Chaining Up

Watch the weather. Ever driver is right. If you need to chain up to keep going get off the road. Chains WILL NOT STOP you from sliding! they will help a little keeping traction... Chains are a pain in the but to put on only to take off 10miles down the road. and put back on another 20miles down the road to take back off. It waste a lot of time.. There hanging from ur truck cuz its the LAW and if ur deling somewhere and u get stuck throw a chain on and GO. i keep the rubber mattings from when u hail big rolls of copper or paper. they work great in winter time throw em down to get a running start. i will not be chainin up this year biggest waste of time. with chains u can do 25mph ur not gonna get that far anyway. just wait into roads are cleared up then hit em again

 

They're hanging fron your rig because the law requires you to carry them>and YES you should know how to install them! There are countless videos in "You Tube" on how to install tire chains and just about anythig else.

 

Theres is also a very informative video here on the msg boards ..i beleive its under the new driver section, im starting as a student monday and in my spare time im reading as much as i can about everything, cant hurt to know it even if u choose not to use it

 

driving is snow/ ice in you car is not like driving in your truck, if i am running on a covered road and i push the fuel to about half throttle and the drives freely break loose i start looking for a place shut down, if i find myself with a "death grip" on the steering wheel i look for a place to shut down. there has never been a load i have hauled that has been worth my life or the lives around me. for the most part you just need to use some common sense and stay relaxed bhind the wheel, when you get scarced you start to over correct. and one last thing about winter driving and me, i try not to run at night, the other cars and trucks on the road help to keep the road un frozen, ok ok this is the last thing. look at the other cars, and truck as they go by, if there is spray coming from the tires, the roads are wet, if there is no spray the road are frozen.

 

My advice: practice putting em on in your yard with good lighting while it is nice out. I wish I would have done so when I spun out last week on Homestake Pass in the middle of the night.

 

You definitely need to be proficient, you can damage youre tires and the chains themselves if not put on properly. I use chains on a case by case basis. If its ice, I almost always park. In snow Im mord comfortable putting them on and rolling. But if you ever drive and feel unsafe, get off the road. Accidents happen more when people try to push too hard.

 

And remember too to watch for the winds to pickup at night, in some of the areas like on 80 and 70 it gusts more. Also OK has had a lot of wind it seems like.

 

You shouldn't really have to worry about chains up in the Northeast unless you are going up Mt. Washington or something! You definitely need to know how to throw them on though. Like the other poster said, practice hands on when the weather is nice and make sure you can do it proficiently. Make sure all your chains are untangled and sorted out. I recommend putting them in a dry box or somewhere out of the weather. It sucks trying to untangle frozen, rusted, tangled up chains in a blizzard at night on the side of the road!

The goal is to try your best not to use them! Chains are only going to get you where the roads are worse! So if you have an option of staying put, then stay put. Not only can you get stuck but chains have a habit of falling off and tearing stuff up on your truck. I recommend carrying a couple bags of ice melt/salt/kitty litter etc... This will get you out of most dilemmas.

When you are driving be sure to keep checking the weather on your radio, phone, tv etc... You can also try the good ol' fashion CB to ask other drivers coming from where you are going how the road conditions are. When in doubt, pullover! There is also a phone number for every state's road conditions in your Motor Carrier Road Atlas. Most of them give road conditions by the mile marker and are pretty accurate. If the weather is good to go then continue on, if not then you have a really good parking spot so grab a cup of coffee, kick back and watch the chaos begin! Once the weather does clear and the roads are good you also don't want to be the first one out of the truck stop. Let all the supertruckers warm up the road for you! While on this subject, be sure to remove snow, ice etc... from your truck as much as you can. Be sure to also kick the ice balls off your landing gear and bumper and such. These can be very dangerous to others falling off at 70mph!

Take your time this winter. Slow it down, nothing is worth your life....