Winter Driving Stories

Just to clarify a few things .. The guys like me who drive half the year in snow and feel comfortable and hardly raise our pulse when we slip a tire or slide a bit are not talking about running 75 mph in bad conditions ... But more like 40 to 55 or so when some others don't feel comfortable at 10 mph .. My main goal in winter is to drive on my own and stay away from packs where I feel the danger is ... PS I run heavy and load drives and steers as close to max as I legally can .... Also I respect the fact that some like to run slower or faster and I safely pass them or help them pass and continue on my way.. I don't pass people if I'm going to dust them out I wait for the right spot but if they accelerate then I dust them out

 

this is all bs run wide open and dont worry about the snow and ice drove 46 years all 48 and canada never had a wreck or slde anytime stop listen to the supertruckers that all be safe solong old atdriver

 

People need to get over the hurricanes that was ten years ago! Now we're back to a storm warning justs means a party's getting started! I'll take a bad storm every ten years any day over 5 or 7 nasty paralyzing blizzard's evey single year! But I'm with ya on the beach I hate the sand I'm 90 miles from it.

 

Since the intent of this thread was to tell our stories of driving in winter conditions, perhaps it's time to throw out another story.

... just sayin'...

... and this story carries some thought process behind it regarding why I decided to continue.

Earlier in this thread I noted that the only time I ever shut down last winter was on I-10 in Louisiana of all places, due to an ice storm. After a two day delay we made our delivery in Florida, then got up to Atlanta to get a load back to LA. I was running a team dedicated account that went coast to coast each week from LA to the east coast, anywhere from Boston to Miami, so I saw my fair share of winter challenges.

On the way back from Atlanta on I-20 I took over the wheel as the vampire about an hour east of Dallas/Fort Worth. My habit at ANY time of year when I'm taking over the wheel is to check all the weather pages I've bookmarked, and I noted that there was an ice storm centered over I-40 in Amarillo.

Okay, no big problem.

Three hours into my shift I'd passed Dallas/Fort Worth and was approaching Weathrford, TX, planning to make a quick stop to top up my coffee. I was closely monitoring the outside temperature gauge and it had fallen to 27ºF. Shortly before my stop it started to sprinkle rain. "Oh great, freezing rain... AGAIN!"

Just before my exit was a raised bridge. I was "free footing" (without cruise control) at about 58 mph, and as I came onto the bridge proper I suddenly yawed about a foot into a jackknife.

No big deal, I EASED off the throttle and turned into the yaw and corrected within a second.

BUT, that got my attention.

I got my coffee and rechecked the weather web sites and NOW it looked like that ice storm had raced all the way down to straddle the I-20 and it was HUGE. The weather channel at the truck stop said this was going to be a rare event, a "ice/snow THUNDERSTORM!?" I'd never seen such a thing, other than being stuck on Mt. Rainier in a hail storm with lightening striking all around me.

As I assessed the situation, noting that it was still only sprinkling rain and my current position was INSIDE the radar that showed it was in the thick of the storm I decided to push on...

... within the next 30 miles the gates of Hell opened.

Indeed, this was the extremely rare thing the weather channel reporters were gushing about. Lightening and thunder in the midst of HEAVY freezing rain which quickly turned to HEAVY snow with temperatures hovering in the low 20's.

Now I was committed. There's no real good exit strategy from I-20. Texas like those frontage roads with no shoulders, and there was no way I was going to park it on the road, let alone try to get off the right lane of the freeway with the somewhat traveled road surface. The left lane quickly started to get about 3-6" of snow on top of the layer of freezing rain ice.

I slowed to about 35 mph on average, building speed to climb the rolling hills and bleeding off speed and coasting to start the downhill sections.

While I was driving well within my own capacity for safety, MINDFUL I HAD A TEAMMATE IN THE SLEEPER BERTH, there were several trucks that passed me during the night.

At one point it got so bad I pulled over in one of those "picnic" parking spots and thought about it for a few minutes, getting out to clean off the windshield wipers. I determined that IF I WAS SOLO I would definitely park it, because I was chewing up hours going so slow. It would have been better to wait it out until morning and then hope it was faster going. However, since we were a team and needed to make a schedule in order to take a 34 before our next coast to coast round trip I decided to soldier on at whatever speed was safe and comfortable.

By the time it became daylight, near Midland/Odessa, I was beyond the storm and finally on dry pavement. While I had hoped to get a little beyond El Paso on my shift I was happy we at least made it through the storm. From my days as a mountain/rock climber I would always prefer being on the lead when the going got tough, and that carries through to my driving. I'm very confident in my abilities to get through bad situations with a good margin of safety.

As we changed shifts in Odessa a few drivers came up to me, asking about the conditions running east on I-20. The grill and all leading edges of the truck were covered in ice up to 1.5" thick. I felt sorry for the husband/wife team from Quest that were getting pushed by their dispatcher to run it, when they had no inter axle lock. Apparently Quest doesn't want to spend the money to help their drivers stay safe.

Each encounter with winter "challenges" will require decision making. "Should I continue?" "Should I stop, and if so WHERE can I safely stop?" If I were solo, I'd have stopped in that situation, simply because the going was so slow the VALUE of selling my 70 hour clock would be so low. As a team, that 70 hour clock had no value, the value was in getting through the storm and then letting my partner run bare and dry to get us to our destination within a couple hours of our target time.

 

I don't want to offend you winter pros.I'm actually more like you than you know,just not in a big truck.
The road conditions can change so much,and what was good can suddenly get you killed.
I'm not one to pillow bite,but I don't ever want to put my truck into a situation that hurt someone,due to super truckin.
If you guys can do it,that's all good with me,but I consider any bad weather drive that ends with a undamaged truck a blessing.I wouldnt ever knock a driver that sits it out.
At the end of the day its all about making it to the next one.
I admit, my winter driving has been minimal,and I'm fine with that.
I will,however race you Yankees through a thunderstorm,or tornado

 

.......

 

Victoria. I know, I'm a noob, when it comes to snow and ice. I don't pretend otherwise. I mean, there have been occasions where I have traveled by car and run on some snow/ice, but not often and I tend to take the really careful approach. Even on a motorcycle, which aint fun. But never in a truck, so yeah, I'm a little worried. I know things can go south in a hurry,

 

It also takes one tiny misjudgment to create a major accident. Don't drive faster than your guardian Angel can fly kid. This job isn't about taking unnecessary risks. And why get on people for driving in their comfort zone? Me thinks you're due for an attitude adjustment and you may get one this winter.

 

every jackkinfe is unexpected