Any tips for slowing on icy roads?

I grew up about 30 miles from Marengo IL. When I was young some of the older bull haulers that use to load out of our lots use to tell horror stories about hauling kill mules for mink food

 

At Schneider, I learned a jingle that goes something like this:

"In the snow, go slow; on ice, no dice".

I think it is still applicable, today.

To give away a bit of my past: the coefficient of friction on ice is ZERO.

Think about it.

--Lual

 

Seems every tractor I've ever driven, there is absolutely NO modulation in the trolley valve.

Pull that handle to "straighten out the trailer", and you'll do the most impressive "180" ever, except that your eyes will be closed for most of it.

I mean, "you" in a general sense, Pam, not "you, specifically." As you said, yours modulates just fine.

 

Yeah, that is what you need to do. Go down the hill like a turtle so you can let off the brakes and regain traction when you or the trailer starts to slide.

Don't count on stopping when going down an icy hill, just hope to maintain your current speed.

 

Sweet! Three on the tree!

 

Mine looks like the pic that Ox posted. I don’t know what you guys mean by modulation, but if I need trailer brakes only, I pull the trolley brake half way down (blew a steer at 85+ and didn’t want the wheel to get chewed up).
I will admit that the Ox style is much easier to use than the little dinky ones that you see mounted to the dash.

 

To add to this.

The modulation ability is actually not that important as the reason it is unsafe is because by the time you notice your trailer is sliding, unless you can accelerate out of the skid your trailer tires will be going faster than your tractor.

The only recovery is to let off the brakes until they regain grip and accelerate the tractor, sometimes you get lucky and the trailer isn't pushing hard enough sideways on the king pin to cause a jack knife but it is playing with fire.

It is like going down a hill too fast in good conditions...you may get away with it...until you don't.

As the road crown or worse an off camber turn will be the direction of least resistance it doesn't take much to end off the side of the road when you "guess" that it is time to let off the Johnson bar just a little too late.

But at least for me, remembering a skidding tire is going down the road faster than a tire with traction makes it absolutely clear why it is so dangerous. It is counterintuitive that you need to accelerate out of a trailer skid just as you have to accelerate out of a steer tire blowout. Unfortunately accelerating is often not a safe option in slick conditions so keeping your hands off the Johnson bar is the most prudent choice.

 

IF you brake off a slick grade at some point the vehicle can lose traction depending on particular conditions. Temp, grade %, weight,ect. IF you apply throttle application while using brake application this will increase the traction while descending a slick grade. I'm not a trucker but I saw it on You-tube.

 

I noticed on the newer trucks the trolly seems to be either all or nothing like on the cascadia's I was in. I can apply as little as 5psi on both old trucks. Depends on the situation but I use it quite frequently

 

Drive on the rumble strips and use your poor mans jake brake(Fan).