Driving on snow covered roads

I did a little bit of winter driving. Snow never bothered me much, ice was a bit of a challenge here and there. I'd just lock in the power divider and kick the front and rear diff locks in when needed. The fluff has a bit more traction than ice.

I just took it easy. Gradual, smooth movements and lots of following distance.

 

Thanks to all who still slog through the slop so we can have our green strawberries, and such.

 

Old timer once told me, white on white is better than black on white, what he meant was drive so your tires stay cool enough that the tread maintains a little white of snow, you'll get better traction, whereas if your tires are staying black, you're driving too fast and melting the snow.

 

I understand what he was getting at, but honestly I think that has more to do with conditions than speed.

 

Anything mid-teens and colder, as long as they don’t have liquid deicer slipped all over, your tires should be white and you’re good to go. Have many memories of running hwy 28 between Mud Lake to Salmon doing the speed limit on snowpack when it was double digits below zero. You couldn’t have slipped if you tried.

 

Except for the critters from Leadore to Salmon, 28 is good running!

 

I've tried it many times, I think it's a combination of the two

 

I love the sound that snow makes at 0°F when your tires run over it. Kinda squeaks....

 

As far as running higher RPM goes, that's mostly for those who aren't experienced at sensing traction levels. The idea being that if you slip, wheel speed only increases slightly before one hits the governor, making recovery much quicker. Plus the benefit of the reduced engine torque at high rpm means the wheels accelerate slower vs breaking loose deep in the throttle at lower rpm. In the latter case, recovery can be seconds long and often results in enough loss of speed to require a downshift, further complicating traction recovery.

Lower rpm isn't a problem for more experienced winter drivers, as they are much better at reading traction and tend not to blow the tires away. It's actually one of the metrics I use to judge conditions, if I'm having trouble keeping footing at low rpm I know it's really slick and running in the higher RPM range helps settle things down. There are also times where it isn't necessarily super slick, but the surface is extremely variable in available traction, and higher RPM makes that easier to manage, as well.

Do note that the power output used is the same at either rpm. There may be substantial differences in the throttle required, but that's part of learning to control power output.

Downhill, think about your energy. Too slow can bring it's own problems, but dropping your descent speed in half means you're managing 25% of the energy. Even dropping to 75% of normal descent speed reduces the energy over 40% and can make a dramatic difference in controlling traction at both the truck and trailer.

 

I feel like the worst scenario pulling a tractor-trailer is going down a steep decline and hitting slick ice. Even if you control the tractor that trailer will want to slide out from behind you and you take you with it. Keeping a tug on it while maintaining control is key, because once that trailer gets too far out of alignment from being behind you, it’s game over you’re going to go wherever that trailer takes you. I prefer snow any day over ice.