Winter Driving Refresher

That's great advice. My wife used to yell at me for always keeping 3 car lenghts between me and the guy in front of me until it saved us once on a bad weather drive. I do it even when someone cuts in between me and the guy I'm behind. I just back off some more. I'm may be in a hurry to get somewhere, but I'm not in a hurry to die..I can stand the extra 20 seconds I lose for slowing down a bit.

 

YOU are SO right Brink! Winter is coming and now is the time for good info winter driving.

I start getting nervous the first snow fall up here. Things happen quickly out there on the highways.

Good Idea Brink!

 

Me too, I hate those times when you are doing like 3 MPH downhill and it is so slippery you can't stop. You just slide until you run out of hill or run into something.

 

and how about staying off the jake? in slick road conditions, if the jake is engaged, it could lock up the rear end as the motor dies, leaving with no power steering, and all that fumbling to get restarted could put you in a place you don't want to.

 

Ok as long as we are giveing advice to noobies, make sure you
keep your CB on channel 19. I know its hard, but when there
is a road problem up ahead or the snow is comming down so
fast you can hardly see down the sides of your trailer it can save
you. These days there is so much crap on the channel you
have to turn the squelth up at every truck stop. It gets frustrateing
epecially if you don't like to hear a lot of cussing. I was once pulling a
trailer in a heavy snow storm when the rear axel caught on fire
and I was sure glad for that CB cause I could not see squat.

 

buy winter wiper blades, even if your company doesn't reimburse you for this, as we all know all too well the "ordinary " wiper blades clog up way too easily with ice/snow.

carry a "care package" of sorts that would have crackers, maybe some candy bars/breakfast bars, water, extra blankets, extra boots (insulated), extra heavy clothes, and such. hopefully if you have a sleeper truck you can tuck these things away easily. oh yeah, extra washer fluid (the yellow Prestone type), and extra motor oil, and maybe some flares for those heavy snow days if you get broke down.........

 

Last January I was driving from Detroit to Grand Rapids after visiting friends for my birthday. After getting a couple of hours of sleep, I left out around 5 a.m. (had to get home to let the puppy out -- he'd been in for nearly 24 hours). It was cold, but no precipitation of any kind. As I was going down I-96, the road started to be 'wet'. I slowed down since wet roads in January can become slippery very quickly. I was glad I did. It went from wet to black ice in the blink of an eye. It was basically me in my 4-wheeler and the trucks out there creeping along at 10-15 mph. A few cars thought they could go faster, we passed them in the ditches later on. I crept along from Howell (about 50 miles NW of Detroit) to just East of Lansing. At that point, the roads got so icy, that everybody just stopped. There were quite a few accidents up ahead and the trucks basically 'closed' the road and had traffic at a standstill. The police eventually got there and routed the traffic up US127. That road wasn't much better and after sliding along for a few miles, the trucks again stopped and blocked the road. It was apparent that the road was becoming impassible and we were all safer just sitting there than trying to go any further. After about 1/2 hour, I saw the salt trucks backing up the freeway in front of the truck blockade and we all followed the salt trucks out of there. Those trucks that blocked the road both on I-96 and US 127 probably saved alot of people from more accidents or worse. I was grateful that they had the presence of mind to do what they did by blocking the roads off. By the time I got back to I-96, the roads were only wet and it seemed like nothing ever happened -- except for all of the 'road kill' in the median and ditches. I didn't see anyone seriously hurt though, so that was a blessing. Thanks for this post and thanks for any of you who have ever looked out for others on the road in the way those truck drivers did that day.

Sorry this is so long -- just wanted to illustrate the dangers of driving in cold weather even when it isn't snowing.

Keelady

BTW - a drive that normally would take me 2 1/2 hours took over 6 hours that day.