Driving an automatic on icy roads and taking off on hills?

I ran a milk run for two and a half years that started in Southern Idaho, went to the Bay Area (over Donner), unloaded there and reloaded newspaper inserts that started dropping in Logan UT., then over the hill to Bear Lake and drop in Rock Springs, Rawlins, Casper, Billings, Helena, and Missoula, then back through Salmon (Lost Trail) to Southern Idaho for reload. I ran three weeks and the owner ran one. I can't believe I survived without riding my brakes down every hill in the winter running over that many mountain passes every week. This was in the mid-80s and no auto slack adjusters or ABS. The only close call that I remember having was when two cow moose jumped into the road from deep snow, and I applied the brakes too much, which started a jack knife. Fortunately, they picked up speed enough running down the road that I was able to gather myself and continue slowing just enough to avoid hitting them.

So @Brandt , according to your logic, the safest way would be to put the truck in neutral and just ride the brakes down the hill for the absolute best traction, so that the tractor would never downshift and risk jack- knifing?

 

I think this comes down to an issue of learning styles. There are folks who just stick to what they are taught quite literally, and never explore beyond that. Foreign as that may seem to those of us who explore the edges of our knowledge, it is a thing.

 

You keep the truck in gear incase you need to pull the trailer downhill. Yea you ride the brakes all the way down the hill at 10psi or less. That way all your tires and brakes help you maintain control. What sounds better to you 18 tires helping or 8 if your just using the engine brake ? Just like you this was before ABS.

 

Yes if they are capable of thinking for themselves and can read road surfaces and pay attention to the temperature.

I currently drive an auto shift and am lighter than 80k one hundred percent of the time now and still use my engine brake. But I will hold it in gear because my thinker tells me if I don’t it will downshift.

Also the original post was about taking off on slick roads, engine brake wasn’t even brought into the discussion until you did it in post 43, then someone said all the loggers run theirs, the rest of us chimed in, and now we are still here.

The problem is people are trained one way and repeat it as a rule. Or they don’t think that maybe there’s a better way to go about things. Or they don’t understand that 10 degree snowpack has way more traction than 30 degree snowpack.

Look around next time the roads are bad and see how many trucks are still riding around with their tandems sucked up. Won’t be a scale for 200 miles and they won’t slide them to get more weight on their drives.

 

The only difference between when I started and today is trucks have ABS and Traction Control and all the other stuff. There was not some new discovery on how to drive downhill in snow and ice.

Think about roadway pulling double back then with a single drive axle truck. If they use the engine brake and waited till they slipped a drive tire. They would probably jackknife.

 

I have not done numerous slide recovers, I don’t lose control of the truck. If anyone jackknife let use know and we can see who is the first person to lose control or jackknife.

 

I should qualify when I say start to jackknife for me, it means I felt the tiniest amount of tire slip with lateral movement, and everyone who drives on slick roads has done it. The problem is most never realize it.

 

I’ve broke loose going uphill empty trying to keep momentum for the corners, can’t ever recall breaking traction going downhill.

 

I am just a ‘dirt digger’…small Ma & Pa mining operation that came late in life to driving class 8 trucks. Really appreciate all the info here! Following this thread as find really useful info from those who have driven off-road/mountains.
Currently bobtail with our single axle IHI 9200 just north of Calgary..picking up a boat (I know crazy in winter) in Edmonton.
Wind, Chinook, snow, fog, roads glazed up..so overnight in Airdrie.

Jake 1 tomorrow morning (only on straight stretches?)

What if single axle rear breaks traction on uphill? (Cat C12) … Gently downshift 1/2
Gear( 13sp) and ease back into throttle? Or stay in top gear and ease off throttle?

Open shoulder deep lug rear tires…

but nervous…

Really appreciate the real truckers here, a lot of skill that the average 4 wheeler doesn’t appreciate!

 

I've had it happen a few times, usually it's just finding an icy patch hidden under snow and that's a non-event.

But there's been once or twice at higher speeds out on the big road where I've gotten substantial slippage for a good 15 or 20 Seconds. Didn't really lose any holdback but the speedo dropped and then varied between 5-10 mph below roadspeed (~45mph, IIRC) as the traction came and went from the various corners of the tandem. No stability changes and it wasn't accelerating, so I let it go to see what would happen. I could see in the mirror that I'd found a slush layer under the snowpack and once I got back on solid snowpack every thing settled down and hooked back up and down we went.

It probably would terrify a newbie, but by the time I thought it might be time to intervene, it had settled into that slightly variable slip that wasn't even close to the marginal traction dance we all know.