Winter weather advice from veteran drivers please!

That part of I-70 is Straight Creek Canyon, man you are lucky, you should have bought a lottery ticket when you got into Dillion, that is one bad downgrade to be using a jake on. I used to haul beer into Colorado back in the 80's and drove that strech, the trucks that i drove did not have jakes on them and i learned on how to drive the rockies with no engine brake.

 

In low speed areas, intersections in town, in parking areas such as shippers / recievers, truck stops etc. PAY ATTENTION. Learn to time things so you don't have to come to a complete stop. It's much easier and safer to speed up from a crawl than to start moving from a dead stop. Especially if you are drivng an autoshift. It takes very little torque to kick the drives out of straight line when stopped on ice. If you are still rolling, even just barely, you can usually keep everything in line and speed up whereas if you tried to start moving, you'd just sit and spin, or worse, spin and slide the truck into an unrecoverable position.

 

Best advice for snow/ice driving.... Slow and Steady, Fast is Stupid. Drive for the conditions not for your HOS. and make sure to call your dispatch explain the situation....make them understand that the weather is not cooperating. If they dont believe you tell them check the weather channel radar where you are.
Sure it might make you late for a delivery, but your safety and the keeping the equipment intact is more important than a delivery.
Don't be super trucker when weather turns nasty. I dont care what everyone else tells you to hammer down, the roads are clear..... Drive your feeling. The roads may look clean after the plows came thru but there may be black ice and other ice sheets that havent been addressed.
Keep at least twice your normal distance of space behind the truck/car you are following. It will save you more headaches more than most folks think. (say the car ahead slams the brakes for something and starts spinning out, you are at least 2 trucks space that leaves you alot of space to cover but plenty of time to ease the brakes not to jackknife or slam into them making a minor situation worse)
Continually be aware of your surroundings. not just during normal clear conditions but always every min of the day.
just my 2c (nearly 4years truck winter driving and many more years other vehicles)

 

Carry three or four pair of leather gloves. When you chain up your fingers can get frostbite fast. Grab the next pair and put the defroster on high to warm the gloves up. Rubber gloves are hard to put chains on
with that's why leather or pig skin are better then slippery rubber gloves.

 

Yo CDLschoolgrad.

Just park the truck and take your boat south for the season...

 

My one and only jack knife was going down a hill at about 10mph and trying to make a right turn in the snow
The trailer decided it would continue straight and pushed the truck right on around into it.

 

Any advice on keeping your wiper blades from getting covered in ice? Like maybe pour your piss bottle on them before you get going?l

 

crack your drivers window and run it on high or else keep the windshield cold.

Past experience running a snow plow...

Just plan on having to reach outside and snap the wiper blades on occasion. I have long arms so I can do that on the move. Others will just have to stop and clear them off.

 

Kenworth in Idaho Falls, ID. has a product that mounts on each wiper and you press a button in the cab, and it turns on a vibrating motor that knocks the ice off the blades. Not sure the cost.

 

a lesson on the jakes in the snow for you newer drivers out there. a few years back i was in new mexico and we all know it can snow something horrible there. i was headed east from cali, and hit the snow. i had been in dry weather with the jakes on and when i shift, i rest my foot on the clutch pedal so it disables the jakes while i shift.

well i did the same thing when entering the scalehouse. i crossed over the scales, and went about my business. on the way out of the scales, i decided to readjust my sitting position in the seat, which meant letting off the throttle for just a second. i was in 5th or 6th gear, just slowy building up speed due tot he ice and snow on the ramps, and when i lifted my foot off the throttle, the jakes came on and i about had a cow. that familiar blub blub blub from the pipe and the next thing i know is im chasing my trailer going down the scalehouse ramp. yeah, you guessed it. i was loaded very heavy and when the jakes came on, it crossed the tractor up enough to make me have to chase it with the wheel to get back under the thing.

i laugh about it now, but when it happened it wasnt too funny. be careful out there in the winter weather. slow down, take your time and it is better to park and make the load late than to ditch or flip the truck or get killed.