Advice for mountain/snow trucking

I love how you assume I burn my brakes up. I have never burned them up as I know how to drive my truck. I also know how to use the Jakes in the right weather.

 

best advice for driving on snow and iceark the #### truck and go to sleep.

 

I've driven through MT on I-90 in snowstorms more times than i can count. The worst i've ever had to do is put it into 5th gear (straight 10) at about 12 mph with my jake brake down to 2 cylinders for 6 miles at a time. This was crossing over several 6 mile 6% grades (continental divide,lookout,4th of juy,butte,bozeman) covered in ice in the same day during a snow storm. My jake would occasionally over-torque and i had my foot over the clutch to disengage the jake by applying slight pressure to the clutch and then manually applying service brakes with foot.

Not a big deal, but i can tell you right now your not going to come down the continental divide covered in ice for 6 miles of 6% at 80,000 lbs without using a Jake brake unless you want to go below 5 mph or stop several times to cool your brakes off.

 

... not to mention the issue of going 5 mph in slick conditions coming down the west side of the divide on I-70 when you have a group of trucks behind you approaching at 25-30 mph. That's asking other truckers to slow down dramatically on a slick downhill to get around you. I'd rather have moderate jake in a gear that keeps rpm's fairly low with soft to moderate application of brakes to control my speed at around 25 mph in that situation. My last time coming down that grade it was snowing hard with the left lane accumulating 4-5", not a good situation for creating a moving road block. Playing with jake and gear selection versus brakes I arrived at a mid range gear at 1300 rpm with mid jake setting and intermittent light use of the brakes as the best solution. At times it required shutting off the jake and going brakes only if I felt it getting squirrely.

No matter what, when coming down a steep grade in slick conditions keep a constant vigil on your trailer. No need to let it win the race.