Company says no chains?!?

Correct. Although I am not sure of the monetary amount it should be easy to find online. Actually isn't it all the Western "11" ? Don't really know. Just a flatlander always out there who keeps chains year-round.

 

I got a pair of 4 foot 4x4 blocks. I can get both axles completely off the ground and then I don't have to keep doing pull ups and back ups to get chains on.

 

no it doesn't make sense. chaining is part of trucking. if your too lazy to chain. then your too lazy to truck.

you never know how long your going to sit. and it's sometimes not just a few hours.

last year we had 3 drivers sit in oregon cuz they didn't want to chain. i made my delivery in washington. then made my deliver into colorado. made my delivery to idaho. and made my delivery back to yard. and went home. while those 3 drivers were still sitting in oregon.

but i guess if you want to sit for a week. that's your choice.

 

I worked in the oil fields in ND and you ain't kidding. Only about 20-50 miles max off road, but still when it rains those roads go to crap. Their roads are like oil, you'll slip and fall if you ain't careful. Then the ground on the rigs are supersoft, so you just try your hardest not to bury the truck.

For all y'all that hate to throw some chains, throw some in the mud one time and take them back off. You'll be more than happy to do it in the snow from here on out. I'd rather chain every axle in the snow, as compared to chaining and un-chaining in the mud.

 

if they can't handle chaining in teh snow. they'll never be working in oilfields.

around here. chains are thrown 6 months out of the year. EVERY day. cuz them roads to the tanks AREN'T paved.

 

The company my husband works for has a NO chain rule, they feel if its bad enough to use chains, either re-route or stop. Their are chains on the truck, I would guess because of the laws, but in orientation they were told not to use them and IF they thought they needed them for one reason or the other to call saftey. Any accident with chains on would be concidered preventable and could result in being dismissed.Now while my husband has 20 yrs of driveing, the majority of that time has been in Fl, Ga or Al, he's never had to use a tire chain and says he doesn't know how to put them on, I do ( thank the Navy for teaching this Fl girl something she hasn't used in 22 yrs) but company says no and hubby isn't going to.

 

I work for a company that has a "no chain" policy, unless you need to get out of a bad situation. And they've started a policy that if you stop stop due to weather/road conditions; they will pay you for your downtime. We carry 'em because the laws say we have to. But as a driver who's been out here awhile & has chained up before, I won't do it again unless absolutely necessary. If that makes me less than a "super" trucker oh well.

 

So if he doesn't know how to chain, what does he plan to do if he ever gets out west and there is a wreck ahead of him and he's forced to stop for 3-4 hours while the snow is steadily coming down and no plows are going over it? Is he just gonna sit in the middle of the road and wait on the snow to melt?

 

I've been driving trucks for 25 years...all kinds. Doubles, triples, vans, flats, reefers and even fuel tankers and containers in Alaska. I'm a western regional driver currently and didn't have to chain at all last year. I've done it once this year already over Donner. From my experience I've found that if you go as far as you can every day and keep an eye on the weather, you can usually avoid having to chain. That being said, I will put on "min" chains but if it gets any worse than that it most likely better to wait a while until conditions improve. This philosophy is one of the reasons I've remained ticket/accident free while driving trucks. Another reason is that I SLOW DOWN!!! There are plenty of "super truckers" out there that you can hear (and see) out on those snow and ice covered roads bragging about how they're doing 55-60 mph and complaining about people going slow telling them at the top of their lungs to "GET OFF THE ROAD". These are the same idiots that I will see in the ditch a few miles later.
Ultimately you have to make YOUR OWN decision about what's safe and what's not. YOU are the one driving the truck and YOU are the one responsible for what happens to it. If YOU don't feel comfortable driving in those conditions then don't let some loudmouth make you feel that your any less of a driver for waiting!!!
By the way, my company used to require us to chain, especially the western regional drivers, but have since changed their policy to "driver discretion". I don't doubt for one minute that they wouldn't hang me out to dry now that they've re-worded their policy.

 

Call saftey, if they say wait, he waits ( and gets paid for that) if they say chain up, then he gets to listen to my directions or theirs, I did say I know how, just have never done so, except in practice.
It wasn't that hard, just tedious. Phone call to a friend, for pointers.

As far as I've been able to figure out the company pretty much routes around areas that are known to need chains and sends the more experienced drivers to those areas. And as I said the company has a no chain policy.