Winter Driving

Ah they arent as bad montana your lucky if the plows are workin at all there.

 

In your truck the gearing will change +300rpms or so per downshift. Prime sets its trucks in a way that it can be difficult to rev over a certain rpm in neutral so drop below 1200 before you downshift. Feather that brake petal to do so dont try to slow it down all at once it may take awhile. Be careful with that jake on those super singles dont ever jake though a cruve even a slight one, over a bridge, or though sections of unevenly paved road that cause the truck to lean or pitch to one side or the other. On singles i never jake on high and i try not to jake at all though on the stepper grades like I 70 in colorado i believe you need to in order to control downhill speed. Remember the jake only puts resistance on the drives, vs the brake petal thats puts resistance on all tires. There will be times when you misjudge a hill and will need to downshift while going down particularly at night when its hard to see. So be ready for if you roll over the top and look down the hill but think to yourself well from what i can see this one doesnt look that bad ill take in 8th drop to 7th. You can always upshift much more easily than back the truck down enough for a downshift once you realise that the hill is stepper than you thought.

 

That's because it gets too cold there for salt to work. The big danger is having the salt water slush refreeze. If you think that ice is slippery, you haven't tried to walk on frozen salt water. Take regular ice, cover it with oil, then cover that with pig snot, and you have an idea how slippery it is.

Sand works a heck of a lot better at subzero temps.

 

Cool...I didn't know that... that's very interesting. Plus, with all that sand around I can imagine being at the beach while I'm freezing my buns off!

 

salt and magnesium chloride only work if the air temperature is above 15... otherwise they are useless and a waste of money... and wyoming is below zero air temperature a lot...

And wyoming does use different ice melting chemicals... and all are useless in windy conditions... also a very common occurrence across wyoming.

http://www.dot.state.wy.us/home/new...t_3/district_3_news/maincontent/news_503.html

 

autoshift, you should still have the ability to control the gears manually, and lock it into a lower gear.

 

got it. Thanks.

 

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...s-from-new-drivers/221679-winter-driving.html
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...er-weather-advice-veteran-drivers-please.html
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...836-newbies-its-almost-winter-heres-some.html
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ers/158093-winter-driving-little-nervous.html

 

got it. Thanks.

 

in the summer/good weather im in 5th or 6th gear with jakes.

in the winter/rain/snow best to be in 3rd or 4th, flashers on and creeping down that thing. let everyone else pass ya. take your time and stay off the brakes.

always try and refrain from downshifting while going down a grade if possible.