Confused About Snow Driving

From the manual "Adjust turning and braking to conditions - Make turns as gentle as possible. Do not brake any harder than necessary, and do not use the engine brake or speed retarder (they can cause the driving wheels to skid on slippery surfaces)."

If the engine brake can cause a skid, how in the world can I control my downhill speed? When I exit Eisenhower tunnel during a snow storm my car is usually at 25mph and I am hard pressed to keep that speed all the way down.

How do you keep a truck at that speed?

From the manual "Adjust turning and braking to conditions - Make turns as gentle as possible. Do not brake any harder than necessary, and do not use the engine brake or speed retarder (they can cause the driving wheels to skid on slippery surfaces)."

If the engine brake can cause a skid, how in the world can I control my downhill speed? When I exit Eisenhower tunnel during a snow storm my car is usually at 25mph and I am hard pressed to keep that speed all the way down.

How do you keep a truck at that speed?

1. Stay in a low gear. Do not upshift. 2. Frequent, brief, and G E N T L E application of the brakes. Do not let you speed creep up more than 2-3 mph before braking, and use as little brake as possible to bring it back down. One technique I've found useful is to use only the outside "pinky toe" corner of your foot on the pedal. Using less actual foot will help keep you from inadvertently tromping down on the pedal and breaking traction. 3. Lather, rinse, repeat until the weather and roads are clear.

The idea is never get to a high enough speed that you need the brakes when it's slick. So keep it slow and when you get to a hill slow down some more before your actually going down it... then slow down some more for good measure and to pxxx off the people behind you

Why? Because it's not their license your worried about.

From the manual "Adjust turning and braking to conditions - Make turns as gentle as possible. Do not brake any harder than necessary, and do not use the engine brake or speed retarder (they can cause the driving wheels to skid on slippery surfaces)."

If the engine brake can cause a skid, how in the world can I control my downhill speed? When I exit Eisenhower tunnel during a snow storm my car is usually at 25mph and I am hard pressed to keep that speed all the way down.

How do you keep a truck at that speed?

The key phrase is "adjust to conditions". Really important. First off, your approach speed to the downgrade needs to be greatly reduced. Second use your gears to control speed (lower) without application of the engine brake. When applying the service brake finesse and control is required. No jerky movements or abrupt adjustments. Smooth and steady. Like most things with driving a large vehicle, you learn from experience and repetition.

Number one criteria for snow driving; if conditions warrant shutting down and waiting it out; don't hesitate, err on the side of safety. Shut down at the nearest safe parking spot.

From the manual "Adjust turning and braking to conditions - Make turns as gentle as possible. Do not brake any harder than necessary, and do not use the engine brake or speed retarder (they can cause the driving wheels to skid on slippery surfaces)."

If the engine brake can cause a skid, how in the world can I control my downhill speed? When I exit Eisenhower tunnel during a snow storm my car is usually at 25mph and I am hard pressed to keep that speed all the way down.

How do you keep a truck at that speed?

The key phrase is "adjust to conditions". Really important. First off, your approach speed to the downgrade needs to be greatly reduced. Second use your gears to control speed (lower) without application of the engine brake. When applying the service brake finesse and control is required. No jerky movements or abrupt adjustments. Smooth and steady. Like most things with driving a large vehicle, you learn from experience and repetition.

Number one criteria for snow driving; if conditions warrant shutting down and waiting it out; don't hesitate, err on the side of safety. Shut down at the nearest safe parking spot.

Hmm, maybe that's what I mis-understand. I thought downshifting to a lower gear is what engine braking was all about. Is the "jake brake" something else that gets applied?

The idea is never get to a high enough speed that you need the brakes when it's slick. So keep it slow and when you get to a hill slow down some more before your actually going down it... then slow down some more for good measure and to pxxx off the people behind you

Why? Because it's not their license your worried about.

My motto always has been and will continue to be, you drive yours. I'll drive mine. I've seen too many wrecks on that mountain.

From the manual "Adjust turning and braking to conditions - Make turns as gentle as possible. Do not brake any harder than necessary, and do not use the engine brake or speed retarder (they can cause the driving wheels to skid on slippery surfaces)."

If the engine brake can cause a skid, how in the world can I control my downhill speed? When I exit Eisenhower tunnel during a snow storm my car is usually at 25mph and I am hard pressed to keep that speed all the way down.

How do you keep a truck at that speed?

1. Stay in a low gear. Do not upshift. 2. Frequent, brief, and G E N T L E application of the brakes. Do not let you speed creep up more than 2-3 mph before braking, and use as little brake as possible to bring it back down. One technique I've found useful is to use only the outside "pinky toe" corner of your foot on the pedal. Using less actual foot will help keep you from inadvertently tromping down on the pedal and breaking traction. 3. Lather, rinse, repeat until the weather and roads are clear.

I like that "pinky toe" idea. It's useful in my four wheeler as well.

Engine braking is the use of the "Jake Brake."

Gary asks:

Hmm, maybe that's what I mis-understand. I thought downshifting to a lower gear is what engine braking was all about. Is the "jake brake" something else that gets applied?

Yes, it's separately applied. Using the lower gears to control speed with the Jake Brake or engine brake off is what we are suggesting in snow.

Engine braking is the use of the "Jake Brake."

I want to add that Jakes only control the drive axles, no braking goes from the Jake system to the steers or the trailer tandems. So using the Engine Retarder to slow you down on an icy road is a dangerous proposition.

On a slick roadway, the act of slowing down is dangerous. Keep that in mind, and if you can, just start out slow. Then use the Jakes and your brakes to keep from going faster. You can still use the pinky toe technique on the brake pedal.