was driving over vail pass lastnight empty.

I've come to the same conclusion as others.

I used to chain up and 'carry on' for the sake of getting the load delivered. Now,.. not so much. I have started to refuse to chain up and just park and wait it out rather then driving on ice and taking a chance to slide off the road. I carry enough chains to be legal where chains are required. But I refuse to use them.

Hurst

 

OK. So you started from "safe"...

It doesn't have to be bad weather to see parking places, but... is it same to assume you've been down that before?

That's what they call a "fatal error", in its common "It didn't happen this time so conventional wisdom may be ignored" form. And that's the problem with experience as a teacher, she'll flat-out teach you the exact wrong thing and reinforce the lesson by letting you get away with it for years and decades. Maybe you stay lucky, a lot of guys do. But you did go to truck driving school, right?

Sounds pretty slick.

No kidding...?

 

anybody that uses jakes on ice. is a accident waiting to happen.

 

Bigchevy,where did you learn how to drive?
Not to offend you but.........this is basic stuff.

Why use brakes on slippery surface?
A properly setup semi will have the brakevalve for the trailer activate a fraction before the truck's one.
That minuscule difference makes the trailer very gently pull on the tractor and thus keeping the combo straight.

When you use Jakes or downshifting,you slow down the tractor while the trailer wants to go forward because off it's own momentum.
Because the trailertires have no grip on the roadsurface,it will slide to a side and start to catch up the tractor.
Jackknife.

This is as best as i can explain it............i hope you understand.

 

I give Bigchevy credit for coming on here and telling what he did and didn't do correctly. How many guys don't do that and continue to do it wrong putting themselves and others at risk.

No need for anyone to bust his balls because he's trying to learn.

 

Holly crap, you guys are a bunch of scared girl drivers. First learn how to drive all day every day in snow and ice. Haul logs in the winter, and realize its not that big of a deal. The dummy that thinks the jakes will make your trailer come around is a desk jokey. If the jakes slow the truck, the free spinning trailer wheels wont have a problem. Every time I slow down, the jake is ON. I have driven 3 days in a row that I kept tractor and trailer chained up. This is not hard to figure out. Stop peeing in your pants every time it precipitates. Stop with all the chicken little "the sky is falling". The way you talk, the world should be put on hold when its slippery. To the OP, you did great! Did what you wanted to do, and kept on truckin.

 

Many drivers have already chimed in about the main mistake (jake being on) made by BigChevy, but I'd like to comment to the following poster...

IMO and experience, you are making a grave mistake. You really need to understand the power of a jake and its UNintended consequences in slick conditions.
On dry pavement you can feel the significant braking effect of the jake when you get off your fuel pedal. Now take that drastic/significant braking effect on slick rain/wet snow/ or ice and it is more than enough to send that trailer up along side of you. Not to mention throwing your drives into a traction-less skid, for starters.

In your post's scenario, you blame your brake application for your "almost jackknife", and not the jake. The truth is, you even described your brake application as "as soon as I tapped the dang thing". I would feel safe in saying what caused your partial jackknife was that you "tapped/stabbed" the brakes a little too hard, rather than gently ease a little bit of pressure to your brake pedal.
Plus,, on an icy road surface, with your jakes activated, you were very likely to have been at that maximum "fine line" of the drives locking (due to the jakes braking effect), but when you applied the brakes even slightly/moderately, the combination of jake & brakes caused the drives to lockup and loose all traction.

It also makes me wonder... WHY were you even touching your brakes in that scenario? The only reason that I can see is if you were going faster than the snowplow ahead, and should have eased off the fuel/speed much much sooner, so you'd have plenty of safe following distance space behind the plow, to begin with.
I firmly believe it's an accident waiting to happen, if you persist in using your jake in slick conditions.

 

Last 3 years I survived from nor cal to Denver using my own method. And I do understand the momentum of the trailer but I have never had my trailer come around me or even slip. Also the snow plow moved that was up hill and the reason I had to brake cuz I didn't have the Jakes on and at that point I was dropping down hill and RPMs were climbing so in order to calm the truck down I tapped the brake and no I didn't tap it hard I was nearly empty. I think things through before I actually just go for it. And I have also never been the one to be scared of something. As long as the road is open I'm rolling along. But the only way I have really thought that the Jake will get me in trouble is if I'm in bottom half of the gears, I dont worry about the top end. U have to think about how fast you are moving and how much you will be affected by the engine brake. I have never driven a truck that has glued me to the windshield while flipping it on. Im not bragging that I drove through the worst conditions but I have drove through some of the most feard as in donner pass and Wyoming while everyone slept and I've done it over a thousand times 3 winters 2 trips a week. Like I said I think about everything I do before I do it. U can only go too fast for the condition one time