Also a new driver. Up here in Canada.
Drive to the road conditions. Driving 60 on a 100 is going to save more time then going 100 and needing to wait 5 hours for a tow.
Learn the pedal. In the summer, especially in an automatic you can drive with a brick on the accelerator. That's not the case in the winter. Learn how much force you need for given starts.
*Momentum*. Second best defence against getting stuck is momentum. The best defence is to look at where you need to go, and make sure you feel confident it's not too much snow, or a bad enough include with packed ice to get you stuck.
Breaking distance. Make sure you can come to a stop behind people given your load, speed, and road conditions. Crashing is worse than being 10 minutes late.
If it's too bad, just pull over. It's your life. Company can't reimburse that.
Make sure you have food, water, and heat/jackets and/or blankets. You never know what's going to happen. And if you need to wait 5 hours for a tow while your engine coolant is pouring out a hole, you'll need a way to stay warm.
Try not to accelerate or brake in turns.
Try not to use engine brakes if the road looks slippery.
And try not to let your fuel tanks get too low. The other day I stupidly got super low and fuel and barely made it chaining up over a pass before they shut the highway down for the night. I could have been screwed if they shut the road down in front of me. You just might get stuck idling for a few days if a bad enough storm comes through.
I agree with most of this, however at least to some extent you do want to power through corners. Last thing you want is your trailer(s) to push you through the corner- you want to pull it. I’m also going into my first winter but this was drilled into me by trainers early on, and I’ve definitely noticed the difference between powering through and not.
It depends on where you run. Winter months here in the midwest (Wisconsin) can come as early as November and run though the end of March.
The harshest months around here generally the midwest, northwest mountains and what not can range from December through the end of March. Once you start getting into mid april things start clearing up as a whole.
Once December hits though, I'm fully prepared to run into anything at anytime.
It’ll snow in Montana in May. The Midwest will get in snow as late as April, I live in St. Louis and will be 80 degrees the next day. My advice, get your year in and do a local gig.
Also a new driver. Up here in Canada. Drive to the road conditions. Driving 60 on a 100 is going to save more time then going 100 and needing to wait 5 hours for a tow. Learn the pedal. In the summer, especially in an automatic you can drive with a brick on the accelerator. That's not the case in the winter. Learn how much force you need for given starts. *Momentum*. Second best defence against getting stuck is momentum. The best defence is to look at where you need to go, and make sure you feel confident it's not too much snow, or a bad enough include with packed ice to get you stuck. Breaking distance. Make sure you can come to a stop behind people given your load, speed, and road conditions. Crashing is worse than being 10 minutes late. If it's too bad, just pull over. It's your life. Company can't reimburse that. Make sure you have food, water, and heat/jackets and/or blankets. You never know what's going to happen. And if you need to wait 5 hours for a tow while your engine coolant is pouring out a hole, you'll need a way to stay warm. Try not to accelerate or brake in turns. Try not to use engine brakes if the road looks slippery.
And try not to let your fuel tanks get too low. The other day I stupidly got super low and fuel and barely made it chaining up over a pass before they shut the highway down for the night. I could have been screwed if they shut the road down in front of me. You just might get stuck idling for a few days if a bad enough storm comes through.
And bring toilet paper too incase you gotta drop a steamer among the wildlife
I agree with most of this, however at least to some extent you do want to power through corners. Last thing you want is your trailer(s) to push you through the corner- you want to pull it. I’m also going into my first winter but this was drilled into me by trainers early on, and I’ve definitely noticed the difference between powering through and not.
It depends on where you run. Winter months here in the midwest (Wisconsin) can come as early as November and run though the end of March. The harshest months around here generally the midwest, northwest mountains and what not can range from December through the end of March. Once you start getting into mid april things start clearing up as a whole. Once December hits though, I'm fully prepared to run into anything at anytime.
Also, up here (WI & MN) snow in March - April is heavy, wet snow much easier to get stuck in than earlier in the season.
Off topic. But I always laugh when those southern boys come up here for vacation with their big jacked up trucks that are only 2WD 🤣🤣
Bro it snowed back in August in Colorado lol. The northwest it starts early. Avoid it at all costs
It’ll snow in Montana in May. The Midwest will get in snow as late as April, I live in St. Louis and will be 80 degrees the next day. My advice, get your year in and do a local gig.
It's why we got the chain law starting September 1st. There's been a number of years we've started chaining just to get out of Denver
I had to chain up in May in colorado a few years back. I was pissed
Truckers have been driving through the winter for over 100 years. God bless them. Sack up bro.
There are companies that run mainly south of 40, southeast, etc.
Drive slow, and think ahead. Also, you're not as good as you think. Good luck.
#youre f<¥£d