How Do You Feel About The Ways Chain Restrictions Are Communicated To Drivers?

Chains? What are these chains of which you speak??

Mythical devices to locate every loose item on, around or near your truck.

Chains? What are these chains of which you speak??

Mythical devices to locate every loose item on, around or near your truck.

Thomas, very funny. You might be referencing the chained magnets that yard trucks have under their front bumpers .

I am happy that my company has a “No chain” policy. Maybe if I were a young buck I would feel differently. But at my age, I don’t want to chain.

Here is my recent experience on donner.. in May mother's day weekend. We were at the bottom of the mountain about to climb, passing the last truck stop before the point of no return. DOT and the weather channel... And the state dot app stated that chains would go into affect in about 5 hours. The officer told us 'you have plenty of time to make it over before it gets worse.". It was snowing but nothing sticking.

2 Miles away they were forcing everyone to chain. Now it was too late to park it.

After I got the chains laid out and was securing them, DOT came by and said "lifted, get moving". Wasted a ton of time packing the chains back up.

On Cabbage both 2022 and 2020 weather reports and DOT said chains not required. 2022 Easter weekend weather app said 45 degrees at top of cabbage. All sunny. At the bottom it was bright and sunny with no jacket needed. We got to the top of cabbage and the snow was so bad that I made my student park and had to create a path at the rest area.

In 2020 at Cabbage the light up sign came on as I was passing it "chains required within 2 miles". There was no place to stop at that point. The next parking area was 17 miles away. I would rather have signs and indicators before I can park and make that decision to go. I personally think the weather changes too quickly in some of these places which explains the miscommunication with the DOT officer on Donner or the weather apps on Cabbage.

Of the top of my head, I can't think of anything new that I would need to know that I cannot already determine through the internet, the CB, talking with other drivers, my cellphone, or my own driving experience.

The two biggest things we need out here:

Better trained drivers.

More legal truck parking locations within 100 miles of metropolitan areas.

Yeah, I've heard a lot about the issues surrounding viable parking locations.

I'm not sure what it's like outside of Nevada / California / into Utah, but I know there are a lot of our truck stops out west are simply closed, and drivers have to make ad-hoc parking and facilities arrangements. It sounds frustrating.

I'd guess that drivers with regular routes eventually find their own parking areas that are legal and work for them, but I'm sure that's a big challenge when it comes to new, unknown routes.

Hay, Alex!

Welcome to Trucking Truth, for one.

For two, MOVE to OHIO, hahaha!!

What PackRat DIDN'T share .. is his lady friend's secret cache of all the places/states/laws, for every season; she's got built into her phone; all the 511's !! Ms. Laura, IDMtnGal ~ I can't get the pic to load!!

It's all the "511" apps for EACH state in your lanes. It's in MY photo gallery and hers, as well. SORRY, I tried. It's awesome, tho!

~ Anne & Tom ~

ps: A CB is still a necessity, to many... should be for most, if not all.

pps: If you'd put the 'Reno, NV' in your profile, you'll get a LOT more replies and/or chatter within Trucking Truth.... !

Hey, Anne and Tom!

Firstly, thanks so much for the warm welcome. :-)

Secondly, moving to OH isn't at all bad advice, hehe. In fact, I love Ohio! (I spent a lot of time during the summers in Alliance, OH as my grandparents lived there.)

That's a really interesting / really slick system having all of the 511 apps for each state. It sounds like great aggregation of data. This is great food for thought.

Also, I can imagine that straightforward, human-to-human CB interaction can prove to be pretty darn invaluable on the road. "Cutting-edge tech" can be helpful and serve its purpose within reason, but there's simply no replacing the "human element" in plenty of cases!

