I will be pulling my TT on a trip over a pass soon and might encounter snow and possibly ice. I'm trying to plan the trip for high noon to lower the chances of ice. I have also ordered chains for the truck and diagonal cables for the trailer just in case. I was wondering though if any of you could give some words of wisdom on pulling in this kind of weather. Thanks for any advise.

 

Not sure if this is proper advice so hopefully someone can chime in.... ease off the throttle over those short bridges where the bridge roadway freezes first.

Recently I broke loose going about 70 when the rest of the roadway was perfectly dry and the bridgeway was all ice. SCARY SCARY STUFF!

 

Best advice I can give for towing in icy conditions is don't if you can avoid it. From a December experience in 97, we needed to make an emergency round trip from California to Grand Rapids, MI, the first week of December. The entire trip we saw the sun one day for 2 hours and another time for 3 hours. I was towing my 16 ft tandem utility trailer the entire trip seldom had a road without black ice or snow. Three of the days we had blizzard conditions traveling on I-80.

In Wyoming saw what was left of a 30 ft travel trailer that flipped over in the median, a pile of kindling wood and a frame with axles. In Iowa two 18 wheelers at different locations had done 180s and flipped on their sides closing nown the west bound lanes for hours. Numerous 4x4 sport utilities were bottoms up along the highway abandoned.

Most of these accidents could have been prevented by slowing down and not following too close.

Under some of these conditions 25 mph may be too fast to maintain control.

 

That is the TRUTH!!! It's amazing how fast people drive in snowy, icey, conditions. 4x4 doesn't mean unstopable.

 

When you are on the ice and hard pack snow, leave your exhaust brake OFF....take it easy, and maybe let a few psi out of your tires for a bit of extra ground contact.

 

Hate to do it, but watching your rpm's and lugging your engine just a little bit will help avoid breaking loose. Do not tow without 4x4, and an advanced trailer brake controller like the Prodigy.

 

Down grades can be dangerous on snow/icey roads....I try to let my trailer do most of the braking on down grades and never tailgate you'll need the room....most trailers donot have ABS so pumping the brakes may be needed on icey roads

The key to travel durning bad conditions is dont risk your life just to get someplace...travel slow...chainup when needed...a CB is handy to ask about road conditions...if its bad pull off the road and stop...only travel durning daylite hours on snow/icey roads

 

You didn’t mention if you had a specific window for travel, if you can give yourself as much extra time as possible, two or three days if possible/necessary. Last spring we were traveling from western Arizona back home to Illinois with our 28’ TT. Stopped in Williams, AZ and checking the Weather Channel saw that there was snow in Flagstaff. So we stayed an extra day in Williams before heading east. We still hit snow and ice at the higher elevations along I40, fortunately it wasn’t too bad. When we got into New Mexico the sun was out and it warmed up but we also hit wind. We stopped in Albuquerque for a couple of days and waited for the wind to die down. Glad we did because talking with folks coming from the east said wind gusts hit 60 MPH. Not done with bad weather, we stopped in Amarillo (planned stop) and saw that Oklahoma was experiencing heavy rain and tornado warnings, you guessed it, we stayed an extra day in Amarillo and that was all it took to let the storm get far enough ahead of us and not be a threat.

In my younger days, if I had to get somewhere by a certain date I’d donned the chains and plowed thru the snow and gritted-out the wind but I’ve had my fun and I prefer to travel in good weather how whenever possible. Don’t get me wrong we still need to be places by specific dates. On another trip home, we had to be back for a family function and we hit some nasty weather in southern and central Illinois. We parked the TT in a campground down-state (agreed to pay them nominal storage fee) and headed home with just the truck. Driving still wasn’t great but at least I didn’t have to deal with the trailer and we made it home on time. Went back after the weekend and retrieved the TT.

I guess what I’m trying to say it if you have options and your not forced to travel in the bad stuff, hopefully you don’t find yourself in an iffy situation. Last comment, I met a couple from Chicago who winter in Texas. The come home for Christmas but seldom drive. They get a pair of round trip airline tickets, leave the rig and have the kids pick them up at the airport.

Good luck on the trip and travel so you can enjoy the trip.

Tom

 

1) make sure you take a generator and lots of food and water so that you can be nice and cozy if you get stuck

2) get fiverbob to plan the route for you. I can assure you it will be all warmth and sunshine!

 

A BIG thanks to everyone for the words of wisdom. We will be taking it slow and trying to time the sun right. Its not a long drive, just one that can lead to very bad road conditions this time of the year and I just didnt know if there was any tricks up anyone's sleeves?

 

Just one last item is a tow chain....someone will always stop and try to help you if your stuck but only if you have a tow chain....a 25 ft quality chain

 

*cough*towROPEnotchain!*cough*

 

[quote author=trailblazenyj link=board=11;threadid=23615;start=0#msg222823 date=1071267979]
1) make sure you take a generator and lots of food and water so that you can be nice and cozy if you get stuck

2) get fiverbob to plan the route for you. I can assure you it will be all warmth and sunshine!
[/quote]

HMMM, let's see - - Death Valley to Joshua Tree via the desert, to Las Vegas via the desert, thru to south Texas via the desert, along thru bayou country TO FLORIDA - - YEA - - and don't even think about making me pull back out of here until June, baby. Now, where did I put my bathing suit and snorkel? Ah, there are the golf clubs. Now we are living. ;D ;D

ChickyBob

 

advice? there's too much advice i could give to remember. but it seems to boil down to two things:

--take it slow/easy and never be too relaxed (but don't be petrified at the same time).

Tom

 

If you have a Prodigy controller, back the surge voltage way way back. They are terrible on the ice.