Winter Driving

I have been driving for two weeks now and went through some snow coming back from New Jersey today. I have lived in the south all my life (FL). I have driven in tropical storms, around tornadoes, and all sorts of torrential rains and floods but I have never driven in snow until today. It seems like everyone pretty much just treats it like heavy rain and slows down a good bit.

Is it generally safe to push ahead in snow? I know you don't want to mess with icy roads. What guidelines can one look for outside of closed roads to know when it is just too dangerous to continue on or when you shouldn't even start out? They never covered this in training or CDL school.

Well, the I-80 east/west is notorious for bad winds and snow thru Wyoming especially !! most big carriers should send messages over qual-com to shut down if bad weather. if not you have to decide when to shut it down and park it. I hated getting stuck up north during winter, but that's trucking.

Was more than once during snow,bad roads, cross winds we shut down and parked for days on end... Until things got better to drive safely...NO Load is worth your life, you are the captain of your ship. Light loads especially, are easy in high winds, to put you on your side in a ditch. I-80 is the worst, from Iowa to Utah, Wyoming has the strongest cross winds blowing across the road. We parked at a TA once for a week. Seen a few times, 7-8 trucks in the ditch, Fed-Ex doubles , etc and passenger cars/trucks

Another time in Dallas parked for 10 days at a Love's in 2021 bad storm crippled the area...Sucks is it costs you money parked someplace, but better than flipped over from being macho/dumb. It won't take you long to figure out when you're comfortable in bad weather and know when to park. Don't push your luck, safety is #1 out there, just communicate with dispatch when things are bad , or getting bad...

I am headed to jersey!

Winter Survival Tips

Check out my video. Apparently this one is good enough that a national CDL school stole it and is using it in class yet it doesnt give me the views/money. Jerks.

There is a playlist with a lot of tips for newbies.

I have a tendency to drive during the day in snow storms now. It was so foggy last night i parked it.

It will take practice. Go slow.or park.

Sue em for copy right infringement hahaha that does bite though !!

Keep your eye on the temperature outside. Snow has different effects at different temperatures. If you can’t see the bottom of a hill, go slow until you do. If you have chains, inspect them before you use them. Don’t set your trailer brakes the night after driving through snow, but if you do make sure the wheels are spinning in the morning.

Thanks to everyone for the replies and advice. Kersey, I will definitely check out your video.

We have a saying as musicians: It's not what you play that matters, it's what you don't play.

Similarly, the most important part about winter driving is not driving. Since that's the focus, the tools for learning when not to drive are abundant, it's weather forecasting and trip planning.

Planning your route around storms both geographicly and time wise is going to be a much more useful strategy. It's looking outside the box. Most new drivers think very linear, I must learn the skills to drive through this weather.

Those skills will come in time, a little bit at a time. An iced over DC parking lot, a little bit of highway with snow on it, a little but of windy areas, they come with experience over the course of your driving.

But learning the weather patterns and translating radar and forecasting models you can do from day one. The only 100 percent proven policy is not to be on the road in inclement weather.

Certain areas of the country have usual patterns to the weather, it's very predictable, such as Wyoming on 80 and 25, windy during the day, calmer at night except during winter time storms accompanied by quick moving low pressure systems. Or Donner on 80, heavy snow years, the most I've ever had to wait was a day. Western ranges don't typically get as cold, so the snow has hogher moisture content. It's much more like mud, melts quickly but is super greasy.

Colorado mountains get tacky frequently, but they can be erratic, especially if there's inversions happening. Again, I've seldom had to wait more than a day or two.

There's several threads on here about weather forecasting apps, I have my own system of data analytics I use to make my decisions on a run, it just takes a few moments now and it ensures success.