Finally, thanks for that great piece of advice! "Reno, NV" is now proudly displayed on my profile. :-)

- Alex

In California it seems that they sometimes have too many choices for information. Some CHP offices might post on Twitter before CalTrans updates QuikMaps, etc. I have not tried to compare it to calling 511 at the same time. I noticed some discrepancies last winter when my son was asking me if I had seen any changes when he was trying to decide between "no" and "go". He got through fine and just thrown for a surprise when they threw up chain requirements while he was going over even though there was only about an inch of snow but it was just starting to come down hard (more than forecasted) and I don't think any system is going to give a warning on that.

Hi, Harvey!

Thanks for this info and the anecdote! I agree with you when you say there can be "too many choices for information". Being spoiled for choice isn't always a good thing - especially when it comes to situations that are time-sensitive and require decisive action.

I also agree that the weather is inherently fickle, and its predictability can often be beyond the capabilities of any systems in place.

Living in the high desert of Reno, NV, I'm ALL-too-acquainted with weather changing on a dime, outpacing apps or weather reporters. This unpredictability absolutely poses a pretty legitimate challenge to any weather info system that are in place. I suppose, the goal is to provide proactive and actionable weather data as up-to-date and as accurate as possible!

Here is my recent experience on donner.. in May mother's day weekend. We were at the bottom of the mountain about to climb, passing the last truck stop before the point of no return. DOT and the weather channel... And the state dot app stated that chains would go into affect in about 5 hours. The officer told us 'you have plenty of time to make it over before it gets worse.". It was snowing but nothing sticking.

2 Miles away they were forcing everyone to chain. Now it was too late to park it.

After I got the chains laid out and was securing them, DOT came by and said "lifted, get moving". Wasted a ton of time packing the chains back up.

On Cabbage both 2022 and 2020 weather reports and DOT said chains not required. 2022 Easter weekend weather app said 45 degrees at top of cabbage. All sunny. At the bottom it was bright and sunny with no jacket needed. We got to the top of cabbage and the snow was so bad that I made my student park and had to create a path at the rest area.

In 2020 at Cabbage the light up sign came on as I was passing it "chains required within 2 miles". There was no place to stop at that point. The next parking area was 17 miles away. I would rather have signs and indicators before I can park and make that decision to go. I personally think the weather changes too quickly in some of these places which explains the miscommunication with the DOT officer on Donner or the weather apps on Cabbage.

Hi, Kearsey!

Thanks so much for sharing this!

Ugh, I'm genuinely sorry to hear about your hassles on this front. Lots of time wasted, and - no doubt - no small amount of stress experienced.

You've reiterated a great point about weather being... well, weather, hehe. It can change at pretty dizzying rates, and it sounds like some miscommunication between DOT / signage / any weather apps is inherent. This is all really interesting and super good to know!

Also, your point about having signs and indicators well before that "point of no return" is well taken. I'm sure it's not always possible (again, thanks to weather doing its ever-and-quickly changing thing), but it would be great to have all the information that's currently available well before it's too late to stop.

If you're investigating the feasibility of developing an app or some sort of service it might be helpful to have push notifications for when chain requirements have changed, either on a particular route or within a certain radius of current location, etc.

Of the top of my head, I can't think of anything new that I would need to know that I cannot already determine through the internet, the CB, talking with other drivers, my cellphone, or my own driving experience.

The two biggest things we need out here:

Better trained drivers.

More legal truck parking locations within 100 miles of metropolitan areas.

Yeah, I've heard a lot about the issues surrounding viable parking locations.

I'm not sure what it's like outside of Nevada / California / into Utah, but I know there are a lot of our truck stops out west are simply closed, and drivers have to make ad-hoc parking and facilities arrangements. It sounds frustrating.

I'd guess that drivers with regular routes eventually find their own parking areas that are legal and work for them, but I'm sure that's a big challenge when it comes to new, unknown routes.

Hay, Alex!

Welcome to Trucking Truth, for one.

For two, MOVE to OHIO, hahaha!!

What PackRat DIDN'T share .. is his lady friend's secret cache of all the places/states/laws, for every season; she's got built into her phone; all the 511's !! Ms. Laura, IDMtnGal ~ I can't get the pic to load!!

