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Unless you’re a local driver in Southern Florida or California, odds are you’ll be experiencing the winter weather just like the rest of us.
Snow and Ice have already been impacting certain area’s here in the States and we have only just begun. It doesn’t matter if they call for a mild winter or not, you should always prepare for the worse!
We need to be getting ready for winter weather driving. If this is your first season driving a truck in the snow and ice, listen up!
Winter weather driving tips for truckers
There are a few things to keep in mind when the weather turns off cold. Driving a truck isn’t the same as a car and the upkeep is somewhat the same, but you have more things to check in a truck!
Do a thorough pre and post trip! – You need to dump your air tanks on the truck and trailer after every shift. You should be doing this anyways, but especially when temps are below freezing.
Drive according to the weather – If there is snow piling up on the road, you should slow down. If there is ice, you really should park it. No load is worth your life!
Check over your truck at every stop – AKA mid-trip inspection. Check your lights and tires, knock off any ice buildup listen for any air leaks.
Keep up to date on the weather – You need to know what the weather is like in your area, along your route, and at your destination.
Give yourself more time to reach your Destination – If the weather can turn nasty along your route, be sure to factor that into your new arrival time.
Stock up on antigel – This will help prevent your fuel from gelling up. Once it gels up, you’ll likely need a service truck.
Don’t drive in packs – You should really avoid this even in perfect conditions, but even more so in winter weather!
Make sure your trailer tires are rolling – Brakes tend to freeze up in the winter once they have been setting for sometime. It’s very common with trailer brakes but it has happened to my drive brakes also. Make sure once you start rolling that the tires are rolling with you or you can have a bad day ahead of you!
Don’t run your fuel down – The extra weight helps with traction and the more fuel the tanks have in them, the less condensation buildup you’ll have!
Don’t jerk the wheel – Making sudden jerks can cause you to lose traction on your steers causing you to jackknife, so make calm calculated movements of the steering wheel!
Feed hauler – I always kept the 1st feed bin full during snow and ice, this would help with more traction heading back to the mill. You’ll have to scale back and credit the farm, but it’s better than sliding off the road because of no traction.
Trucker gear and supplies you need for Winter!
As soon as you realize that you need something, you wish you would have gotten it already instead of holding out.
Winters are harsh, especially up north. I’ve had my fair share of winter weather trucking over the last few years. If this is your first year, it can be a bit overwhelming. Always remember don’t drive if you aren’t comfortable!
Let’s get into the best trucker gear for winter driving:
Cat litter – Cat litter can help you gain traction if your drives are spinning. This can happen when you’ve been running all day and the tires are warm when you shutdown for the night, the tires melt the snow then it freezes over.
Hand warmers – Have a few of these on hand to help prevent frostbite or just to keep your hands warmer. These are nice for drivers that spend a lot of time out in the weather unloading or loading.
Bleach – If the cat litter isn’t working. Pour some bleach on the top of each drive tire and let it run down and set for a few minutes. This will help provide more traction on ice. DON’T DO THIS IF YOU’RE IN A GROUNDWATER PROTECTION AREA
Snow Grips – Snow and Ice grips are easy to slip on over your boots, they have saved me from slipping on ice and even just snow that was slick from melting off.
Kingpin puller – You should already have one, but if not you need to get one asap! I’ve slipped a time or two trying to unlock the kingpin during a drop. These will save your rotator cuff and your back!
Extra clothes – Putting on an extra shirt, pants, and socks can help you stay warmer longer out in the elements. Scarfs and hats or beanie caps are good for your head and neck. Or you could just grow your hair out like I did.
Air Brake Antifreeze – Dumping the air tanks every night can only do so much, so be sure to also add air brake antifreeze in through your glandhands to help prevent loss of brakes from moisture buildup freezing in the air lines.
Road Flares – The basic hazard triangles aren’t very easy to see during a snow storm. If you break down and you can’t see if you’re out of the roadway or not, these can really save your butt!
Cooking gear – If you are stuck in the middle of no where and have no way to eat, things can go bad pretty fast. I saved a lot of time and money just cooking my own meals on the truck. But even as just a backup its good to have. I got stuck in the middle of no where during a snow then ice storm for 2 day’s. Couldn’t make it to a truck stop with food, that little lunchbox stove really shined through then!
Extra thick blankets – You never know when your bunk heater will go out. Don’t freeze to death! Make sure you have a few extra thick blankets to help keep you warm if your bunk heater and or truck heater went out.
Keep in touch with loved ones!
Lets face it, you can be 3k miles away from home driving in all sorts of nasty weather. Accidents do happen unfortunately, but you can get help to your location faster by talking with loved ones or dispatch about your route.
There have been a few times where I didn’t see anyone else on the road for 4+ hours! If you were to slide off and go down an embankment, you might not be discovered for days even.
I know nowadays most trucks and or trailers have gps trackers that are automatically sent in to the company to help keep track of loads and plan future loads. But not every truck and company do this.
I remember being in the southern part of Missouri and my phone had no signal for a few days. I was delivering to a couple of places fairly close together and Verizon had no signal there at the time. So since I had already planned my route out and wrote it down, I didn’t think anything of it.
My wife on the other hand was very worried! She was about 6 months along with our first child and she knew I always checked in with her after every shift. Well she didn’t hear from me around the time she knew I should have been done for the day. She thought the worst obviously.
My wonderful wife called my company to see what’s going on, and thankfully they were able to see where I was at and relay that info to her to let her know I was alright.
I have since been using an app that we use together, it tracks your location and shares that information with those who are in your circle. This can be the matter of life and death if you were ever in an accident and you couldn’t reach your phone or you are unconscious.
There are a number of apps out there that will do this, but the one we use is Life360. You can subscribe for extra features like crash alerts and roadside assistance, which the crash alerts would be helpful but not the roadside assistance, at least for us drivers.