A little winter adventure (Learning about traction for dummies)

Some good points in here for sure. But don't be afraid to use your power divider. It won't hurt anything, it won't make you understeer. Power divider + 1 locker = minimal understeer, power divider and 2 lockers is where time and place should be considered.

I run it on bare dry pavement pulling a hill to spread the torque out a bit, rather than cooking that back right position. And its in anytime the road isn't flat, bare, and dry. Done this on dozens of company trucks, and the 3 of mine I've owned, never had an issue.

 

I'm in between jobs right now. One of the company recruiters I was speaking with over the phone was asking me some questions, one of which was what to do when driving and discovering that a storm is ahead. I said, "chain up and proceed..." , she corrected me and said the company requires their drivers to park and wait it out.

 

Lol not surprised by that.. u still wanting to do flatbed ? I'm with a flatbed company out of phoenix.. run alot of california and we got a couple drivers that live there .Could probably get u hooked up

 

I have orientation at a carrier on Monday. As far as flatbed, I have only one year of experience and the loads were the same every time, tile and poles, all straps. I would need to go to a rookie type flatbed outfit for x amount of months to get experience with all the different types of loads and securement to be comfortable.

But no worries, I was actually supposed to be in day one of orientation today, but I missed my flight by 17 minutes. The carrier got a credit for the missed flight and got me booked for Sunday.

 

10-4 . I hope it works out for you. Let me know if anything happens with the current gig. My company would train u for sure. We got a couple guys that train the new guys on securement. Some of the easiest work I ever done, to the point that it's boring for me.. lol

 

Swift does not require it, but it is preferred that you shut down.

 

You do understand that as long as nothing is slipping, all 4 corners are getting the exact same torque? The extra wear happens in turns and heavy throttle in the low gears.

As far as running the power divider going down the road, the buzzer is one of the first things to get disabled in a new truck. I don't run it engaged as much as I used too, mainly because drive tires have so much better snow traction than they used to. I've been driving long enough that I remember when we engaged it anytime it was slick as unnoticed slip would eat the power divider as they would fling the oil off and overheat. Modern rears have much better lube designs that have eliminated that problem.

But climbing in the crap it's locked, as I'll run much closer to the traction limit going up vs down. Coming down I generally want a much earlier warning I'm approaching the traction limit, so I'm usually unlocked unless it's so slick that unlocked makes the Jake unusable.

The truck I had with full lockers only had two switches, so it was all or nothing. You could plow snow with it all locked up, you just had to pointed in the right direction first! LOL

 

Wow. It all sounds like a crap shoot.

And better tires? That depends on what your company uses year round and at the cheapest price.
The tires I am used to have zero traction if there is any snow or ice, and they slide with a modest amount of water on the road.

 

Yeah, on an ideal road there's no benefit or reason to. Our roads are pretty crappy up in Southern BC, always had a thing with cooking that back right position. I'm up and down some pretty good mountains daily so it's certainly not a one size fits all thing. It was branded into my head early on pulling a super B, lots of 10-20 mph hard pulls and places to leave a driveshaft, heh

My Volvo came like that... Salesman said they couldn't be isolated and couldnt be made to come on in high range. Figured it out easily enough though!

 

It's really just knowing how to maximize your truck's capabilities & learning to read traction from what the truck is telling you.

Seriously better. Just like car tires, truck tires are amazing compared to those from the not too distant past, provided you're willing to pay for top line tires. Better compounds and tread designs.