New drivers in here: My first chain up experience

I drive the West and NW a lot...I have chained a couple times once in UT going down US 6 and once in WY over the sisters. Both times I remembered what my grandpa, who was a very wise truck driver, told me..."chains are to get you out of a bad situation, not into one. No amount of freight is worth risking your life for." I am not a veteran driver nor am I willing to risk it all for a company I work for. I use my own judgement and if I decide it's not worth the risk, I park...if that makes me less a man or not a real driver, then so be it. If you chain, you chain, if you sit you sit...you are the captain, not some desk driver telling you you'll be fine from his office.

 

If it weren't some drivers willing to throw iron 3 times a day, and sometimes once more to get up the driveway to the house, the timber industry would die! Nothing wrong with running in the snow, just be careful is all. Sounds to me like your going to be a good driver!

 

Exactly. They aren't meant to be used to burn up your clock meandering at 25mph. From her post it sounds like she wouldn't have put them on at all if the law didn't require it. There's no shortage of drivers like that though, you see them on the news from time to time.

 

I guess out here in the mountain west, all the industries that need product to stay in business, should just wait until spring to get there product with all the lazy people that can't put chains on.

These are the same people that if the DOT in each state did not put chain signs up, they would drive on that same mountain road with out them. I've heard this same junk for years.

Most at of the time in a few states out west, the only thing that makes them throw a chain required sign up, is to many people wreaked without them.

Bottom line, your much more safe with chains in the snow, then without them. If your scared to run with them, that's fine, you should park, if your just to lazy to put them on, like what I've seen my whole life, then don't give me the, "if you need chains, it's to dangerous" line

I run into guys all the time, 30 miles past the chain required sign, on the CB saying, "there no reason for chains, why would they have the sign up" then a few miles latter, they are jack knifed, blocking the road up some hill. And you know why, because they where to lazy to put chains on, and they are the same people that say, "if you need chains, it's to dangerous'

I've heard it all.

 

Which is exactly what she did. She was slipping and sliding and almost lost it according to her. She only stopped to put chains on when she came upon the signage telling her to.

 

It never fails but that a chaining thread will bring out two competing schools of thought about chaining. One school that seems to be emphasized in schools and mega fleet driver orientation is that you should, "Only chain to get out of trouble, never to get into trouble."

The other school of thought is that if you are running in the mountains in the West you'd better know how to chain up or you will be hungry in a hurry. This is the school I'm attending.

This thread reminded me of another thread a while back, posted by a young lady that was complaining because her dispatcher was pushing her to put chains on and run and was seeking sympathy for her plight. The big bad company was forcing her to do something dangerous. As the thread developed and questions were asked it soon turned out she'd accepted a load running from Sacramento to Reno, going over Donner Pass in January IIRC. She had been sitting at a rest area on the west side of the pass for three days waiting for perfect conditions. Somebody posted on the thread, "What are you waiting for, APRIL???" During all that time thousands of trucks had run safely over the pass, chaining up along the way.

Let's face it, chaining is physical, cold work. If you haven't or rarely chained then it may take longer to get them on and if you don't know what you are doing or never checked out your chains before you might end up with chains going "WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!" because they don't fit right or aren't tight. A well chained truck can cruise at about 35 mph without doing any damage to the chains or throwing a chain. Chains make the passage safer and it's the only way to get from point A to point B in the winter.

A few weeks ago I stopped in La Grande, OR for some coffee before heading west over Cabbage. Inside the truck stop was a couple dozen drivers all talking themselves out of heading west. Heck, I almost wet my pants listening to all the horror stories. Got out to the truck and proceeded west and chained up within a couple of miles, then proceeded west with my trainee at the wheel. Felt pretty darned comfortable and safe toodling along at 25-30 mph along the gentle rises to the Cabbage drop, while passing truckers going 10 mph in the flats. Along the way we heard on the CB about some kind of "Choo-Choo Train" of trucks going bumper to bumper down Cabbage. Got to the drop and started down going about 20 mph, feeling totally safe. Finally came to that choo-choo train going 3 mph on the final two miles and had to slow it down to 10 mph to get into the passing lane.

Seriously folks? Three miles per hour down the hill? Ten miles an hour on a flat? These must definitely have been folks from the never driven on snow before crowd.

It really isn't that bad that you have to talk yourself scared silly at a truck stop or crawl along barely making any headway. Learn to chain. Learn to drive in snow and ice. Stay within the parameters of what the truck and yourself can do. IMHO getting "into trouble" means never learning how to handle these situations professionally.

 

No, I'd feel comfortable going slow without chains with the inter axle lock engaged (or traction control engaged).

Then again with experience on that particular hill I've learned that the last few miles up to Eisenhower is where there seems to be a permanent cloud and blizzard conditions. Several passages they didn't have the chain law in effect but should have. While I never chained up when the law wasn't in effect it made for a more challenging run down the backside, since there is very limited to NO space for chaining at the summit.

Coming out the tunnel going either direction, if you aren't chained, makes for some exciting times. If it's like that in the future I'll go ahead and pull into the road crew area at the summit and chain up for the descent. The thing is the last chaining area before the final climb is well back from where the blizzard is raging at the top, so it would force truckers to drive on wet or basically dry pavement for miles to get to the short stretch up there.