What’s With All This White Stuff?

Buffalo, Wyoming. Same thing. I've been stopped for a day, but I don't want to hold up this load any longer. But I'm quite nervous about driving in this weather. I'm conflicted. Pelican

Pelican, with you being from Louisiana I assume that driving in the snow and ice is not something you have much experience with.

It’s actually a skill that must be learned gradually like becoming a good backer upper. The conditions depicted in your photos don’t look like they are un-drive-able, but would merit great caution. Are a lot of other trucks parked or still moving? That is a good initial observation to make. If you decide to move on, then slow and easy is the way to go. Don’t impede traffic, but hang with the slower trucks. It takes time to get a feel for your truck in those conditions. Throw any set idea of how many miles you want to drive in those conditions out the window. Be happy with whatever progress you can safely make.

Is this your first winter? If so, be conservative as you gain the experience necessary to judge the conditions and your own abilities and limits. Remember that dispatch and your FM are in a warm office and cannot tell you what you can do in winter conditions. Heck, no one here can look at your photos and tell you what to do. Just don’t exceed your comfort zone and in time that zone will expand. Pay particular attention to drivers you see who are being very cautious and ignore the snow and ice racing crazy ones.

Good luck and safe travels this winter to you and all of us.

Thank you. I went ahead and drove it, was cautious, did ok. Got to where I needed to be. Thank you for the advice.

Pelican, with you being from Louisiana I assume that driving in the snow and ice is not something you have much experience with.

It’s actually a skill that must be learned gradually like becoming a good backer upper. The conditions depicted in your photos don’t look like they are un-drive-able, but would merit great caution. Are a lot of other trucks parked or still moving? That is a good initial observation to make. If you decide to move on, then slow and easy is the way to go. Don’t impede traffic, but hang with the slower trucks. It takes time to get a feel for your truck in those conditions. Throw any set idea of how many miles you want to drive in those conditions out the window. Be happy with whatever progress you can safely make.

Is this your first winter? If so, be conservative as you gain the experience necessary to judge the conditions and your own abilities and limits. Remember that dispatch and your FM are in a warm office and cannot tell you what you can do in winter conditions. Heck, no one here can look at your photos and tell you what to do. Just don’t exceed your comfort zone and in time that zone will expand. Pay particular attention to drivers you see who are being very cautious and ignore the snow and ice racing crazy ones.

Good luck and safe travels this winter to you and all of us.

Pelican, with you being from Louisiana I assume that driving in the snow and ice is not something you have much experience with.

It’s actually a skill that must be learned gradually like becoming a good backer upper. The conditions depicted in your photos don’t look like they are un-drive-able, but would merit great caution. Are a lot of other trucks parked or still moving? That is a good initial observation to make. If you decide to move on, then slow and easy is the way to go. Don’t impede traffic, but hang with the slower trucks. It takes time to get a feel for your truck in those conditions. Throw any set idea of how many miles you want to drive in those conditions out the window. Be happy with whatever progress you can safely make.

Is this your first winter? If so, be conservative as you gain the experience necessary to judge the conditions and your own abilities and limits. Remember that dispatch and your FM are in a warm office and cannot tell you what you can do in winter conditions. Heck, no one here can look at your photos and tell you what to do. Just don’t exceed your comfort zone and in time that zone will expand. Pay particular attention to drivers you see who are being very cautious and ignore the snow and ice racing crazy ones.

Good luck and safe travels this winter to you and all of us.

Great advice BK.

Too many comments to respond to all of them lol.

Laura yeah that snow was the one I missed 😂 My gf had to drive through that mess in her car which I think is way worse than in a truck.

Suicide Jockey glad you guys found a way to stay safe when it gets bad! It sucks they have to ground the fleet but it makes sense.

BK, I want to say you’re wrong but I can’t help but be proud of my first winter tarp job this year lol so maybe we do thrive in the snow 😂 It sucked and I landed on my ass once and had to crawl across the top of my load while tarping because it was so slick but I had a blast lmao.

I would say, really take a good look at your equipment, specifically your tires. This also dovetails in with the other thread about manuals and autos.

My carrier pursues fuel economy, "green" and cutting production costs to the point of irrationality at times, certainly at the expense of driver safety if we choose to run.

I don't say that lightly, our trucks auto coast on any grade, the only ways to prevent it is to use the Jake or manual mode, which has such limitations programed in that it's really difficult to use. Neither Is suitable for snow.

Our drive tires are large block with no scipes, they also have known wear issues, but are significantlycheaper than high quality sciped winter terrain tires. It's just a matter of risk/reward for me. I don't get paid any more per mile to drive in hazardous conditions. I pay close attention to the weather, and choose not to operate equipment that's suitable to winter driving in it.

Not to say that I haven't had to do some driving in mountains with snow, it's a routine condition in the west, especially Colorado, but I try to avoid it. Our terminal averages a preventable accident every 2 days.

*not suitable

I had my first taste of the white stuff this morning, woke up to blowing snow in Roberts, WI. I was doing 30-40mph to my customer about 40 miles away. Heard a CB report of a jackknifed rig once I got there.

It got mostly better as the day went on, but kept switching between ok and less than ok, with some brief parts not good.

Stay warm and dry!

I had my first taste of the white stuff this morning, woke up to blowing snow in Roberts, WI. I was doing 30-40mph to my customer about 40 miles away. Heard a CB report of a jackknifed rig once I got there.

It got mostly better as the day went on, but kept switching between ok and less than ok, with some brief parts not good.

Stay warm and dry!

Like Sandman, I started in Wisconsin. Near Madison going north and west to Rochester, MN. So I was more southerly than Sandman but still got some of that weather he encountered. I don’t know if this was the same jackknife he mentioned, but I saw my first wrecked tractor and trailer of the season on I90 somewhere north of Wisconsin Dells. Rollover into the median.

I was empty and almost got blown into the Mississippi going over the bridge at LaCrosse. Wow, that got my attention.

Hoping everyone will be safe and careful this winter. It’s a dangerous time in a dangerous profession.

I saw the aftermath of that one you saw BK, with another right next to it in the median but still upright. The one I heard mentioned was on 94 near Baldwin. That sounds like a scary bridge ride you had!