Truck Drivers In Cold Weather

I live in Texas. I lived out of it for a whole 5 months in the midst of a very mild Jersey winter and have been skiing multiple times when I was much younger. That's the extent of my cold weather experience. When I looked at going to colleges, I looked at UW. One of my mother's arguments was that I'd freeze to death, and I told her I'm sure I'd learn to wear a coat after the first bout or 2 of hypothermia. I figure I'll probably be better off buying a coat once I get somewhere that has cold weather because unless I go buy a Carhartt coat, nobody down here actually carries proper working cold weather gear.

I have no idea what to do in cold weather. I have no idea what kind of clothes you need or what kind of precautions might be necessary.

So, what do I need to keep from freezing my tooshie off?

I have lived in Mi most of my life carhartt is my go to also you can go into a hunting or snowmobile shop and pick up some good insulated socks lol I dunno what it is but hunting in Roscommon my biggest annoyance is cold feet lol

I'm a tractor supply kinda guy. Schmidt is an awesome brand....Just like carhartt, but a little cheaper.

I agree 100%.....I love their stuff. In fact I compared some of Carhart's stuff with C.E. Schmidt's stuff side by side at Tractor Supply and Schmidt's clothing had heavier stitching and more insulation for less money. Now everyone already knows Carhart is awesome and I use plenty of their stuff too. But not many people know how good C.E. Schmidt is.......great stuff.

The nice thing about the tractor supply by me is they sell both. My Carhartt jacket is not the typical one you see though. Mine is rated down to -40 and it works great. I am in Michigan and these past couple of winters have been really cold. Froze the ice enough to the point my friend took his f250 with a plow onto lake Erie to clear a section for snowmobile drags lol. That jacket kept me plenty warm even with the windchill below -30. I only paid 80 dollars for it off that site that I posted. They have Carhartt stuff on there cheap. I did look at Schmidt at tractor supply but they cost more. Carhartt in stores is very expensive, I was glad when I found that site. I need to make another trip though to tractor supply and get some things gathered up for hunting season.

Ryan says,

My Carhartt jacket is not the typical one you see though. Mine is rated down to -40 and it works great. I am in Michigan and these past couple of winters have been really cold.

This answers some of the original question in this thread. Beth is from Texas and worries about the much colder northern states. In Texas stores, they don't put out the heavy jackets you really need up north. You won't see a -40 jacket hanging in a Houston Walmart.

Ryan says,

My Carhartt jacket is not the typical one you see though. Mine is rated down to -40 and it works great. I am in Michigan and these past couple of winters have been really cold.

This answers some of the original question in this thread. Beth is from Texas and worries about the much colder northern states. In Texas stores, they don't put out the heavy jackets you really need up north. You won't see a -40 jacket hanging in a Houston Walmart.

You can get the same effect as a giant subzero coat with layers, and I'm back where I started.

Here this page has good info and pictures. You need not go to R.E.I. to get gear like this. Walmart or Costco will have comparable. If you were to splurge, do so on the inner layers, as the wicking and warm layers are more import IMO. A shell layer can be cheap and still work well (or well enough).

One big coat can keep you warm for a short time, but layers are as warm or warmer and give you a lot more options. That is you can use your clothes throughout the year by varying the number of layers.

Layers work well, but what I don't like about layers is more weight on your body which causes you to sweat more and in cold weather with sweat is a good way to get a chill and get sick. Also if you have layers on and are spending most of your time in the truck or inside in general then you will always be taking them off and putting them back on when going back outside, or putting your windows down to cool off because you get too hot. And that comes back to getting a chill when you sweat if you put your window down. Much easier to just have one coat that you can just unzip and take off when you hop back in the truck or put on when you need to get out. I started with layers when I started hunting but I learned shortly after my first hunting season it is better to just have one good coat. This is my experience.