It's all the "511" apps for EACH state in your lanes. It's in MY photo gallery and hers, as well. SORRY, I tried. It's awesome, tho!

~ Anne & Tom ~

ps: A CB is still a necessity, to many... should be for most, if not all.

pps: If you'd put the 'Reno, NV' in your profile, you'll get a LOT more replies and/or chatter within Trucking Truth.... !

Hey, Anne and Tom!

Firstly, thanks so much for the warm welcome. :-)

Secondly, moving to OH isn't at all bad advice, hehe. In fact, I love Ohio! (I spent a lot of time during the summers in Alliance, OH as my grandparents lived there.)

That's a really interesting / really slick system having all of the 511 apps for each state. It sounds like great aggregation of data. This is great food for thought.

Also, I can imagine that straightforward, human-to-human CB interaction can prove to be pretty darn invaluable on the road. "Cutting-edge tech" can be helpful and serve its purpose within reason, but there's simply no replacing the "human element" in plenty of cases!

Finally, thanks for that great piece of advice! "Reno, NV" is now proudly displayed on my profile. :-)

- Alex

Thanks for adding that, Alex; and you are most welcome. Safer things to haul, out that way, ask Daniel B. Seriously, I have no clue where Rhino disappeared to, but he got into USF/Reddaway pulling doubles and triples, pretty quick.

Most LTL guys don't worry about chaining too much; point being!!!

Stick around; Anytime you wanna yap 'OHIO' .. let me know! We are a 'VALLEY' state, but not the 'ValleyGirl' chatter, haha!

~ Anne & Tom ~

Interstate Road Conditions

ps: AGAIN, in my gallery, is a copy of Laura's (IDMtnGal's) 511 apps.. I SURE can't post it here, and neither could she!! Wonder what's up with that.... Brett??? New 'photo' app going on ?!?!?

pps: You get the gist; MOVE TO OHIO,

If you're investigating the feasibility of developing an app or some sort of service it might be helpful to have push notifications for when chain requirements have changed, either on a particular route or within a certain radius of current location, etc.

Hey Harvey,

Thanks so much for the input! Sincerely.

We do have a weather-while-traveling app that's been out for a while, and our goal is to help people and their assets arrive safely.

Of course, anything we can do to help people arrive LESS STRESSED is a definite goal of ours, too! :-) I really do think something having to do with chain-control notifications would be in keeping with our goal of safety, but also reducing stress.

It's really good to hear this sort of feedback that supports our direction of thought!

Thanks for adding that, Alex; and you are most welcome. Safer things to haul, out that way, ask Daniel B. Seriously, I have no clue where Rhino disappeared to, but he got into USF/Reddaway pulling doubles and triples, pretty quick.

Most LTL guys don't worry about chaining too much; point being!!!

Stick around; Anytime you wanna yap 'OHIO' .. let me know! We are a 'VALLEY' state, but not the 'ValleyGirl' chatter, haha!

~ Anne & Tom ~

Interstate Road Conditions

ps: AGAIN, in my gallery, is a copy of Laura's (IDMtnGal's) 511 apps.. I SURE can't post it here, and neither could she!! Wonder what's up with that.... Brett??? New 'photo' app going on ?!?!?

pps: You get the gist; MOVE TO OHIO,

Hehehe, you make a compelling argument for Ohio, Anne! And thanks for including the Interstate Road conditions link.

I actually did try to check out your images, and only the first page of your gallery will load for me...? So, unfortunately, I couldn't find the image of the 511 apps, but I appreciate you pointing me towards it nonetheless!

(FYI / A Friendly bug report for the main man, Brett! When I click "Next Group" in Anne A's image page, the page just reloads to the same first group. I've tested this on both Chrome and Safari in case that helps. Also happy to provide ya with any more info that might be helpful! Thanks, Brett. :-) )

Also, just wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone that's responded to this thread so far! Everyone's been really welcoming, friendly, and genuinely helpful. A great community, indeed.