Winter Driving ?

You should hope you train in winter! That way you'll have someone to help and give advice, summer training is fine but winter IS going to arrive! better to have the help your first winter out. If it was up to me, NO trainee would get their own truck till they had a winter in with a trainer.

 

There's a big misconception about power dividers, if you understand how they work you'll realize they are very hard to damage when locked in on slick roads. It's actually harder on it to have one dual slipping for extended intervals; on older designs that would actually fling all the oil off and it would rapidly overheat. The newer units have a stronger design and MUCH better oiling. Remember, a locked PD is essentially equivalent to a welded diff: it's just a heavy, complex piece of driveshaft with none of the components moving relative to one another.

And besides that, most winter off-road adventures are the result of either finding the road edge or are braking related; power slides are rarely uncontrollabe.

 

Cable chains suck, period. In some states they are illegal except on trailers. Becareful with the welded V-chains, if you've ever seen ICE Road truckers, they use a V-chain and/or a studded chain. They are not DOT legal for paved surfaces, just pick up a set or two of plain ol' chains from any truck stop and you'll be fine with them.

 

I will be driving east of the Mississippi for the first time this winter. I came from the western 13 states. I have been told that even though the roads are flat in alot of places that the ice is hell. What do I need to know for winter driving on the east side??

 

plain common sense. Don't jerk the wheel, don't jam the brakes (or the gears) Nice gentle movements are the name of the game. Avoid stopping completely too. If you can keep rolling, even barely, do it. It will save you from a lot of aggravated rocking and spinning. Then there are the basics- do not set the trailer brakes when you park, if you park on ice, move the truck after about a half hour before you stop for the night. Do not follow too close behind another tractor trailer after an ice storm unless you want a new windshield. The north is not bad IMO, just snowy. The south is pretty easy. Where it gets tricky is in the middle states such as southern ohio, kentucky, etc, because they stay warm enough that snow does not stick around long, but get cold enough to make everything an icy mess. The problem is complicated by the fact that they are incredibly ILL PREPARED for inclement weather in the way of plows and salt trucks. Also, the 4 wheelers are absolutely stupid south of ohio when they see snow flakes.

Carry at least 50 or 100 lbs of salt in the truck with you. It will help you regain traction if you get stuck in a parking lot or dock.
Leave LOTS of extra space and be careful.

 

The further north you go (in general), the better the drivers and roads will be.

For example, I'd much rather be up in Maine...NH...VT...than down in VA or MD or southern PA when the weather is poor, especially icy. Virginia's I-81 especially. The "hurry up" mentality seems to intensify with many drivers there, and you will always see dozens in the median and ditches.

I seldom drive in ice anyway, but I'm especially careful the further south I get...folks just don't use common sense.

Be careful and good luck!

 

I get a tube of sand (about 50 pounds) and throw it behind the cab and bungee it down. Works better than litter (it doesn't turn to slippery mud) doesn't take up the space salt does in the side boxes or melts or corrode the floor in the truck like salt can and is better than putting bleach (ROFLMAO) on wet snow or ice! When winter is over what you have left you can throw on your flower beds to make the soil better for the plants and the BEST thing about the tube of sand is it costs less than $5.00 for the whole thing and the fiberglass packaging will last all winter out side!

 

personally, I've never had a problem driving in winter. I guess it came from having a father who was a truck driver who made sure that I learned how to drive in the winter. As well as while I was still driving on my learners permit we took a family trip cross country in the winter. He let me drive to get the highway exp. but also on the way back to Colo. we were pulling a trailer loaded with snowmobiles and I did part of the driving in the snow and ice. I've had one accident in 25 winters of driving and it was while i was still a teenager and being stupid.

The other thing I've found, know your truck, get used to it, I realize if you slip seat this is a problem, but since most of us are attached to one truck. Know where your switches, knobs, etc. are by touch, practice. When your parked, close your eyes and reach for where you think a certain switch/knob is and try to activate it. This way if you need it while driving in bad conditions you can do it without taking your eyes off the road.

Know how your truck reacts, use your "butt dyno", your rpm's and your speedo to determine what your drives are doing and if your spinning. I've run roads barefoot when others were chaining up because I knew my truck, I knew what it was doing, and I paid attention to it and the signals it was sending to me and made it without a problem. I've also seen guys spin out with full 3-railers on because they didn't know what they were doing.

 

Not sure if this was mentioned in this thread or any other thread, but I have a few questions about axle weights. Some one mentioned that its better to have more weight on the drives rather than the tandems. My question is, wouldnt it be better to have roughly an even weight between the drives and tandems? I only ask this because since the trailer brakes grab first, wouldnt the tandems run a higher risk of locking up if there was more weight on the drives? For the few times Ive had to drive on icy roads, I figured this was a good thing to do and havent had issues. Course, I was only drivin 20 miles an hour while some drivers were goin #### near 50.....

This question is about chains. I have 2 pairs of singles and 1 pair of doubles. The winter driving pamphlet I got from my company says that if you need chains, you better off putting your doubles on the front drive and the singles on the rear drive. Isnt the rear drive on most tractors the main drive axle that has power all the time? Since I dont know the varying chain laws between states other than California and Oregon basically sayin you have to use every chain you have, including on your trailer, wouldnt it be better to put the doubles on the rear drive if that was all you needed to be legal? I figured that depending on the situation and if chains were required even if it wasnt nessesariy to lock in the power divider that it would be better to put the doubles on the rear since its the main drive axle and is considerably easier to chain with doubles then the front drive. Advice?