Help!! Snow expected in WY UT area.

This is one time I will echo this particular thought. Turn that #### jake off. It's not the time to be playing with it when you are a virgin to mountain snow. Ignore anyone, including myself who like to talk about jaking...

 

A word about Fort Bridger....

If you are west bound and come off the crest and start down, you will realize the problem. Be absolutely ready to see small vehicles, big vehicles and everything in between possibly sideways, bent stretched across your roadway etc etc etc in various stages of difficulty if not also wheels to the sky. (Those are the bad ones, do try to check on them if alone. They may be unconsious and unable to survive the cold very long, especially if the body is laying on the concrete and ice which will kill them in short time by leeching the heat right out of them.

That particular hill has my name on it. My first time I come off there no one told me diddly. There I was with the trailer going for a slide. I followed the trailer as best I could tractor started getting loose and I pretty much scared myself silly. One of those times spent at the bottom in a truckstop over a pitcher of tea and a pack of smokes seriously considering (AGAIN...) completely quitting the industry.

Ive been on far worst hills than this little one. But if you don't already hear stories like the one I just told you and you come off there steamboating at the speed limit in a winter storm... it's on you pard... I cannot help you.

 

Wyoming can get pretty bad in a snow storm with the wind blowing drifts. Usually if the road is bad they’ll just shut the gates, and you won’t be going anywhere anyway. Driver slower, but not ridiculous. If you only feel safe driving 35 on an 80 then you better get off the road into a rest area, or truck stop. I keep my jake and cruise off if I’m empty and it’s really slick. Sometimes the passing lane is better since the driving lane turns into a hockey rink after all the traffic runs in it exclusively. But I’ll only use that in a big truck if I can watch for traffic in the mirrors way behind me. Doesn’t do any good in a blizzard since it’s easy to get rear ended when you can’t see the guy coming up behind you like a rocket, and he most likely can’t see you.

Basic things for those new to snow out west are bring chains, extra food/water, warm clothes (preferably water resistant, don’t forget gloves), cold weather washer fluid (the -40* stuff or close), avoid the cruise and jakes especially over bridges, and if you have the patience then follow the snow plows.

 

I know that I uploaded this shot a few times in different threads. But I think this one about 20 miles south and east of Sheridan WY back in the late 90's on ice at about 15 for me and 10 for the tanker on the right (Note that he is almost on the rail following that dry patch just like I am doing on my rail...)

Note the cloud coming off his tanker wheels. It's not the place to be dilly dally next to him, get past him pronto.

 

Thanks for the shout out, @skellr !

To the OP: With the way traffic is on 80 nowadays, the biggest concern in my mind will be visibility. With the higher snowfall rates and far too many idiots who outdrive their vision, I'd be finding a hidey hole when visibility heads towards marginal. If traffic is light, fine, but if the volume is up? Yeah, no thanks, I don't want to be on YouTube or Fakebook as an innocent victim of someone else's idiocy. And in high traffic flows, that will be long before the roads are issue.

 

Laramie comes to mind. East of there is a downgrade going westbound. Ive got a photo somewhere that shows a complete and total storm front between the summit of that grade and the city itself down in the valley. It can go from beautiful to white out spray painted glass on your truck in a heartbeat.

 

Not necessarily. I would turn the jake on #1 setting,( 2 cylinders on a Cummins) and would slow me gradually and it would avoid touching the brakes, the kiss of death.

 

That is one situation. I did not want to get into it to avoid confusing the new driver.

I absolutely agree with you in the situation where brakes would be death to even touch.

I should mention that trolley on the trailer brakes come in handy as well, but unsure if the new driver has that in his truck at all.

 

Sherman Hill. That's where that vid from a couple years back was taken. The aftermath:

 

Aw. That's it. Thank you sir.

What a mess.