winter driving, little nervous

I learned how to chain by getting to a place where the chainlaw was in effect, stopping and going up to the truck in front of me and telling the guy I had never chained a truck before and helping him chain his up. Hands on is the best way to learn anything. This is also the way I learned how to tie down a bunch of loads on a flatbed.
Just remember the cardinal rule: Your the captain of your ship, not the dispatcher. They cannot make you drive that truck as they are not there. If you feel unsafe, park it. You have the rest of your life to deliver that load and if the company doesn't understand this, find a new company. If you let them push you into driving in unsafe conditions and you put the truck in a ditch you are probably going to be finding a new company anyways.

 

UPS triples in Utah also. One night going down Eisenhower I saw 3 CF doubles blocking the entire road going up. Seems one got stuck then the other pulled around and got stuck and the next also tried the same stunt.3 side by side. Numbnuts

 

"I haven't seen anyone mention drying your trailer brakes just before you park, if someone did, crucify me. I use the spike to drag them a little, but if you don't have one, your service brakes will work as well, just not as convenient."

Forgot that little trick as I havn't driven up north for awhile. I used to do that especially in the spring when the day was above freezing and the roads were wet then it would get below freezing at night. This trick helps dry the brakes out by heating them up. I did this especially when dropping a trailer. I also never set the brakes on a trailer when parking at night and still don't although I drive the southeast now and don't see snow but once or twice a year.

 

Think it was mentioned awhile back ago in another thread but always good to repost as there are a lot of new drivers. Not only is it good to dry your brakes but while you are doing it you are also cooling your tires down. If you end up in an ice covered parking lot hot tires will melt through the ice causing you to get stuck.

Like JonP said, it is a really good idea to keep a bag or two of ice melt or kitty litter or both. 99.9% of the time this got me out of a jam!

Nobody mentioned not to eat yellow snow either!

 

/\ /\ /\THIS/\ /\ /\

Has got to be the best advice I've seen thus far in this thread.

I am in awe. Sir.




One thing that may help keep your windshield from getting gummed up: put your visors at about a 45* angle to the windshield and put your defroster on high. This works for warm, wet snow...down to about 23*F. Colder than that or dry snow, turn your defroster off and keep your windshield cold.

 

I used to drive with the heater on in the sleeper and the defroster off in the snow quite often to keep the snow from melting onto the windshield and gumming it up. I don't get too crazy about the cold so just wore a fleece vest and it never bothered me. Thats good advice and is one other thing I forgot about! I think I'm getting old.

 

All I can say is make sure you drain your air tanks when your done driving.

 

I once had a ball of ice build up under my wiper blade during a pretty good snow storm and it made the wiper blade so that it wasn't even touching the windshield. The snow was so deep on the interstate I couldn't pullover. I had a little bamboo back scratcher that I kept by my seat and I took it and reached out the window and would hit my wiper blade every time it came back to the left and I slowly just kept beating the ice ball with the stick until it broke all off. It worked and I never had to pullover! Back scratcher saved the day!

 

I'm always startled when the CB antennas start banging the side of the cab, cuz they are weighted down by ice build up.

Last winter I runnin in icy conditions and my hood mirror looked like it needed adjustment. A little bit later it was completely bent over hanging by a thin strip of metal. Ice buildup, and bumps just bent it over and cracked the metal tubing holding it up.

 

I've seen the cat litter mentioned a couple times, but, make sure it's not the clay based type. That stuff can make ya go slippepty slip just like ice when it gets wet.
I've heard of laundry bleach being used to melt ice around your tires, as well as windshield solvent in a pinch.