how are the big trucks in the snow

Well I've only been driving since October of last year and I've seen some interesting weather out here in WY and UT. I haul a 48 foot trailer which has at most 5000lbs of weight on it...so that doesnt help with traction. Plus, the tires are all purpose...all season tires...not really heavy on grip.
I've gotten the truck stuck twice in one spot...going around a corner at a customer only to stop and unable to moe because of the snow / ice...and I was trying to figure out why I wasnt moving. Then I got stuck aother time at another customer, couldnt move at all, got pulled out by a pickup truck.
While going down the interstate on a snowy / icy day...I sometimes can feel the tractor fishtailing a little bit. At the same time, I get passed by a ton of drivers who think its southern NV. I've seen tons of trucks in the last half year on the same stretch of highway..whenever it snows. Lots of Fed-exs and others.
This week alone, it snowed on one day and I saw two trucks turned aroudn backwards, one (maybe two) on its side, and another that looked like it rolled over, and a fed ex truck hauling doubles that was totally destroyed...everything. Plus it looked like it took out another smaller class truck.
A few months back, I was doing down a steep hill on the itnerstate in my neck of the woods and i saw a fellow driver almost bite it...I tried to slow down and couldnt without fishtailing the trailer. A minute later, I look behidn me and find that the truck that was behind me had done the same thing but lost control and rammed right into the guard rail, tipping over and certainly causing a pile up.
A fellow driver told me that you can still go at high speeds when the roads are bad, as long as you have good visibility to stop if you see something far ahead. But out here, all you need is one knee jerk reaction or a good wind gust to push ya off the road.

 

I'm on my first trip out west here (really nice country out here) and can't believe instead of taking care of the roads they just shut them down. Leaving Wyoming this morning, westbound I-80 was open but Eastbound was shut down. Most of the trucks were parked on the interstate for miles. I guess the city got so crowded, they shut it down even further down the road (105? 111?). I didn't think the roads were THAT bad. Snow doesn't bother me on the road, it's when you can see that snow that's been melted and iced over. Ice isn't safe to drive on period. If I'm loaded heavy, snow doesn't slow me down too much. Of course, I'm not going to be traveling if traffic is heavy. Usually the most dangerous thing about snow is the other drivers. Had some 4-wheelers doing 15mph down I-80... I have a feeling this is what caused the accident there by Rawlins. Just make sure not to travel faster than you can safely stop in the distance you can see.

 

Well 105ish MM is my neck of the woods, so you went through where I live. I sat at home as my load was being brought from Denver and they were stuck over in Cheyenne because of the closed roads. From what it sounds like...both lanes were closed due to winter weather overnight. In the morning, I checked the road info page and it said there was multiple accidents in both directions betwen Rawlins and Laramie (or Cheyenne). I80 was closed from Rawlisn to Cheyenne for a while...then just from Rawlins to Laramie. Also there was a truck hauling some hazmat that crashed and burned causing road damage (now down to one lane on the interstate for traffic). The team ended up turning back to Denver and will double up my freight and bring it up in the morning tomorrow.

The thing out here is that the wind causes a big issue with blowing snow. Lots of trucks get pushed off the road and visibility can drop to zippo. They do try to take care of the roads, but the salt trucks cant keep the salt on the roads as it just blows right off rather quickly anyways. Plus the blowing snow just makes it more of an ice rink.

Someone also told me this a few months back and it sort of makes sense. If a section of I80 is closed, they will close off more of it (like areas that are fine) to stop incoming traffic to smaller towns along 80.

 

Well, I came down on US-287 to I-80, so maybe I did pass ya. I had never seen those "snow fences" before and is part of the reason I didn't get to finish reading the sign. I was trying to see what the hell they were, then I finally saw the drifts behind some. Pretty clever, really.

Anyway, I don't know what way they've got me going back east, yet. To be honest, I wouldn't mind a layover day in Las Vegas, but seeing as I messed up sending in my paperwork last week, my bank account is looking pretty laughable with the deposit I'll get this week for a ~500 mile trip.

 

lol well now im confused. I used to live right on that bypass you took coming into Rawlins. Sounds like you came from up Nort or took the detour around from Cheyenne up to Casper and back down on 287 to Rawlins to get to I80 to continue west. Im later on down the road from there as you go west on 80 (I dont publicly tell people where I live...never know where those black choppers are ) not sure if that 105/111 numbers you had were on the bypass or not...as 105 is about 110miles or so west of Rawlins. Unless you were talking about them shutting it down 105 miles east of Rawlins, thats just outside of Laramie on the east side.

Anywho. Yeah the snowfences are for just what you described. Im not sure how good they are at their job but they are all over the friggen place.

Ugh, now I need to get going. They sent my load back to Denver and I was told the regular team was bringing me back a double loaded trailer. Turns out, nope...they sent a driver with my two days worth of freight right to me...just called about 30 minutes ago, an hour out. Dear lord, lol. I only got 3 hours of sleep! argh. Not sure where you are, but ill try to keep the CB on 19. Ill be driving west across 80 to Evanston and then into northern UT. Schneider truck with a white liftgate trailer.