Winter Driving Will Cause Delays

I like the sage advise of 44 years experience in the OP by Pahrump. I also like the advise of 1 year's experience from ramblingman, noting that unless you actually drive in inclement weather you will never learn how to drive in inclement weather.

On the one hand you should know your limitations and by all means SLOW DOWN and take EVERYTHING easy (acceleration, braking, and turning) and park it if you are over your head. However, this mantra does tend to fill up the truck stops when a few snowflakes fall when roads are still passable.

I remember a situation a few years ago where a TTR member complained her company was pushing her to drive in unsafe conditions. Turns out she was parked for FOUR DAYS waiting for the chain up requirements on Donner Pass to get lifted!!!????? Yee Gads, grow a pair and learn how to chain up.

Sage advise. Keep that DEF topped off in the winter. If the DEF pump works, then top it off. You never know when you'll hit a truck stop that can't pump DEF because it froze. Then you get the joy of messing around with the boxed DEF in sub-zero temperatures with gloves on and spilling it on yourself.

 

Yes Ramblingman. I will inject a comment. I have no reason to expect a driver of only a few years to be able to drive in the same conditions that I can. I do drive in all those same adverse conditions. Now review your own remark. Why do you think the Interstate you had to bypass was shut down. Someone was driving in conditions beyond their skill level. I would rather someone pull off and wait then to try and fail.

 

There were several accidents this past winter, the one on 94 around Michigan City killed one person, trucks were the leader of the pack on this one. Driving in whiteout conditions is very unsafe, like driving in fog. Wind on icy roads can push light loaded trailers around. Those ones who like to fly the road have a 50% chance at least of being the ones off down the ditch. More states are following suit with roads being closed when it is bad outside, GA is one of those now. Even down here in the south it has had periods of icy roads closing down areas really fast, they do not have the salting or snow removal capabilities. Even though back in the winter of 2008, a lot of areas up north had run out of salt and had not budgeted the money for more, roads were not kept plowed either. Indiana this past winter was terrible for snow removal on 65, and 94, plenty of wrecks there.

The name of the game is to get the load delivered, after all insurance claims are costly, esp if you are lease or o/o and ice road truckers have accidents too.

 

My uncle with 38 years of expereince OTR with the last 26 of those as an owner op taught me one lesson at the start of this last winter that if everyone followed would end all the big nasty wrecks that are caused by one thing and one thing only... Following too Close!

He told me if your going to drive in the nasty stuff no matter what DO IT ALONE!. Either speed up or slow down, but never travel in a pack and get as much room around you as humanly possible. That night in PA i came upon a line of trucks a mile long. I passed every single one of them and ran alone that night. I may wreck, but if i do it's going to be alone in a snowbank. The chances of death or injury running into a snow bank is virtually nonexistent compared to getting rammed by a bunch of other vehicles.

 

If you're not afraid of the snow/ice and will run in a safe manner, you're going to run up on packs. Each one/situation is different and as such there is no easy answer for dealing with packs. Some have fairly good running in the right lane, bad running in the left lane, yet everyone is in the right lane running miserably slow. What do you do? That's up to you to decide when the situation arises. And it will.

Many here will say "if you can't or won't drive, park it". Well, problem is, in some situations there is no option to park. Truck stops full and a cluster f*** will greet you at every exit and parking option. So, never get caught low on fuel. Truck stops will run out of fuel following bad snow storms when the tankers can't/won't operate. And be prepared to run and tough it out. You'll learn a lot, you'll become more comfortable, and chances are if you'll stick it out for 100-200 miles, thing will improve due to less snow-fall or better plow/salt operations.

 

WTH is that all about? ^^^ Loveland and Monarch are different animals from the pack situations you find in the midwest and elsewhere following heavy snows. I'd much rather run across Loveland following 12 inches of snow then across Indiana I-70 following 12 inches. One is stressful, the other is stressful and frustrating dealing with too many drivers out there seeing there first snow-covered roads.

Where is it written that everyone has to drive for 100+ miles, as slow as the slowest driver?

 

Last winter i went over Loveland pass every other time i crossed I-70 just for a better challenge. Nothing like mixing extremely high elevations and all that problems that come with it with high stress and challenging conditions to test your skill. Monarch pass is absolutely beautiful as well. I ran hwy 50 from Pueblo,CO to Fernley,NV on a load going to CA. My company was kinda pissed because they routed me up 25 and over to I-80 LOL. 9 miles of 6% grade at 79k and i didn't touch my brakes once. Gotta love those folks trying to say you can't use your Jakes in the winter.

I've also done the Lewiston grade and pass through Montana on I-90 during the winter on I-90/94 Routinely crossing over 4th of July,look out,Homestake and Bozeman Pass over the Bridgers. Then their is the couple hundred miles of solid ice regularly on I-94 heading towards ND. Ran the Ice up in AB and BC this last winter as well which was awesome. You seem to like the Grand Tetons. I ran Hwy-22 over the Tetons East bound at 78k. 5 miles of 10% grade with switch backs all the way up and down. One of the most beautiful drives i've ever seen. Oh and yes i do know they have a 60k limit. The scale was closed . No better way to test your shifting skills than to get into a spot where a missed gear means backing down the mountain as my truck is not capable of restarting on that steep of a grade that heavy.

Colorado hasn't beat my inexperienced driving skills in fact US-50 through CO,UT and NV is one of my most memorable drives to date. I eagerly await a chance to do it again, but probably won't as my company is growing tired of my constant backroad cross country running LOL.

What else you got? I'm always up for a challenge .

Oh and if your going to try to play the experienced card you should know i have one uncle with 38 years OTR experience and another with 25 years experience who both taught me everything i know and fully endorse it. Neither of them have ever had an at fault accident in an combined 7+million miles OTR Class A. We're all Flatbedders.

 

There was many things I didn't like about CRST when I drove for them 10 years ago, but what i did like was that back then if the road was open you chained up and drove it. If you didn't want to you got a message on your qualcom to meet up with another driver to repower the load and got routed to the nearest terminal where you were fired. If you can't drive in the ice and snow than why exactly do you have a driving job? I'm not going to sit here and say I was the most awesome driver to ever sit in a truck, but I learned to drive in adverse conditions because it was either drive or get fired and find my own way home.

With the internet and youtube you guys have a wealth of information to tap into to learn how to drive in the snow and ice. Unless cross-winds are really strong, or conditions are so bad chaining your tires wouldn't even help, or you can't see to drive you shouldn't be parked at a truck stop. I don't want to sound like i'm attacking anyone because that is not my intention, but there is a difference between a steering wheel holder and a professional driver. I believe driving during the winter months is one of the indications of what category you fall in.