Snow Driving
 

Ive never drove in the snow before but its getting close to that season.I drive a F-650 with a 24' Gooseneck Trailer mainly mid west and east coast.Please set me up with some pointers for snow driving.My load is never very heavy maybe 5000lbs to 6000lbs .I guess the ice is the main issue??? Just wondering

I have been driving for 7 years.My rule of thumb is if it gets icy,pull it over.There isn't a load anywhere worth my life or one else's.I don't chain up,unless I have to to get to a safe place.

Snow Driving
 

I've driven in near blizzard conditions with dry falling snow at zero degrees with minimal fear. Now wet snow and ice at 28 degrees is an entirely different matter. In my opinion, way more pucker factor. BOL

SLOW is the name of the game in snow! If you do not feel comfortable then pull over till the roads clear up. Just take your time. Don't get in a rush!

I hope to never experience this but, if your trailer starts to slide what is the best way to straighten it out? Do you steer into the skid or away from the skid or what?

How will i know if it is ICY or dropping WET SNOW ??? Thanks to all who sent me replies !!

You have to watch your following distance as other traffic is your biggest problem in snow.
Ice is trouble, if you get paid by the load.
Watch your mirror brackets /antenni for ice, look for spray from the tires of other vehicles and listen to the CB { it may/may not help}.
I drive at a speed that I feel comfortable at or I park it.

Hope you never experience it either, I have once. A 4 wheeler pulled out in front of me on a rural road during a freezing rain storm.....what I learned is this....

Do not hit the brakes, that is the last thing you want to do.
accelerate if conditions will allow, this is the best way to straighten out. This is what saved me.
Otherwise, steer away from the direction of the trailer skid, and say a prayer, and hold on tight! :shock:

Winter driving with big rigs is always an adventure!
After a few winters, you will feel better, and a bit more confident.

Never drive beyond what you feel comfortable with.

Listen to what others are saying about road conditions on the CB and try to plan accordingly. If you have to stop it may be hard to find a place to park. Also conditions can change rapidly.

Take your time.

Leave plenty of following room.

Accelerate and brake gently. Better to creep along at 10mph then to rubberband in city traffic.

Keep you windows, mirrors and lights clean. Keep the washer fluid level up.

If your wipers start to ice up try setting the defroster to a cooler setting. Sometimes cracking a window helps too.

Bridges and overpasses freeze first.

There is all types of snow but I think the worst to drive in is heavy wet snow. Sometimes a colder air temperature is better because the snow is dryer and less slippery. The heavy wet snow can "grab" hold of your tires.

Just because the road looks black doesn't mean it isn't slippery. Beware of when ithe snow first starts to fall. The first few flakes often get melted by passing traffic and become black ice. A little bit of snow on the ground can actually improve conditions.

Be aware of people trying to pass you, especially if there is really just one good lane. I've seen more than one person lose it by getting impatient and trying to make time in a snow covered lane.

Remember to give the other guy a break.

Have a good sleeping bag, gloves, and hat with you. Carry a few candy bars and bottles of water with you in case you have to wait it out in a less than ideal place.

Re: Snow Driving
 

Snow has pretty decent traction until it gets all compacted by other traffic. You can usually move along pretty good in it. What I found is the worst conditions is right after they plow it, the temps rise and it melts a bit, and then when the temps drop again it turns into ice. If you start to skid get off the accelerator and don't hit the brakes. You can generally recover pretty easily if you're not going too fast.

Watch out for hills that will take extra torque to get up, they will cause a skid more easily.

Really it is just about like driving any other vehicle in the snow/ice. Only difference is you need A LOT more stopping distance. Most skids will be on the drive axel since that is what has power on it.

Worst situation I've been in to date was after a blizzard and really cold temps. They had plowed and when I got on the on ramp it was dry good pavement, was crusing along at 70 mph. Well a few miles go by I come over this hill and this truck is doing like 30 mph. I figure he just got on the interstate and I moved over to pass. As I moved over I felt the trailer kinda slide as it followed me... I tapped the brakes a bit and yep.... Glare ice. I just let it coast until I got slowed down.

That wasn't the scary part, there were 4 wheelers flying by at 75-80 mph. About 30 of them went in the medians and ditches in that area that day. I was really worried one of them was going to spin out and hit me.

Thats my problem ive never drove in the snow. Car,Truck, Or Rig nothing but since ive read the posts on here i feel much better about it i think i was making it worse then it will be ,thanks everyone

In my experience, in the real world, all the theory in the world doesn't mean shit. When it happens, you will react. Hopefully you will react correctly. You won't have time to contemplate.

