I70 Denver

I was doing regional bottled water with Western Express after getting back into the game in 2010. Routinely had 44,000 to 46,000 in that box and it helped immensely when scooting through the snow zones.
Currently, the worst I have had to deal with in eastern NM/westria TX were rare, snow and ice storms back in '14 and '15.
One being that ice storm where the US-60 was coated in ice from Clovis all the way up to near Perryton after Thanksgiving 2015. 9-10 hours up on the ice, 30-40 min to load the milk into the tanker, then rolled over to the Best Western in Perryton for a ten. Then 9-10 hours back to Clovis, back to the house for a ten, then rinse-repeat for 2-3 days until the temps finally melted that muck away!!

 

OP, I think your company needed to run you through there with a trainer. If you're doing 48-state runs, going through mountains would include I-70 west of Denver and I-84's Cabbage Hill in Oregon. You need to be trained on those.

 

watch for the skiers, they all drive in packs, have a good pair of sun glasses, know how to chain, watch out for the breeze. and make sure your windshield wash fluid is full. space and way plenty of room is your friend.

 

Colorado skier drivers are idiots, drive fast in packs, tailgate, turn cars upside down in packs..then blame the weather and they will pass you on the shoulders,

 

Weird. Cabbage felt like a nightmare compared to Vail. Again, more tax revenue coming from all that ski traffic enables that portion of the 70 to be taken well care of.
Cabbage sector of the 84? Apart from shipping and ag traffic, and the occasional passage of The Lord Protector's men from Portland, not much of a tourist bonanza to keep that area well kept!!

 

Where are you going to deliver to? If you don't need to be on 70, then don't be it on it during the winter. If youre headed west through Salt lake city, then take I80. If youre headed to Cali or Vegas, I'd take I40. Both add just a smidge of extra miles, but it's worth it to NOT have to deal with those mountains. The second you get west of denver you are climbing hills for almost an hour straight. Add that to a weekend or holiday or special event up at the resorts and it can be very trying. I also haul tankers to, so I do everything I can to avoid even being near Loveland pass.

 

The magic to any hill with any weight is lite steady pressure of 10 psi or less on the brakes. The reason for 10psi or less is because the drums can dissipate that amount of heat all day without overheating. Then if the roads are dry you can use the engine brake also and you can go down hill faster because you use both. This way you can get down any hill in any weather. You know your in the correct gear if you can hold the truck back with 10psi or less. If not hit the brakes slow engine to 900 RPMs and drop a gear.

In the winter you want low engine RPMs going downhill and higher RPMs going uphill.

I'm hoping your truck has an applied brake pressure gauge. Not all truck have them.