Winter Driving Tips For New CDL Drivers

That’s what I would plan on doing it ahead of time. In my pickup I hardly ever used it.
In the big truck I’ve never had a need to use it.

 

I also worried about my trailer "taking off on me with barely any braking." It can happen. Sometimes you wait for the road to be cleared first, sometimes you put on snow chains and drive slowly, and sometimes you go down slowly without chains. It depends on conditions.

You drive in winter weather like you would walk across a hockey rink in dress shoes, very slowly and without any rapid movements. You never get closer to any vehicle than the distance it would take for you to coast to a stop. Coast means taking your foot off the "gas" in-gear, and letting truck slow by just rolling, no brakes if conditions are slippery enough.

 

You will after 6 months to 1 year. Then you will do things that you only get comfortable with after a few more years. You should be alert but not comfortable. If you are moving and there are other vehicles in sight, be alert. One of them will do something stupid and your job is not to keep doing what you were doing, but avoid what they just caused to happen. The goal is no tickets and no accidents, not having a good excuse for each ticket and each accident.

 

It takes 10 times longer the first time than the second time.

 

Until you have experience you don't know which detail is very important, which is OK, and the what to do with the details you didn't know to look for.

 

Fear is bad. Fear leads to nervous tension which in turn snowballs into more issues.

Respect and awareness of the situation however, in my view, is needed to keep us sharp.

Keep in mind the physics of the situation.... We are in large moving objects so if the wheels lose traction the direction of motion will not change until something alters the path. Weather can cause issues....yes that goes without saying! Respect mother nature and her evil temper.

 

Fear is good if you react correctly to it. The rule seems to work in every situation and everywhere I apply is for EVERY situation there is someone that does this 12 times per day for a whole career. What do those people look for and what do they do and what to they NEVER do. The advice of my plumber about fixing my roof MIGHT be useful, but the advice from a roofer who is physically never going to be able to make money off of me seems more reliable. Just as some truck drivers discuss trucking online, for every topic there is some place you can get advice from people doing that thing. You don't follow the first piece of advice, but you hang out and see what "roofer" generally advise in situation A. Find out what the other "roofers" say about the advice given in situation A.

Lots of people, for various reasons, have little interest in anything so they don't look for information until an emergency and since they JUST started looking for info and it's an emergency they are pressured to accept the first advice and it was a mistake. Or they only listen to family/friends even though their family/friends knows nothing about the situation. For EVERY situation someone makes a good decision hundreds of times per month. Listen and get another expert to judge it react how the guy that does this thing all day, every day until you learn a better way. Look at how people in 4-wheelers drive. It's terrible. Most people do MOST things as carelessly as that unless it's their business or they have inside information or experience. "Don't be a "4-wheeler" in life."

 

You can't have too much Iron on. Sometimes you might have to double chain an axle.

 

How do you react correctly to fear? It doesn’t make sense.Fear is a choice you make.You’re driving a truck. I can understand the soldiers that storm the beach of Normandy are afraid but acted anyway that’s courage acting no matter of fear.most people don’t like driving in winter conditions it’s stressful yes and you should be cautious yes but fearful.There are hundreds of quotes on how you should not fear by very respectful people in the Bible itself why not to fear is mentioned 365 times one time for every day of the year.To say if you don’t fear you will end up dead.Well everyone is going to end up dead so do you want to say at the end you lived in fear because a head full of fear leaves no room for dreams

 

Here's another winter tip, when running in the slop, what I did was before dropping the trailer, for a couple miles, I'd gently ride the trailer brakes with the "Johnny bar"( do trucks still have those?) and get the brakes warm, not hot, and dryed them so as to prevent them freezing overnight. You'll thank me later,,,