Winter driving

Your drives may loose traction, but as long as your in gear and the engine is on they wont lock up. They will always turn as long as your in gear. You may loose traction, but that's only do to jaking to hard or going to to high an rpm. Its impossible to "lock them up" without stalling the engine. Useing normal brakes you can actually lock your wheels stopped.

 

High RPM = more torqe
More torqe = higher chance of slipping.

High rpms may help you slow down quicker by just taking your foot off the throttle, but you are way more likely to spin out. When your almost lugging the engine doesnt have the power to speed up to quick and start spinning.

 

Being comfortable doesn't mean forgetting or ignoring your own pucker factor.

Common sense, pucker factor and managing or realizing your risk level are all parts of driving in the winter.

I believe I stated it in another thread. Some of us just have a higher tolerance on our pucker factor. I have met some, I won't drive the level they do in the mountains. I have met others, they won't even think of staying with me in a MN snow storm.

It's all a matter of personal experience and level of comfort.

 

O yea, one more tip...If you cant see the road your driving on, use you gps so you know when to look for turns.

My oh poop moment:

I was driving about 20mph on a long strait stretch. Didn't see the upcoming turn untill i see the gaurd rail right in front of me...I tried to brake but it was useless. I turned the wheel and managed to make a sliding turn. The truck fish tailed twice, but i managed not to over correct and keep it on the road. Managed to make it around the turn, but I should have seen it coming on my gps and slowed down to 5 mph for it. I did loose grip on pretty much everything but my steers and maybe a few drives, but not all. In that case, a controlled slide is better then nothing.

 

First run up Northwest...white out,mountains,chained up,and just kept rolling! Always take your time,and don't let others push you. Put a pot of coffee on and take your time. Watch out for 4wheelers,they see you rolling and forget they're not as heavy and pass you and end up in a ditch a mile down the road!! Happens every winter

 

One aspect of winter driving to really be mindful about is the fact that bridges and raised roadways are notorious for icing up early and heavy. Case in point is I-90 on the westbound side of Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. For some reason the road engineers thought it would be a good idea to have a raised freeway on a continuous bridge on the steepest section for a few miles. Once you start down the hill in a snowstorm you have close to zero control, and lots of skiers coming down with you in their 4 wheel drives with no chains. It's a recipe for multicar/truck collisions.

Another especially slippery condition is after snow has been hard packed on the road, the sun hits it during the day and then when shade hits it or the sun goes down all that surface melt freezes into extremely slick ice. It's better in those conditions to wait until midday for some surface melting and softening of the snowpack if possible.

Do everything in slow motion: slow acceleration, slow braking, and slow turning. Just keep it slow and steady.

 

That is too funny. I've been on trucking forums for over 15 years and that is, without a doubt, the stupidest advice I've ever read. Man, you deserve some kind of award.

If you can't see where you're going, turn on your GPS.

And they say driver quality is declining.

 

Actually, if I'm driving on unfamiliar winding roads, especially mountain roads and night driving, I'll keep my GPS set at the 2 mile view. This way I can see if there is a curve ahead when I can't "see" the curve with my eyes yet. After getting used to the radius of curves on the 2 mile display I can gauge how much I'll need to slow down. Topping a rise in the mountains and not knowing there's a sharp curve ahead can lead to "issues". With GPS on unfamiliar roads it can be very helpful to know when to slow down more than what you can see with your eyes... yet.

 

It helps you read the terrain before you get there.

It also helps to turn on the 3D setting too.

 

GPS is a wonderful tool for helping you through unfamiliar roads. It is NOT, however, a substitute for vision as in "Didn't see the upcoming turn untill i see the gaurd rail right in front of me.."

When visibility is so limited that you can't see turns in the road until you can see the guardrail, you have to slow down, not turn on the GPS.