Winter Driving

I run California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Idaho. If i did not chain, I would not be working. The buyers i get my loads from would find someone who will and pay them the good money i get now. I feel better on snowpacked roads in the mountains with chains, then without them. Its wear you were raised and learned how to drive i guess. Chains are just part of life out west.

 

Stump nailed it.

It is a regional difference. I drive in the Pacific Northwest (or the Pacific Northwet) and the expectation is different up here than it is elsewhere. The reason is that we have a few mountain passes that may require chaining to get over. The driving distances that chaining requires are just not that great, 10 to 20 miles, then you are done. The weather conditions that produce these chaining requirements usually last two or three days. In these two or three day conditions they might lift chain law for a few hours a day, but it's not predictable. The snow is almost always wet, heavy and changes to compact snow and ice with even more unpredictable traction. For these few miles I expect a professional NW driver to be willing to chain and go. But this is far different from having to chain in order to get from, say Ellensburg to Moses Lake. It is a matter of local knowledge.

My expectation is that if you have a blanket rule that you will never chain, then you should stay out of the Pacific Northwest, because all you will do is screw up the chain up areas for those of us who are professional drivers in the PNW.

Yeah I am tired of looking for a decent area to throw the iron. If you're going to wait out the chain law, please do it elsewhere. The chain up area is for professional drivers.

 

I dont think he was saying people who dont chain are not professionals. He was saying more in the lines of, if you dont chain, stay out of the way of the people who do. Chain up areas are not a "waiting out the storm area."

 

If you failed to monitor the weather and park in a chain up area to Wait it out then yes I call you Un professional. Now the exception to this is when they announce an ETA of the chain law being lifted and folks pull into kill an hour or 2 at most.

 

I don't get the "If it's bad enough to chain it's bad enough to park" mentality. Conditions that require chains on a grade are the same conditions I might run in all day elsewhere. You just need a little traction boost.

Here's the last time I chained: Load in Modesto for Minneapolis, and the snow had started the night before coming west over Donner. Weather reports aren't good, with heavy snow forecast for at least 3 and maybe 4 days. So I have three options:

1. Wait it out
2. Throw some iron before they close Donner completely
3. Drive a day out of route over Tehachapi

To me there was only one choice, and my buddy agreed; get loaded and get the heck out! We had to chain somewhere pretty low, (Applegate maybe?) and chain law was up all the way to Reno and beyond. Yes, Nevada had chain law on all the way across 80, almost to Wendover. We went barefoot just above the Nevada line, met a friend and spent the night in Reno, and drove snow all the way to Minneapolis except for the Salt Flats. Donner had closed only an hour or so behind us, and had only been open (and only for cars,) for brief periods in the time it took us to get to MN.

As a business man, how could I possibly justify not chaining? If I could have just spent the night, and only lost a few hours, it might be justified to sit. But spend days waiting it out, or burn $500 dollars in fuel going around? Those aren't valid options.

I've run chains (well, cables actually) between Ft Worth and Austin. It was actually the first time I'd ever chained, but I'm in Ft Worth, my last drop and reload are near Austin, and this nasty Thursday night the interstates are closed from Junction to Shreveport and from Austin to somewhere up in Oklahoma. If I don't make Austin, I'm sitting for the weekend. So lash 'er up and down the ice covered two lanes I go.

Now I admit that I'm more comfortable than most on trashy roads; part of that is me, part that I drive on them for days at a time in the northern plains. But I'm here to tell you, that running over a mountain chained up is a lot less drama than a 500 mile day on the plains during a storm! So put me in the Nike camp: JUST DO IT! It's not as bad as you think.

Edit: I'm actually most likely not to chain when they have the law up wet roads. I'll wait for a little snow, or for the restriction to come down rather than ruining my chains on bare pavement, if I have the time.