Slick roads 101

Playing pool/billiards and driving on snow/ice are very similar. Until you've played it long enough to get good at it, your inexperience is on display for all to see. Nobody drives flawlessly on ice their first few times and those in the southern regions will never [collectively] get "experienced" with driving on snow/ice.

A lot of people living in the north take "salted" roads for granted and don't appreciate how much that helps and how roads in the south/east that never see "salt" will get bad quickly and stay bad.

 

I know! I got home yesterday morning before it all started. Went to the grocery store because I needed to, not for the OMG, it's snowing out stuff. My son works 35 miles from home in Newport News and it took him 2.5 hours to get home last night. He said people are so stupid. Hahaha, now he knows what we deal with every day!

 

As part of this "Slick roads 101" theme, it sounds like we had at least three tractor-trailers involved in a large pileup yesterdy... and fortunately everyone survived the mess.

Police:75-vehicle pileup on I-95 largest chain-reaction crash in Maine

Feb. 25,2015
News story & pictures @ http://bangordailynews.com/2015/02/25/news/bangor/police-75-vehicle-pileup-on-i-95-largest-chain-reaction-crash-in-maine/

It's amazing how fast conditions can change when you simply add a few inches of snow.

 

Beyond driving skills there's also trip planning involved in driving slick roads. I frequently consult MyRadar. Yesterday I started out with a load in Pueblo, CO in the evening with 7 hours left on my 14. Snow was coming down sideways and the temperature was just above freezing. I-25 up through Denver and then catching I-76 to fuel up in Hudson, CO was quite a challenge, snow up to 8" thick and drifting, thin traffic but going at a crawl at times, figuring out where the lanes were often required riding the rumble strip, etc.

The Love's in Hudson was packed to overflowing, although the fuel islands and fuel desk was wide open. I consulted Google Satellite view and my truck stop guide and saw that a tad over 30 miles east in Wiggins there is another truck stop and a rest area (exit 66A). MyRadar showed I was almost to the north edge of the storm. I decided not to try to force myself into a bad parking situation at Love's and push on.

Within five miles the snow stopped and the roads were bare and dry and no snow on the ground. Hammer down to exit 66A and there's parking for 24 trucks at the rest area, but only two other trucks are there at midnight????

Might be that folks holed up in the truck stops in Denver, not realizing the storm petered out a few miles farther out. Thirty miles west of where I'm waking up this morning I'm sure some of those drivers at the Love's are digging out. It's bone dry here and I'm enjoying my morning coffee getting ready to have breakfast and roll.

 

I'd rather be on the 2-lanes winding my way through the sticks when the weather turns ugly...less fools to play bumper cars with. Snow & ice have never really bothered me, and I actually ENJOY driving in it. Heck, if work doesn't have freight for me to move, I'll be in my pickup riding around playing in it. As for salt, all that does is keep it from freezing for a few extra degrees, but in the places that DO salt, it is generally going to be those few extra degrees colder anyways. The road is still slick, so relax and have some fun with it. Keep the front tires pointed where you want to go, use the throttle to control what the rear is doing, and if you're pulling a trailer, you'd better have a pretty good "seat of the pants" feel for what's going on with your vehicle. That "seat of the pants" feel for what the vehicle is doing is helpful even WITHOUT a trailer, but with one (or more) hooked up behind you, feeling what is going on behind you lets you focus more attention on what is up ahead. Most of all, don't panic when you start to slip & slide...that's what'll get you in trouble more often than not, because when you are in panic mode you don't always make the best decisions, and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time gets pretty expensive. Oh yeah, keep that CB turned on. An early heads-up to the goings on up ahead will effectively prevent panic situations. Don't rely upon being able to see, because sometimes by the time you see trouble, it's too late. Last week, for example, I70 by Terre Haute had some issues on the E/B side at the other end of that long, curved bridge. By the time you saw the cargo trailer in the left lane, the SUV that had been pulling it and lost control on the bridge parked on the right shoulder, or the Conway truck with the 2nd trailer flopped on its side 100' later in the left lane, you were already on the bridge that had become a skating rink. I heard the warning and had slowed down to a crawl BEFORE I got to the bridge. The truck ahead of me must not have had his radio on because he hit the bridge, hit the brakes, and then it got real exciting as brakes locked and his trailer started coming around...I thought for sure he was going to wedge it in there sideways between the concrete sides blocking the road. It's SO much easier to avoid stuff when you know it'll be there long before you can see it.

 

I spent quite a lot of time in the Winston/Salem area watching locals doing a fine job screwing themselves up on ice/snow. I didn't see many northern plates that I could recall.

Is a inch of ice in Michigan any different than a inch of ice in TRIAD area?????

Typical old south response..............blame a Yankee! Are you one of those southerners that trash Yankee's all night long at the truck stops? Just asking.

 

Oh..........didn't realize you were staff when I responded! It's seems that you are demeaning about 50% of the forum base with that ignorant post. Pretty low class, and uncalled for.

 

Well I may be old&I may not know much....but this makes 40some odd winters out here runnin around in a big truck.....which in my tiny mind makes me an expert...and it is my humble expert opinion....that it don't matter ifn its icy in Hotlanta....or Minneapolis....people caint drive worth a #### in it.....which when you consider that anymore people across this entire country have one thing in common...cant no of em drive worth a ####....so it just follows they'll do even worse on poor roads...everywhere....Period....