Winter Driving

I read the following from Bay and Bay Trucking. Its been repeated often enough but still good advise for me plus anyone interested!!

It cannot be stressed enough: your pre and post trip inspections are absolutely key to your success in not only winter driving, but also in all of your driving. Checking these important essentials is vital to driving safely in the winter:

• Wipers
• Defrosters
• Heaters
• Tire pressure
• Clean windows and mirrors

These are fundamentals that should be checked each time you drive. In winter truck driving, these items are even more critical to your success.

Staying up to date with various state laws for winter driving is also important. For instance, Colorado and Oregon, among others, require chains for your tires while driving in winter conditions. Many states’ websites have their own safety tips for winter driving. For instance, the North Dakota Highway Patrol prepared an online handbook with vital information for truck drivers. Washington State, the Department of Labor and Industries in Washington State, Texas, Maryland and, of course, Minnesota, among many others, all have crucial information for winter truck driving.

Another key factor to remember is your pre-trip preparation. Do you have extra blankets, food, and warm clothing? If you become stranded due to bad winter driving conditions, do you have enough fuel and supplies to last a few days? It’s important to remember to check how road conditions may have evolved over the course of your journey. You don’t want to be caught unprepared for winter road changes. For instance, in November of 2014, truck drivers were forced to spin and fume in the snow with the Interstate closed to commercial traffic in New York State.

As for all vehicles on the road in snow or ice, one rule is necessary and it cannot be overstated: slow down, slow down, and slow down! When you are driving a big rig, you need at least six seconds and 500 feet to stop your truck. In the snow and ice, you are likely to require more room than that. Keeping your speed down and keeping a safe following distance will go a long way to avoid accidents or other serious problems. Always know that in bad weather, the posted speed limit is too fast.

Excellent points.

Here is a link to the North Dakota Highway Patrol Winter Weather Tips you mentioned.

Also, we have excellent information on Winter Driving Tips & Items To Bring so check that out also.

When I pre-trip during the winter months I also make sure to clean headlights, foglights, signal lights and brake lights. On the trailer I also clean side signal lights, brake lights, signal lights and reflective striping on the rear of the trailer. The buildup of salt and road grime on these components can often render them useless especially headlights and trailer brake lights. It's important to see but also important to be seen.

Want to bump this for my other winter newbies. Going to be driving through my first snow up here around the great Lakes region. I should ask somewhere else, but what is a good basic cb I could get? I don't need all the special stuff.

Gladhand asked:

what is a good basic cb I could get?

The Cobra 19 Ultra III sells for less than $30 at your local Walmart. I have one, tested it on my bench, and used it as a base station and a mobile unit.

As good as any other CB radio out of the box: selectivity and sensitivity are very good, no spurious emissions, simple operation, robust construction. I found no cold solder joints (a common failure point for hand soldered components) or delaminated traces, and the circuit board has a good ground plane. I even injected a bit of white noise into the power supply to see if I could cause any interference, but the unit has very good filtering on the power input.

Really quite impressive for a $30 radio.