With all the snowstorms, ice and wind around, I thought it might be good to share some advice/experience of driving in bad weather conditions. Everyone knows things like packing a flask of tea in case you break down but what about tips specifically for larger vehicles? Anyone ever had some nasty slides?
I’ve driven on some pretty treacherous roads in Northern Ireland last winter but I managed to come out of it mostly unscathed. Just had to slow down a bit and take corners a wee bit more carefully.
A main point over here in Germany is that many of the accidents that
are happening on snow or ice-covered roads, is because the vehicle in
question does not have the correct tyres for the weather, Last week on
the autobahn a coach out of GB had a serious accident with a fatal
casualty , and 32 injuried, the german police stated that this coach was
not equipped with the right tyres ie… winter tyres , and this was a
contributing factor to the accident, The tyres when not for winter
weather at least 5-6mm Tread with a reduced tyre surface you have
less grip.traction. control, in winter or similar road conditions,
Plan more time , for the journey, if you normaly only do day trips take
a blanket, some food, choclate, a candle with the means to light it.
you can use this to heat the cabin up if you have to stay the night
of course observering certain safety points( stick it in a tin where it can not
fall over and catch alight) Keep your lights.mirrors, windows,all clean and
clear so you can see at all times,and be seen,
some one else will add there pennysworth as well later on I trust…
After reading the posts on the other forum, I am now under the impression that at any time at any place in any conditions, I may look in one of my mirrors and see my trailer coming to say hello
If you see an artic doing 25mph on the motorway, give me a wave
HERE in GERMANY loads of snow and up there by HANOVER is 13cm
of snow,down south is it alittle bit more,so for those who are on a
trip next week over here, please take care, don,t forget the snowchains
and decent tyres preferbly snow+winter and not summer tread as
many of the vehicles, cars,trucks,vans, coaches, etc have been
doing, as said before the german police have found over 85% THE
vehicles involved in accidents did not have the right tyres on,
Brit Pete, is Napier Kaserne still in one peice? I lived there from 90 to 93 though haven’t been to Dortmund since only quickly passed through. Looks like 64 base wksp is still there or atleast the building is.
I remember what used to be camp 5 on kamakaze jct being vacated and being turn into some kind of immigration centre, and camp 7 (NAAFI) was going but i left before that happened and am last fly-by saw they were building new exit sliproad to the old camp 7 entry road off the 44.
Took a 4 ton load to Ulm this week, reloaded just outside Ulm, 24.5ton, weather was minus 1 to minus 6 when i was there, i was glad to have the weight(24.5ton) to give me the extra traction, not in Germany mind you, cos they are proffesional in their attitude to cold weather and snow, by that i mean they dont think, sod that, its too cold to go out gritting tonight, i mean in England, if theres a frost the country comes to a standstill.
It totally beggars belief
It was -17 here in Paderborn last night but looks to be warming up nicely…just in time for a lunchtime diner party we’re going to. Don’t expect any coherent typing when I get home later!!
Hear is a reply to Wheelnut,s quote about tyres ,no it is not law , but
if they say on the radio winter ausrüstung erfordilich, this means you
have to be equipped for winter, and you if are the instigator of the road
accident and have summer tyres on in winter , sorry Ido belive that
the insurance companys will not be ammused, My company changes
tyres around OCT-NOV time and they stay on until the end of March,
In Norway it is law one set of chains for every axle, no chains then you
will be fined and escorted to buy your self the required5 or 6 sets for
you truck -trailer combination. ALSO in those Scandinavian countries
they are useing a completely different tyres as to what we use in EUROPE because of the harsh Artic winter conditions, And yes you are right we are not allowed to use chains or spikes, but if this law was to be changed to allow the use of chains we would have a benifit to our
roadsafety for all who travel in such conditions.
linux-user… sorry mate all those camps less the old KENT SCHOOL have
been torn down and rebuilt ,you would have trouble reconiseing it now.
the old camp 7 has also gone the same way now there stands a new
houseing estate in its place, Brackel will be rebuilt in the next 2-3years as well if you want any more info let me know per PM;
Don’t forget that here in the UK, snow is quite wet. One car drives over it and the tracks turn into ice, instantly. In Germay the snow tends to be a lot dryer and so doesn’t, at least not to the same extent.
When I lived in Germany I was on snow clearance for several weeks of night shifts. Even though the snow had been laying for quite a few days (due to the exceptionaly high snow fall) and driven over by many vehicles, it was still just compressed snow and pretty crumbly. We didn’t use salt, just grit, which broke up the compressed snow allowing it to be ploughed off the roads. As far as I was aware, we didn’t use salt for two reasons. 1 because green party power had got salt banned, because it killed off too many roadside plants. 2 because it was too cold for salt to work. Salt water would melt the snow, but a little while later the temperature would drop below the freezing temperature of salt water (-12 I think) and the ice would then be impenetrable.
On our first night shift, the dayshift thought they would do us a favour and fill the grit hopper, on the back of the snowplough. They did it just before they knocked off. By the time we started, half an hour or so later, the grit had frozen solid, so I was driving around with a 5 tonne + brick on the back . It didn’t defrost enough to be spread for 2 more months .
This caused me a bit of a problem. Several nights later we didn’t get any fresh snow. As the blade of our plough was fairly narrow, it only ploughed a narrow section of road, leaving a berm between the lanes. I though I would make use of this, less frantic night, to remove the berm. I went round the circuit down the middle of the road, ploughing the snow outwards. Round again ploughing all of that snow plus the snow already there, off the road leaving one side of the road clear. Then I turned around and went the other way, clearing the remaining lane. All was going to plan, and I was on my final circuit, all done at about 30mph/50kmh, to get the snow moved well clear. I think by now you have figured out what comes next . Correct, on a bend I hit a very slippery patch and went across the road and onto the opposite verge. In doing so, I ploughed 20 odd tonnes of snow off the verge back onto the road again, including at least 2 marker posts.
