HELP i have to drive on a road of ice for the first time what should i not do?

Well if ya gonna do it driver first off CLEAR YOUR MIND!!! get what the other driver told you out of your head!! My instructors always told me in driving you can't "think" you got it you have to "know" it! Second guessing can be costly. Above all be safe! Good luck!!

 

Whatever you do, don't let any other driver give you grief for driving at your comfort level.

 

That's right! You are driving your own truck and YOU need to make the decision yourself. Personaly if it's to bad and I don't feel safe I will find a good place to stop and wait to see what the weather is going to do. Taking in to account the weather conditions, road reports and reports from drivers that are out on it I then make my decision. No load is worth my life and the lifes of others. It's just freight. You are the one that has to live with it if you push it and have an accident.
Good Luck with your decision...

 

I have to throw my 2 cents into this matter... i have been driving since may 2nd 1996 and i always have the thought, if i need chains, i dont need to be on the road. Weather you are getting 34 cents a mile or a1.00 a mile it is not worth risking your life or anyone else's to get it there when you feel unsafe to drive it. I got lucky and have a dispatcher who knows if i need chains, i will not drive. I have never had the need to put on chains and to be honest, i would not even know how to put them on since i will never use them. just my 2 cents. Good luck !!

Bubba trucker

 

I might be helpful with this question, because i too am facing the rigors of winter driving for the first time. I've only been driving since mid-sept. My first experience came in the form of fluries/light snow in the Smokey mountians. Next, i was in Chicago when they got pounded a week before christmas, and then took a load to Detroit and drove in what that same storm dumped on them. THEN on the way back west, headed to Omaha, where i ran into another little cell of snow on the 22nd/23rd. I went home for Christmas, then headed out to pick up a load in eastern iowa on the 27th when they had an ice warning out. It was fine till the sun started going down, then I-80 from the 271mm to Iowa City and just beyond that, was pure ice. I probably saw 50-60 cars in the ditch or median, and that dont count in the ditch going the other way. I saw 2 semis on their side, one jackkniffed, and another that saved it from going in the ditch, tractor was still on the shoulder, but the rear of the trailer was off on the incline of the ditch.

Only nugget of advice i can give you, if you are white knuckling it....you're either going too fast, or you need to park it. My rule of thumb is, if i have to hang the iron (put on chains) then i just not need to be out driving.

Stay off your Jake and Johnson Brakes, stay off the cruise, do EVERYTHING slowly and deliberatly. No sudden movements with your wheel or throtte/brake pedals.

and one last thing....look way WAY WAY ahead. If you see brake lights half mile down the road.....it is time to start easing off the throttle. Just look a mile down the road.....side to side....get the whole picture, and never let yoru eyes stop moving.

 

The reason I like to keep my diff lock out on packed snow is that if you are pulling a grade on a corner you can bet that corner has super built into it. If you begin to spin all your drivers together you are going to slide your ### end down the super and could end up jacknifed. If you have the diff out then one or two wheels might loose traction but you have those others that have no power to them keeping you from sliding sideways. As far as using chains go I have only used them on the highway one time. When traffic made me stop in a truly bad situation and I couldn't get going again without them. Hauling logs in Oregon we use chains only for getting in and out of the woods, they come off as soon as we hit the pavement. I know a lot of drivers who's rule is that chains are only to get you home, period. Then of course I hauled many a load without chains when they were required and had no trouble.

 

If conditions are slick, I never use the diff lock, just the power divider lock. If your drives get traction, a diff lock can actually push you through a corner because both drives on one axle are pushing equally.

Best advice I can give is:

Take your time,
Think well ahead and plan your moves,
Don't let ANYONE push you into driving faster,
And stay calm. Don't panic.

 

My dad use to be a driver. Mostly just within the state of Iowa for H&W Motor Express, he did some OTR stuff for them, but not much. He is retired now, but i still get a kick whenever i go home, and watch him drive the minivan. He will get so concerned about someone behind him...slowing down more if they are really on his tail. Or worrying about if someone is tailgating him, and dont leave much room between them and him when they change lanes...etc. you name it. I tell my dad, "..dont worry about them...just drive your own car...thats all you can do."

 

Exactly. I just say to myself, "Yeah, riding my butt is gonna get you there faster huh?"

These idiots make me think, "They're just going to be the first ones to the accident."

 

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best....
Slow and steady, and what you will find is that the Coqihalla has multiple weather patterns, whats happening at the snow shed is often not whats happening at Merrit.

Listen to oncoming driver reports if you can get anyone to talk (Not an easy thing here in Canada), if you make it part way through and find DOT forcing you to chain up you will need to decide if that load is worth what it may cost you!

The best piece of advice I can give you is that if you feel you are near the edge of what your experience can handle you are better off sitting in a truck stop waiting for better weather, or for the plows to get things cleaned up.

Rogers pass can be a real #####, and it seems that anywhere near Revelstoke has always seemed to be the Black hole for Plows for me....

Dont know why but any storm that I have run through there Revelstoke has always sucked yet Golden has the roads cleared nicely.....

If you are going to Northern Ab, I have to assume you will be going through Tete De Juan, the road from moose lake to the border can be very icy so take it easy through there.

Dont go any faster then you feel comfortable going, and if you feel you are in over your head....YOU ARE!

Good Luck!