losing control in winter weather

One thing that helps me is to visualize the center of gravity, whether I'm under load, dead heading, or bobtail. When I'm hauling a load of 5 paper rolls in a box, I imagine that high center of gravity and visualize how unstable those rolls are in the van and drive accordingly.

Now think about when you are bobtail. Most of the weight is in the front half of the truck and very high relative to the wheels. The engine block accounts for much of that weight. These aren't front wheel drive vehicles, so traction is on a very lightly weighted set of 8 wheels, which spreads out the available traction per wheel. Those 8 tires are designed to distribute weight from the front of a loaded trailer, not to give maximum traction without a load.

The ONLY time I ever smoked tires when braking on dry pavement was bobtailing and approaching a traffic light that turned yellow and then red very quickly. It was an entertaining moment for the cars waiting for a green light, and a bit of a surprise for me and a learning moment for just how little control you have bobtailing. I think about that any time I'm bobtailing on wet roads and especially on icy or snow covered roads. There's plenty of weight on the steers, but hardly anything on the drives.

 

Yeah, this is why the terminal manager hates me...