Should i push the clutch in if i start fishtailing?

“the rear wheels of the tractor were fishtailing all over the place”

OK, for some reason this thread has intrigued me. The answers from highly experienced professional drivers have varied from one extreme to the other. I “think” I have figured it out…. We are missing one important piece of information!

Was the OP driving uphill or down????

Maybe EVERYBODY is correct depending on the situation!

If he is pulling UPHILL, let OFF the power.

If he is heading DOWNHILL or slowing down due to the resistance of snow, add a bit of power to straighten out / regain control, and then slow down……

 

yeah....what about when it becomes necessary to do something fairly important........like STOP.?

sure...billy big rig loves to run 60 in a snowstorm "because he can"....but its also billy big rig who ends up in the ditch because "i weigh 80k". Much like those who go out and buy a 4x4 and think they are immune to spinning out....but then, how many of them do you see STUCK.

the most important piece of the cargo in your truck, is the fanny sitting behind the wheel. who give a flyin F about your load when the weather gets bad.

 

Stopping is over rated...lol

Snow is one thing but ice is another...

 

Why pull the spike? Use all your brakes if you want to slow down.

Pull the spike will also cause the trailer tires to lock up if you are not VERY careful and then put you into an even bigger jackpot.

Clutch in or throttle in neutral position are not horribly different unless your RPMs are out of whack. Idea is to allow the wheels to roll and ending the skid as mentioned before.

Not sure how you ended up fishtailing, what were you doing to cause the break in traction? Incline? Decline? Corner? Braking? Accelerating?

 

if i question my traction with my drives, and i have a 20-30k load, i'll slide my tandems farther to the rear. much easier to get a trailer back in line (as long as you're watching it) than it is to get a tractor back in line when you lose traction. most often, if your trailer loses traction, all you have to do is release the brakes.....

 

Look.... let's just do this the easy way that everybody can agree on. When you find yourself out in the tulies with the swamp donkeys and a load of dispatcher brains in your hip pockets think thru what you did to get there..... and don't do that again!!!

Nuff said.

 

if your tractor is sliding out from under your trailer---and you combination brake--it isnt going to help pull the truck in line with the trailer--its just going to slow you down and continue the slide out--you have to get your truck out in front of your trailer by either getting on the throttle or a bit spike---i guess each situation is really different--but i do agree that pushing in clutch and letting it freewheel isnt a wise idea-
if throwing out a big boat anchor to slow down works for you--then thats what you do

 

Yes every situation is different. If the old guys who taught me how to drive, caught me pushing in the clutch when is a skid. I'm pretty sure that the would have beat me with plank or a lead pipe. I can't think of anytime where it would be a good idea.

So when are boat anchor's going to be option equipment on trucks?

 

If you clutch or just back off the throttle to a nutral position will do the same thing. I run upstate NY mt one way and light back (7000-20k) at night on 17 and 81, there's times when I haven't seen a plow or salt shaker for 2 hr and the drifts can be 12''. The best thing is to avoid the skid, I always slid the tandems ALL THE WAY BACK, Never use the trl brakes to stop, use all of them. AND MOST IMPORTENT expect trouble! slow down! leave the cruise OFF! Back off before each and every bridge and just coast across, and no sudden moves at all!

 

^^^ That was some darn good advice from somebody who sees these conditions more than most.