Winter driving

Nothing like hammering a frozen valve open, or spraying it down with steaming hot water from the dairy to get clear all the frozen washbay water out. If anything, nothing feels better than the hot steam on a 0-10 degree day.
As for those cramp-ons posted above, I could always just lace zip-ties under the boots!! Works for bicycle tires when riding across the ice and snow, lol!!

 

Our winter hauling milk was delivered inside the Green Spring off North Ave and Falls Road on the west hillside in Baltimore. Becuase it was a indoor unloading followed by hot sanitation winter was not a problem and actually a joy because heat of summer (And flies that got into the milk in two farms I picked up at...) were not a threat.

Yes sometimes the farmer has to get his horses or tractor to get you unslid off that big rock on ice sometimes. Those old walking beam macks and diamond reo T was AWESOME in winter.. but they slide just the same....

 

What a guy will do for a buck. Ya got to love those war stories.

 

Well I officially had a ton of fun in the snow today. OKC was hit with a few inches. Made the two tight unplowed yards in the city challenging.

The real fun was getting off paved highway with a heavy load then getting back out of the oil rig winding it up to 1800 rpm's in 3rd to climb up a 15% grade.

The second picture was as I was waiting for the overhead forklift to finish placing a pallet on the ground. The road out is above, climbing from left to right.

I REALLY didn't want to chain and never had to.

 

I want to suggest something and feel free to disagree.

When I was first teaching my children to drive a car, I would take them out to a shopping center or some other place that was wide open where there was snow covering the ground. I would have them speed up and slam on the brakes just to get a feeling of what it is like to operate on snow and ice. Turning and locking up the brakes to see what happens. Never putting them in danger but giving them experience. I did this myself in my truck and trailer. I believe the added information is worth it. If you can find a place.

 

I do that every year in my personal vehicles, just to know how they each react. If I did that in my semi, I'd be in a meeting with the safety guy very quickly. G-sensors and wheelspin detection.

 

I always advocated taking a bobtail 18 wheeler (No trailer because you cannot rig safety chains without a welder) and going to such a lot big enough to play in. Slamming brakes sometimes with a big swerve thrown in for good measure that tractor will do something and your problem is to get it back.

Then circles at top rpm in a gear deliberately allowing the drives to slip out. Essentially drifting. Then stopping at your will. Not where Issac Newton puts it (Physics) FInally a Figure 8. When you have these under control what with the sliding and spins etc. (A bonus if you can induce a tractor to spin and come out going the way you were going while staying within a imaginary two lane path 30 feet wide)

My bosses would have seriously fired me, then trumped up something to arrest me on should they have caught me doing that stuff.

Many times in trucking that tractor got away and my hands knew how much to take away or put into the steering wheel to get it back. A couple of them were enough to make a sniveling drooling fearful coward of me. But as long you get it early and be fast you can usually get it back before you run out of pavement.

 

Feeling that rear end kick out isn't near as big a deal after you've felt it a couple of dozen times.....

 

I grew up in Seattle. Going wild in a big parking lot was part of growing up.

IMHO the wussification of this country began when they introduced ABS. Does anybody know how to pump brakes anymore?

 

Meanwhile the "retired trucker".