Driving down steep grades in icy conditions

Good habit. My dad taught me that one. Running those big tridrives off road you pretty much need the power dividers locked in all the time. 1 wheel lifts off the ground or loses all traction and you're stuck.

 

Just watch Ice Road Truckers.....and disregard the suspense music. They never fall through the ice

RIP Darrell Ward.

 

So what does he do if there's an oncoming vehicle?That road only looked wide enough for one vehicle.

 

Probably use radios. All the bush roads back home were single lane with wide spots every couple kilometers. VHF radios were mandatory and you had to call out your kilometer marker as you passed it. Trucks going up had to yield right of way to trucks coming down.

 

Control is provided through traction, friction in the road surface. You limit your braking through one or two axles by using the brake, your more more likely to give up all control.

The same thing you do with the jakes you can do with the brakes, it just requires a little more effort and conscious control to use the peddle.

Like I said, and how the driver in your video said, how you get by in slick conditions my be your business, but you do a dis-service to disregard the fact that most new drivers that find themselves on icy roads overestimate their ability and use of the jake.

 

Looks just like normal road conditions to me. Part of life in the Great White North.
Freezing rain polished by the wind, now that's slippery.

 

I actually LIKE using the jake in slick conditions. Once the jake shuts off (engine RPM goes to naught when the wheels lose traction), you still have 8 MORE brakes to apply and slow you down. Apply minimum power, straighten out, flip Jakes off, apply brakes, reduce speed several gears, try again.

When going down on service brakes, if you were to lose traction, you have NO more brakes to apply. No margin. EEK!

I like having lots of margin. A tractor losing traction is something that happens dozens of times a year in our operation, and is no big deal. We get to practice getting in and out of some of the places we load and unload just to get in there. Modulate power, straighten out, apply brakes, reduce speed, try again.

Not using Jakes would scare the bejeebers out of me.