Teach Nana...........

If you tractor brakes get stuck/iced up, keep a prybar with you, then you set your trailer brakes for a min. And get under your truck, put the prybar on the metal part under the brake shoe and pull it from the drum, you will here it pop loose, make sure before you leave to check that all your wheels are rolling free, ask someone to look for you if need be. Sometimes they will freeze up rolling thru the parking lot.

 

My neck of the woods that we run all winter long is the NW. Let's see you say you're a wild red head....I'll be looking for you. Can't hang iron, I'll show you how...heck I show alot of newbies when winter hits. Run the vampire shift.....well then you've got my partner and since back surgery last year she can't lift them to hang them....so I'll be out there slopping in the snow (not a problem she did it by herself over 24 years).

Now we have been known to be on unplowed roads so we'll lay the path you just follow along. Got one of them fancy chrome bumpers makes an excellent plow.

Not worry if you're new either one of us can get up and down all passes out West if you just listen to what you're told. Loose the jake and don't slam on your breaks, got gears use them. Donner Pass is the easiest pass out west, lit up and follow the signs, do what the signs say and you'll be good. I'll send in a PM our handles, partner runs it on low at night and I run it more in bad weather.

Snow is flying in Utah...it's going to be another fun year in the NW. Yee Haw!!!

 

Just a little advice. Keep plenty of warm clothes in your truck, 2 or 3 coats/jackets in case you get wet. Plenty of shoes, boots in the jockey box in winter. A small shovel. Plenty of non-perishable food and water. It's not likely you will be buried in a snow bank for days on end, but there are times when mother nature comes in to stay for quite some time. If you make it to a rest area, vs a Truckstop, then you're gonna need something to eat! I advise stuff like vienna sausages, spam, tuna, spaghetti or raviolis, If you don't already have one, one of those twelve volt water boilers is wonderful! Then you can make ramen noodles, single serving oatmeal... coffee... the sky is the limit. Just my .02 worth.

 

I guess it is worth mentioning that if for some reason the air lines are frozen (water can get in the lines and freeze in there), you can take off your glad hand and pour some alcohol into your air line, put it back on and apply air, and it will blow it through your air system and unfreeze it. I'm sure a mechanic somewhere will tell you not to do this for some reason pertaining to seals and all, but I'm sorry, the #### mechanic isn't the one out there freezing his marbles off.

I picked up a trailer in Boise, ID last year that this trick worked on. The brakes weren't what was stopping me, but rather the lines themselves. I did pry the shoe loose first, which was how I discovered the problem (being that they weren't frozen).

On a side note, how far away from AZ do you run with that fleet Nana?

 

three things I learned the hard way my first winter of driving a big truck

-always keep a bag of barn lime, sand, or kitty litter on hand

- learn how to put chains on BEFORE you actually need them

-(this one probly doesn't apply to most of you guys) I do not care how full I am, if it's icy my pusher is staying in the air

 

um, er, I'm too much of a gentleman to touch that one

no Nana, if you get a hint of snow and ice they entire state of Texas shuts down. I bob-tailed from Houston, Tx to Denver, Co in Dec. '99 right when an ice storm rolled through the DFW and north texas area. I have never seen so much carnage in my entire life, I counted at least three dozen wrecked 4-wheelers and probably a dozen wrecked semis. I had the CB on and all I heard were drivers with empty trailers whining about the slick conditions, I offered to trade any of them their empty trailer for my bob-tail. At least they had some weight on their drives, I filled up in Ennis and again in Bowie so I would have some weight on my drives (my brass balls weren't enough weight).

Nope, no states there that will ever require you to chain up in the winter time **sarcasm intended**.

 

Same states we run. Check your PM's.

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