Need winter advice !!!

Actually too slow is also bad, keep rolling, and don't try to creep down really slow.
If I'm going down an ugly hill i want to be doing 30 or 40 kms/hr.

 

CB radio will really help you out for road conditions. If it's ice park the #### truck
It's not worth it, I won't move the truck on flat land with ice.

 

I’ve driven these newer pos Freightliner single axle automatics for Saia from Denver to Grand Junction in winter time and that’s a hairy ### butt-puckering ride in the mountains on a snow-packed or icy grade.

If you use your jake, use it only in the low position and don’t keep it on all the time. Only use it when you need to reduce speed, then turn it off or you can jackknife. If you feel the trailer(s) getting loose, turn it off and stab your fuel pedal to straighten it out and it will get back behind you.

As for braking, put your foot on the brake and firmly but gently push down until you slow down. In winter time there’s not much risk of overheating your brakes or catching them on fire. Stab braking isn’t as effective on ice or snow while descending a grade. So keep that in mind.

Always engage your interaxle diff lock or power diverter lock when on ice or snow, you get more traction as all your drive tires turn together.

Going down a grade too slow is just as dangerous as going down too fast. 25-30 mph is your target speed. Otherwise your trailer will try to come around and cause you to jackknife.

These automatics are great on the Plains but they should be banned by DOT from the mountains along with these single axle death traps as far as I’m concerned.

 

[QUOTE="ColoradoLinehaul, post: 12146095, member:

Always engage your interaxle diff lock or power diverter lock when on ice or snow, you get more traction as all your drive tires turn together.

[/QUOTE]
I disagree with this statement and I'd love to have a conversation about it.
First off I personally never notice much difference in traction with the power divider locked when on snow or ice. Now yeah if there is a hill to climb and I dont have much speed on it I'll engage it.

Second and most importantly, I think, having the power divider or diff lock or both will make you jack knife that much faster when under acceleration. With everything UNlocked the tire with the least traction will spin and the rest will just keep rolling along. With power divider or diff lock more tires will spin putting you into a slide that much faster.
Especially with your single axle, it has to be ridiculously easy to get that thing sideways with diff lock engaged. My hats off to you guys.

 

Please learn how to quote properly.

 

You can use your jakes, as usual, it’s depends.
Road conditions, load, type of tire tread on your drives, how worn they are. Most trucks have a three stage jake, the lowest setting is usually not a problem, sometimes the strongest works fine too but you better be ready to switch it off in a hurry.
I had to stop on the way down the coquihalla (92,000 lbs tri-axle) when the traffic got rolling for fun I tried just first and second without jakes and it held it fine, third it started to pickup speed.
The slower you can go the less surprises you’ll have, but that depends on traffic. The big thing with poor winter road conditions not to make any sudden, jerky moves. Be very smooth.

 

How about just not go down steep icy mountains.

 

how else is he gonna learn and get experience?

 

So I turn off my cruise control and jake brake for the winter, unless it's perfectly dry. That's personal preference. I know a lot of guys say you can get away with it as long as this and as long as that, but I just slow down and drive it analog.

Speed kills, but so does lack of speed. Do your best to keep it moving but controlled.

Tachometer driving. You have an automatic, so it's a little difficult if you don't have the manual shifting option, but you can make it work.

Speed is one thing, but torque is possibly more important. Torque is the enemy. You need to find out where in the RPM range the engine puts out the least torque and keep it there as best you can. If you don't do a good job, you'll hear everyone's favorite sound: WEEEEEEE...which is the sound of your tires breaking traction and free-rolling when you go to accelerate.

Don't panic, take it slow, give yourself reaction time, don't tailgate, try to stay away from other vehicles, get off the road if it gets too bad.

And...good luck. Try to have fun, but good luck.

 

Everyone will.have their way of winter driving thay works for them. It's all really good advice. I do agree that isn't bad to use jakes in the snow. I'd venture out to say we've all done it at least once. I think it's OK up to level 2 depending on your conditions. You go with a speed that works for you individually, don't get pressured by traffic or try to do what other experienced drivers do. Take it slower, and find your comfort zone.