankful you have them. I just kept a piece of visqueen folded up in a ziplock bag.

Plastic can also help you if you wind up with a window knocked out of your truck. Imagine having to truck down the road in the winter with your passenger or drivers side window busted out with snow and slush flying in.

Duct tape is also an essential survival item.

Food, Canned food is a must. Go get a few cans of dinty moore soup or something of that nature and keep em in the truck, just be sure to get the kind with the self-opening lid. If you get stuck somewhere you will be glad you brought them. I have heated them up in a pinch with a burnz-o-matic torch and a pair of channel locks.

TOOLS FOR THE ROAD:
A Burns-O-Matic self-lighting propane torch is a good thing to have as well. It is very handy for thawing frozen brakes if a whack with a hammer wont get em undone, you can cook with it, hell if you need to you can light wet wood on fire with it. It is a very useful tool, and they are great for doing heat shrink connections as well.

Carry a shovel and a handsaw, you will be glad you did. (I would also cary a sawsall and a chainsaw but that is just me)

Another thing that is handy to have on your truck at all times is rope, I would carry about 300’ of 3/8” poly cotton twill. You never know when you are going to need it. I would constantly use it.

Hammers, I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS carried a couple of hammers on the truck. An Eastwing Claw hammer, a 3 lb sledge, a ball peen, and a 20 lb sledge. The 3lb hammer was perfect for whacking brake drums when adjusting them or if they froze up.

Pry bars: I always keep a few of different sizes handy, I have a big yellow Stanley fat max, a 6’ spud bar, a couple of smaller pry bars, and some old screw drivers work well too. You never know when you are going to need a device of persuasion especially when flatbedding.

5th wheel puller, in the summer, it isn’t so bad reaching into a trailer to pull a 5th wheel pin, but in the winter everything will be wet, snowy, slushy and nasty. You will want one.

Sockets, Wrenches, Other hand tools, you will want as many as you can take with you. Home Depot has decent tool kits that aren’t much money, you will also want a full set of English and standard wrenches, I carry all the way up to a 1 ¼” wrench with me.

Electrical tools, connectors & heat shrink, these are all things you will definitely want on your truck. Get the barrel crimps with no insulation on them and heat shrink them after you make a connection, as well smear all connections with dielectric grease to help them further. Or even better solder your connections.

Carry spare headlights and an Alternator. You can’t run blind, and it would be pretty dumb to get stranded and freeze to death over something as simple and silly as an alternator.

Dish Soap, I prefer Dawn, I always keep about a gallon of the stuff on hand, it has so many uses you I can’t even begin to make a list here.

FIXING COMMON PROBLEMS:
Frozen brakes: So you have a brake froze up and a set of duals that won’t roll. If it is only one wheel the most common problem is brake shoes frozen to the drum. A couple of good whacks with a hammer should release them.

If this does not work you need to ensure there is air getting to your brake cans and that the can is not leaking. The easiest way to do this is to set up the trailer brakes, pull the airline off of the brake can, then supply air to the trailer and see if air is coming out, if there is, then you have an issue with the brake can, if not you have a frozen airline.

Fixing an airline is pretty straight forward but it can be a pain. If it is a shorter airline that you can take off easily all you need to do is remove it and set it under the hood of your truck for a few minutes and it will thaw out. For the longer lines coming from the front of the trailer they are substantially more difficult. The best method is to get airline antifreeze and pour it down the line. When doing this I prefer to pull the line off of the valve so as that whatever you pour down the other end doesn’t wind up further back in your air system. Do you really want to go to all of that work of thawing an airline only to push the water further back into your trailer?

Blown trailer tire: So you are 50 miles from nowhere, you blow an outside tire on your trailer, there is no mechanic around for miles, and the closest tire shop isn’t open until tomorrow, what do you do?

Get out your bottle of dawn dish soap, lube up the rim and the bead on the tire, grab a couple of pry bars and rip that tire off the wheel. Limp it into the next town, get yourself fixed up. Or did you want to pay 600.00 for a road service call?


SUMMARY:
To take a bit of wisdom from the book of Black W900L “Truckin ain’t for sissies, Winter truckin really ain’t for sissies!” But it is not something to be afraid of, it is something to be respected. Common sense goes and auful long ways, so does keeping a cool head and being honest with yourself about your skills and abilities. Most of all when the voice of experince starts talkin you had best be listening, or running in the winter will eat you alive.

 

Another thought...

CRUISE CONTROL:
On slick roads, it is just a bad idea, if you start to spin out and the cruise is on, you can just up and forget it, you're gonna spin out, and it can cause you to jack knife and bite the big one.

When it starts to get slick shut the cruise off and pedal it.

If you feel yourself starting to slide, the last thing you do is hit the brakes, you have to feather the pedal to keep it under control.

 

Something to add to that, at times in a total white out, IE on top of a mountain pass I have found that you can see if you cut your headlights off. I wouldnt run down the road like that but I have been in a couple of situations where it helped me find the road.

and the cleaning your tailights is a very very good point, that may be the only thing that keeps the truck behind you from slamming into your ###, and it may be the only thing that lets him make it through the whiteout. because it will be the only thing he can see.

 

By all means, that is why I wrote it.

Figured it was time for a thread that talked about something besides "what company will hrie me with 21 dui's and a felony" or "think my pete would look better with the 10 or 11 inch stacks?"

 

That is a lot of commuting, and you need to be careful because you are going to be tired doing that drive having worked a full shift already by the time you are on your way home.

All good points you have made there. I actually have a cradle for my blackberry that is hard mounted in my truck. Makes sure I always know where it is, and it keeps it charged.