I was coming up to an intersection, and I could see the sheet of ice coming up, but not far enough in advance to get stopped before I got onto it. I intended to ease through very carefully, and not change a thing, but the pickup I was originally following at an enormous distance had other ideas. I was closing, closing, CLOSING, CLOSING!!!! I had no choice. I had to hit the brakes.

Wow. Holy shit. I can't believe I didn't jackknife. My trailer was all over the ditches on both sides of the road, and I was steering furiously, doing something, doing something else, riding the waves, I have no idea what I was doing.

I got onto clear pavement, no fourwheelers in ditches on my left, no fourwheelers in ditches on my right. I didn't hit anything. I didn't jackknife.

It isn't because I'm that good. It was pure luck. That was a cold, cold morning in North Carolina, on US 70, right outside of Kinston. I had already spent the night before at that Wal-Mart in Kinston, because it was cold and dark and wet, and I didn't want to wait until the roads froze up on me.

I got rolling too early.

I'm extremely careful, but it's hard to be careful enough in winter. I've been through 10 winters so far, and I don't think it will ever stop scaring the piss out of me.

I'm going to knock on a bunch of wood now.

Carry enough food and drink to survive at least three days. I also suggest a jug or bag of ice melt, and small shovel. (I once had to dig my way out of a frozen dock in a blizzard with nothing more than a hand truck and a scrap of pallet wood. Fun.)

I guess the absolute worst for me was the morning after I spent the night on the side of a steep driveway entrance in Asheville, NC, laying on the back of the sleeper, because that direction was down. I finally got up the hill in the morning, got my load off, and headed back on I-40 toward Statesville.

Everything was fine except for a few shaded patches with some chunks of highly obvious stuff on them. 70 mph most of the way, clean, clear, dry roads.

I was running 70 mph when I saw a glint in the distance. A car on the side. Two. Four. What the hell? Lots of people were running 70 until they hit the Catawba County line. Catawba County didn't do a damn thing to the road, and it was a solid sheet of compacted, glazed snow. There must have been 50 cars in the ditches on either side of the road.

I got slowed down just in the nick of time, and eased through there in bumper to bumper traffic, in an empty single axle cabover. Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop. I think the trucker's eye looking waaay down the road view is the only thing that saved me from disaster.

That was a lousy trip all around, but I just edited this to snip all the other details. No use going too far overboard, or else this thread will fill up with 50,000 horror stories over night, and that's not really the aim here.

I think we can all agree on two things.

1) Winter driving in a semi sucks.
2) Everyone who disagrees with this opinion is either Kanukistani, crazy, or both. :D

Drive scared in winter weather, do not drive confident because it can and will get you into trouble. If you feel your vehicle starting to slide or hear the engine starting to rev up when you haven't moved the gas pedal, your in a slick area and your drive tires are losing traction, let off the gas and hold the wheel straight. Let'er bring herself back straight, do not get to see-sawing back and forth on the wheel trying to get it straight, you will end up wrecked if you do. It's taken me 10 winters to get to where I can feel my tires starting to lose traction before I get myself into a bad situation.

I have also learned that the higher the gear your in, the less chance you have of the tires losing traction. The higher the gear, the harder it is to notice when the engine is starting to rev up becuase your just letting the engine lug along at a very low rpm. Obviously, you cannot afford to be in a high gear when coming down a mountain in the winter stuff.

Dry snow VS Wet snow, dry snow likes to blow easier than wet snow and dry snow can be found more to the north. Wet snow is usually found towards the south. Both are dangerous once they get on the roads. Watch the weather reports if you can, a cold front coming out of Canada with snow will drop dry snow, a front coming out of the south will bring wet snow.

Just take it easy and smooth on the steering and the pedals. Let gravity and rolling resistance slow you whenever possible, and treat that gas pedal like it's a rotten egg you'd rather not squish.

If it's slick and icy, curves are "fun." Go slow enough so you don't really have to torque on that steering wheel. As a previous poster said: look ahead.....WWAAAYY ahead. Surprises will put you in a ditch, or worse.

But really, if people are sliding off the road around you, the time to stop was 30 minutes ago. Keeping supplies on the truck (and your fuel tanks above 1/2 tank) will let you shut down at the first safe spot, and you won't be as tempted to crawl down the road to the nearest truck stop with a restaurant, etc.

Snow is a weird animal. It can actually give you traction when it's dry and powdery, but when it's wet or polished smooth it'll act just like ice.


