Winter Driving Stories

I'm extremely confident in my driving and I do drive quicker than most due to the amount of bad roads I've been on . BUT I always pass others at a sensible speed due to the fact my motto is trust no one else's driving in bad weather .. I've seen too many people unknowingly do the wrong thing and lose it for no reason other than inexperience in snow or ice

 

Thats my driving motto: I ALWAYS assume that the guy next to/in front of/behind me is going to do something stupid. Sounds cynical to some but when the inevitable happens I'm prepared.

 

I was racing a blizzard one Feb night trying to deliver in Green Bay before the storm hit. NOAA was forcasting the blizzard to hit around noon the next day. I had been in light to moderate snow since Toledo. OH IN IL were doing a good job keeping the roads driveable so I was pretty confident I would make Green Bay before the worst hit. WRONG!!! Somewhere between Racine & Milwaukee the snow got heavier but still manageable.
I thought FiretrUCK it, I'll hang out at Ryan Road 76 rather than risk getting stranded somewhere. There werent many places to stop on 43 north of Milwaukee back then. I get to Ryan Road and a jacknifed truck has the ramp blocked, ####! So I continue northbound & the weather improves some. A few miles past Good Hope RD the bottom falls out, sideways snow, 50mph winds & deep snow on the highway, yikes! By the time I get to a fuelstop exit I cant even see where the ramp is. What is usually a 2 hr ride was 5 1/2 hours that night & 2 packs of cigs. I didnt see any other vehicles on the road, not even plows. I found out the next a.m. that I 43 was closed last night. I was never so glad to see Green Bay in my life, I usually hated going there.

 

I'm not. I'm extremely cautious in my driving and I drive slower than most due to the amount of bad roads I've been on.

If I start to jack knife I could probably save it but there is very little chance of saving it before I hit something or someone or at the very least put it in the ditch to save from hitting a car. The little bit of time saved ain't worth the risk of me smashing up MY truck.

This is my life and my business. The goal is to pass this business on to the 7th generation. I haven't been charged in an accident in 31 years. Gotta keep that streak going because it's too late to start a new one.

 

My E-log ran out after 700 and some miles today and I'm not tired yet so I'll bite the bait.

You've never taken the Cowboy mentality and just how many times did you shut down this last winter when the snow hit and how much time did you spend up north in the mountains. I spent the majority of this winter up north in the mountains and didn't shut down once because i feared the weather conditions. I didn't chain up once either. As long as i got traction I'm rolling no matter how little it may be. I appreciate your mentality though because it makes the road safer when you don't have drivers clogging up the road who are afraid and of them and unaware of how to handle them. Yes, i will gladly post up a pic if i ever do wreck.

You should be careful playing the experience card though. I was taught most i know about trucking including most of what I'm telling you and everyone else from multiple generations of truckers before me on both sides of the family. Over 8 million Class 8 OTR miles going just one generation back with no at fault accidents and it's more if you want to go further back. My family has ranched and broke horses since we migrated over here in Wyoming and Oregon up until my generation when the ranch was lost by the previous so you'll have to forgive the cowboy in me. I may be new, but what your hearing is what i was taught from some of the most experienced veterans in the industry. Both my uncles would drive around the gates when they closed down the road and keep the hammer down. This was back in the 70's and 80's when they were more lenient on that type of stuff because they had a better class of driver who could handle it.

Growing up i spent my weekends building up trucks and taking them out to special parks just to test my skills in climbing 90* walls,over 2ft tall boulders and through 3 ft deep mudpits filled with clay just to make it more challenging. I ran down forest service roads in the High Sierras in the winter playing in the snow getting stuck and unstuck and learning how traction and wheel spin worked all while having a good time. I would argue that few here except for the log truck drivers have as much experience as i do in such a wide degree of low traction situations. Just because it wasn't all in a 18 wheeler doesn't change the principles at hand here. It's just a matter of scale.

I was going 12mph in case you missed that part... And when he was going he was going far faster than me before he had his next panic attack. Poor SOB didn't have a clue.

Your going to have to get in line if your waiting for me to wreck behind all the other door slammers because you ain't likely to see this flatbed in the ditch anytime soon, but anything is possible. I just wouldn't be holding my breath if i were you or else you'll pass out like all the rest before you.

Referencing my mentors going back generations in this industry I do a couple things differently than most when i get playing in the nasty stuff.
1.I run ALONE,I will slow down or speed up as needed to ensure that I'm not near any other traffic longer than absolutely needed. When I get into the thick stuff I want all that road to myself because more than once I've gone 2 lanes wide before recovering from the beginning of a jackknife. I passed a line of trucks a mile long in PA during their worst snow storm this last winter i drove overnight through. Later on I had to bypass the closed down interstate because 7 trucks got tangled up running in a pack. This goes back to my being better off when those not comfortable or capable of running in the thick shut down. This is what it takes to run like i do. If i do wreck it will be alone in a snow bank with minimal damage or injuries due to this great wisdom from previous generations.

Another thing is to know your limits and respect others. Another piece of wisdom passed onto me by previous generations. I was told to never try to keep up with another driver running through the thick stuff. They may know more than I do and will be capable of doing what I cannot. The old hands like my uncles with millions of miles and decades in the winter can blow my doors off and do it safely because they know so much more than i do and have so much more skill than i do. I don't whine and drivel that they are going to end up in the ditch (They never do these are old hands we're talking about).

I respect others capabilities as well as my own. You guys really need to just admit that their is some drivers out there better than you instead of assuming that every driver who passes you in snow is going to end up in a ditch down the road. Also, if you didn't shut down every single time a snow flake hit the ground you might get better in the snow and ice. The Pilot and Town Pump in Billings are frequently full by 3pm if a snow flake hits the ground with those sniveling to their dispatchers about how they have to sit here till spring now. Come on guys...

If your trying to suggest that slowing myself down to 10mph from 50 mph at the base of a hill covered in ice so i don't pass them too quickly is a reasonable thought then i will starkly disagree with you. If your goal is risk management then i would argue passing them quickly leaves you in the danger zone for a far shorter time.

Every second you ride within a 1/4 mile or so(dependent on your speed and conditions) behind them or especially next to them you are in the danger zone. Any second in that zone can be your last. I manage my risk by getting through the danger zone as quickly as possible. You could argue if they do something stupid i will have a more difficult time reacting to it, but on ice if your a 1/4 mile back and someone swerves over blocking your lane you can have a difficult time reacting to it. I prefer to get through it quicker rather than risk it longer in a IMO futile attempt to manage your risk in the danger zone.

 

There is big reason why they should increase driving hours at least by one.

 

Now that's a confident driver.

 

I can't figure how I missed his 443 previous posts. Seems like they must have been entertaining.

 

If I had a "no thanks" button I would spam it right now

 

smh
w.h.o said

+1