winter driving

you can chain up all you want--i will go and sleep for a couple hours--by the time you are done chaining and unchaining and banging and clanging at 35 mph --the road will be clear

 

Jakes + ice = jackknife (typically)

If the roads are getting slick I turn the jakes off. The force of the jakes can lock the drives and then you wake up real fast.

 

The trucks I drove would kill the jake as soon as a wheel slid a bit. Not sure if it was hooked in with the ABS or what. I would not have done it if the thing was sliding sideways.....

Bill

 

I hope nobody follows all the info in this thread.................

 

All kinds of pretty good tips posted here.In a way I was fortunate driving in the winter.Having been born and raised in snow country,it just came naturally to me,to take it easy on bad roads.The big thing is to slow down and drive at a speed that feels comfortable to you.If you cant find that speed,shut er down,like someone else posted.Most storms only last for a few hours,so its better to be late than dead.That plus most trucks are equipped with Qual Com units,so you can notify dispatch of the situation,and they in turn can notify the customer you are gonna be late.In the long run,its better to be safe than sorry.

 

Care to elaborate so good and bad can be weeded out for the folks who might not know which is which?

 

This was a freightshaker Columbia from Challenger. Those guys messed with the trucks enough that one couldn't be sure what was still really working properly. They could never figure out why the batteries would only last 15 minutes before triggering the reserve cutout.

 

If Hickenlooper is elected, expect to see an attempt to ban trucks on I-70 between Morrison and Eagle during the ski season from 3pm Friday til 8 pm Sunday. No execeptions, $1,500 fine minimum.

 

really? what happens when the chain law is in place for 36 hrs or more?

 

Some good hints in this thread, thanks for the tips!

I also had an old trucker tell me "If it's bad enough to need chains, it's bad enough I don't need to be driving in it."

I guess it would boil down to "don't out-drive your ability."

I'd say that is the best advice.