Time for chains again

Yep, got mine ready to rock and roll yesterday.

 

Stevens Transport has a crew called the "chain gang". They are the only ones allowed to chain up. If you're going through a state that requires you to have chains in the cab, they send you to a chain depot to get bags. But that is just for compliance. I was once stuck in Fernley NV for 3 days because Donner was shut down. They had to get the chain gang over there to repower me because they didn't want me to waste fuel heading south to I-15 and then across into Cali.

 

If I need chains I don't need to be driving.

As a noob I felt I can drive careful and safe, after seeing enough out here I now know that's not enough.
Doesn't stop all the idiots all around you driving too fast for conditions and sliding off the road in all directions.

Chains and slow driving doesn't stop a Fedwrecks plowing into you.

 

Some would not agree, but I do. So does my company.

 

Is impossible not to agree once you see how people drive out here.

 

Depends on where you run. Running regional in the NW you’d starve all winter and probably lose your job if you didn’t chain. If the road was open we were expected to keep moving. Plus I sort of liked having a pay check and being home on the weekend.

I was coming up highway 12 once and Idaho had the chain lights flashing. There was a CRST truck parked in the chain up area. Me and a couple other drivers tried explaining that it was going to storm all night and they’d be better off chaining and getting over the hill but they wouldn’t listen. So they sat there all night with no phone service and no restroom or anything. I chained up on Lolo, chained up on Lost Trail, unloaded lumber in Salmon, went to Challis ID to load wheat, chained up on Lost Trail, and when I got to the chain up area on Lolo going west the tow truck was there hanging iron on his way to get the CRST truck out. I got over the hill and there was about a 5ft snow berm all the way around the truck because they had to keep plowing the chain area during the storm. They sat there for almost a day during a winter storm and were buried when they could’ve gotten over the hill and onto dry roads in the Montana side in about 15 miles.

 

That's how I felt, if I needed chains, it was too rough to handle, and wait out the salt shaker. In my 35 years, I never did have to hang iron, but I never went over the mountains either. After moving to Colorado, I found they take it very seriously, and big fines for not doing so. Block the road, and it's off to Florence Super Max,,not really, but $1500 fines are not uncommon.

 

I didn't get it til now.

 

I just have socks. Yr one didn't chain or sock. Went through the rockies twice. But it was ignorance. 2nd yr I put socks on twice. So easy.
I developed a "go-no-go" criteria.
Darkness, bad weather, unfamiliar with the route. If all three of those are present, I wait til it changes.

 

It’s because of this that I prefer driving at night in bad weather. Far less traffic and the ones that are out there tend to know what they’re doing. Another benefit is that it’s usually colder so the roads are in better shape.