Bill

No you're not making it worse its definately all bad. And never even driving a car in it will make it harder. You have alot to learn and it will be by the seat of your pants because its a "feel" thing that comes with experience. The heavier you are the better off you'll be. I would avoid even trying it when empty until you get a little experience.

Correcting a skid depends on what caused it.

Letting off the fuel to quickly can lock up the drives causing the trailer to push the tractor sideways. If you feel this happening a little throttle will correct it.

Too much throttle can break traction on the drives and cause the tractor to slip sideways out from under the trailer. Letting off of the fuel can correct it.

In both cases depressing the clutch can fix it because then you get all axles free wheeling and it will straighten out, especially with weight.

Braking requires alot of room. Do not tailgate. Too much brake pressure will cause a skid. Obviously letting off the brake will correct it but that depends on how much room you have to stop. Slow way down early. Dont wait. You better scrub off alot of speed before you get to the exit ramp because if you wait you'll never get stopped at the bottom. They typically run downhill and are the last thing to get plowed or salted so be ready.

When parking for the night drive over your spot forward and backwards to pack the snow or you'll be stuck in place by morning. this also helps cool the tires. If they are warm they will melt a little snow and settle an inch or so and then everything refreezes and you'll be stuck by morning. If this happens, try chains under the drives for traction if you have them. If the ice isnt too deep you can spin the tires in place for a minute or two and hope you melt it down to a better surface.

Try not to run the defroster. If the cabs heater will keep the windshield clear then leave it alone. The defroster warms up the glass and the wipers and the snow melts and then refreezes which why your wipers get covered in ice and snow. They'll stay snow free with the heater on.

There's so much more...it just takes doing it to learn and hopefully not the hard way. Take your time, park it if your not sure. I'm 44 and I've driven (and played!) in snow all my life and its still a very nerve racking night driving during a snow storm (unless I'm playing, then its a blast!)

Also try to stay more or less with flow of traffic, especially in poor visibility. Dont go as fast as the fastest guy because he is the biggest risk taker but going to slow will run the chance of someone coming up from behind who couldnt see you in time.

I'm 44 and I've driven (and played!) in snow all my life

LMAO

:lol: I'm stupid enough to drag a trailer thru the worst blizzard to get to the UP and play in this crap!

Nothing better than watching a guy with a $50k Suburban pulling a $10k trailer holding 4 $10k snowmobiles jacknife at 75 mph racing north on I75! I've seen it more than once! :lol:

You know I was just digging atcha about your sled brand-When you going to buy a good one?-You know-The one with the emblem of the blue North Star :P
Yeah-I see all these guys from Illinois with those trucks and snowmobile trailers running flat out with a foot of Snow on the road and ice underneath to get here :P

Yoopr you a big snowmobiler? I was thinking about buying a sled at some point. You live up in the UP right? I've only been up there in the summer on a route once. Beautiful area. If I get a sled maybe I'll have to head out there sometime.

Yep-I've been known to put on a few miles on a sled :P
Lots of GOOD and Decent used sleds up here for sale-Let me know what you're looking for-just don't buy junk like Snowman has :P

Well I don't really know what I'd be looking for. I've never actually even been on one! Parents really weren't into that kind of thing so never did any of it when I was a child. Now I finally make enough where I can think about buying toys.

I've lived in Minnesota my entire life, bout time I start getting out in the snow. Just started skiing again last winter and am pretty excited to do it again this winter. Going to take a trip out to Colorado at some point this winter to hit the slopes.

I'm actually looking forward to winter. Working in this heat is getting old; I'm sure I'll change my mind about that though when I'm in North Dakota in the -60 wind chill delivering stuff.

Personal opinion (and I think this thread has been hi-jacked) but the worst day for sledding was when Artic Cat bought out Scorpion.

I didn't read all the replies but ... TIRE CHAINS ARE NOT THAT HARD TO PUT ON.

I don't understand why people are so afraid of tire chains, but personally I would rather take the 10 minutes to put them on and have that extra bit of traction. They are a piece of cake to put on if you know what you're doing and take literally 5 minutes or less to take off if you hit dry pavement.

Just because there isn't 12 feet of snow on the ground doesn't mean you can't run chains and I've run 60 miles on a road with packed snow with dry spots.

If you see people going faster then you, just remember that slow and steady wins the race. I'd rather take the time and effort to put chains on and drive 35MPH then to spend the night in the truck waiting for a tow truck, just because it didn't look that bad. (if you get stopped on a hill and loose your momentum you'll wish you had chains on :wink: )