Stab breaking or continuous light pressure

If you are going down a hill in conditions slippery enough to use chains such as snow and ice you do not want to use the jakes at all.

 

I've always been of the opinion that chains are meant to be used to get you out of a bad situation. I always checked the weather and if the chain law went up I stopped the truck until it came down. If it is so slippery you need chains to drive then unless your in the woods hauling logs it is too slippery to drive a truck.

 

You could sit for days in the northwest waiting for ideal conditions on a pass or chain up for 10 miles and be back on bare and dry roads. The more you do it the faster and easier it gets.
When I was still living up in Western Canada and grossing 140,000+ lbs with a set of Super B double flatbeds I would chain up almost every week somewhere in the BC mountains during the winter months.
It's just a fact of life when you run the mountains regularly.

 

I learned how to drive in the Northwest. I never sat more than an afternoon.

 

I'm pretty sure the guys who talk like that do not run the mountains very often.
Could you imagine Fedex or UPS line haul drivers without sleepers shutting down every time it snowed when they run that pass every night? Having said that I think anyone who is not used to northern winter driving and not comfortable out there should either shut down or just stay south during the winter months.

 

I have my own thoughts on chaining, and they really depend on whatever set of circumstances you are faced with at the time. If you are sitting at Denver West TA and it is early morning, and the chain law is in effect up the hill, then it may well be in your best interest to go have another cup of coffee or three and wait an hour or two. It probably won't slow you down much more than throwing the chains and driving reduced speed and then removing the chains.

But if you are in the middle of a storm and your load has to go through, then you do what you have to do.

I am also more of the opinion that chains are to get you out of the storm rather than into it. But it all depends.

 

Based on less than 1 year experience. I guess the high percentage of winter driving experienced in SOCAL and TX makes up for the lack of total seat time.

 

I know what you are saying with chains but my trainer, John Dingle, over 20 yrs ago told me alot of things that I remember and one of them is "you have the rest of your life to get your load down the mountain and to the customer, nothing on your trailer is worth your life". If the dispatcher dosn't like it he/she can get out from behind the computer, get on a plane and fly to where I am and drive it themselves. After I showed them I wasn't a crybaby and could put a truck down the road I never had an argument if I said it was too dangerous to drive. They took me at my word and that was that.

 

I wouldn't stab the brakes AT ALL...
Not with a flatbed, anyways.