Going down steep grades and night driving

For night driving:
Keep the shoulder side white line sharp in your peripheral vision.
Don't look at it. Keeps you able to see from oncoming bright headlights.
Set your own pace and gradually increase till you are comfortable.
Life's short; enjoy the ride.

 

Just want to touch on another issue for night driving. Deer and assorted big and small game.
Pay attention to Deer crossing and migration signs. Should one jump out in front of you do not swerve, hit the fluffin thing and worry about it later. Putting your truck in a ditch on its side is a job and sometimes a life killer.
Get on the brakes without locking them up just to minimize the damage but hold your lane.

If I’m running in an area known for high deer population I run at least 5under and keep the cruise off. Took me a few big hits and a couple of years before I wised up.

Good luck out there!

 

I hit a deer at 47 accelerating out of a paper plant not far from Baton Rouge. Busy 4 lane road, wasn't even dark. #### thing came out of nowhere. Brand new truck. One of those new Cascadias, the first year they came out, 2018. Not even a big deer. Did over 5000 dollars worth of damage. Destroyed the front bumper, blew the fog light out of the bumper on that side, cracked the hood. I fought for years for them to give me a new truck and with the plastic still on the seats I have the bumper held on by a bungee cord.

 

If you see a deer, they never do what you expect them to do. Half of my deer hits & misses they reverse course just before they would be safe. Their eyes are adapted for low light. I think they get blinded by the headlights & they are super skittish by nature.

 

You can go down a hill too slow hundreds of times, you might go down too fast only once.

 

Just like everyone else said do not get pressured into going faster. You can go down a mountain 1,000 times too slow you can only go down it too fast once. It’s normal to be nervous, it’s a good thing that you are in my opinion. I been driving 18 years and everytime I pop out of the Eisenhower Tunnel with snow flying I get that feeling of “ok here we go”. Take it easy, watch your speed, and watch your mirrors. If some one is barreling up behind you and you can tell they can’t get whoa’d you can usually (hopefully) hit the shoulder. Goin down a mountain grade fast ain’t gonna add inches to your #### so it ain’t worth it.

 

Couple of pointers for running snowpack. Split the track, that's where all the rock has been pushed too. Keep off the jakes, brake saver when she's greasy. It's a hella of lot easier to speed up than slow down. Drivers use to give mt/road report, how's it look over your shoulder? Don't know if that still happens.

 

Used to be, for the steepest grades down, "Georgia OD" ( neutral) worked great for making up lost time from climbing that grade. I remember drivers of the most unlikely trucks could hit 3 digits,,,,, I don't recommend that today, however, as said, if unsure at the top, put on the flashers and start in a low gear, with an automatic, select L( can you do that?) and or a gear where 10psi of brake application will keep you safe. Be aware of a condition called "brake fade", where the drums get too hot and expand, further reducing braking. Night driving, more especially night driving on lonely stretches, is particularly dangerous. With current regulations, you shouldn't be tired after what, 14 hour off? Still, don't try and "tough it out". Remember, it's a lot easier explaining why you are late, than an accident. You'll be fine.

 

You'll either get used to it, or you'll go home.

OK, the "white knuckle" stuff has got to stop. A death grip on the steering wheel will only get you into a ditch the first time you over-react to an unexpected situation. An experienced driver ALWAYS keeps a light grip, and knows just how "loose" he can let the truck get and still retain control. You will need to learn this quickly once the snow starts falling. You WILL occasionally lose traction, either when braking or when accelerating. How you deal with these momentary issues will determine whether you either wreck your truck or you don't.

On ice and snow particularly, a tight grip on the wheel will result in a quick reaction, followed almost instantaneously with a loss of traction on the steers, followed by another quick over-reaction. Repeat 2 or 3 times until you either jackknife, roll, or dive into a ditch. If you are nervous, then just SLOW DOWN. Unless you are maneuvering around a parking lot, you shouldn't grip the wheel harder than you would grip an uncooked egg.

There are a LOT of other things you'll need to learn about winter driving; like how to read pavement for ice, how un-trampled snow gives better traction than compressed snow does, relying more on engine braking, etc.. For now, though, stop treating mountain passes as if they were a war zone. Literally thousands of drivers navigate them safely each day; only the dumb@$$es wreck.

 

I may slower than you on mountain grades. Lol.

@AceC I've been in the game a long time and I still go down grades at 25 mph if need be. I'd rather be safe than sorry. I know the other day, I went down La Veta pass in Colorado at about 30 mph. Trucks got behind me as if to pressure me to pick up my speed. I saw little bit of a shoulder area. I had no problem pulling over just to let them pass. It may look like I got punked into getting out of their way, but true punking comes when you decide to pick up your speed and haul ### down the hill. You do that, you may create a memory that you don't want to have, or even remember. It's all normal in the beginning. Once you do it over and over again, it'll be a piece of cake. Driving IN NYC will have that same bit of nervousness too. After you .are a few deliveries there, it's like going anywhere else.