It’s coming to that of year again where the white stuff will start to fall soon. Now being a new driver and being based in Buxton which gets bad with the stuff I’m starting to get a bit nervous. Now driving a car in snow doesn’t bother me one tiny bit, in fact I enjoy it. But any tips on driving a truck and what to expect would be good.
Thank you
Back in the 70s and 80s the peak district was my regular multidrop delivery area in a 7.5 tonner and the locals always said that until the snow was knee deep they did not regard it as an issue
Take it easy and expect to lose grip at any time
I loved that job doing Glossop buxton chapel tideswell etc
slow steady and plan ahead
My office is based in Tideswell, I know from driving in the rain the my exhaust brake is keen and locks the wheels too easy.
Traction is your friend, try to keep it moving, especially when your empty. If you’ve got any slight uphill section & the traffic is stopped, wait on the level until it’s clear to get to the top, if you stop on the hill/gradient & it’s icy or covered in snow, it’s goodnight until you get some grit down or a tow or reverse back down to try again.
Good tread on the drive tyres helps as well, if they’re 100,000 km into their life, they can be a bit slippy on the cold stuff.
Learn where your Diff lock is, it can get you out trouble sometimes, use it with your crawler gear & feather the throttle (I got up a hill once, in crawler with diff lock on for about half a mile, took about 10 minutes & had a queue behind me, but at least I didn’t need an expensive wrecker to tow me up it)
Carry an old lifting sling in the side box, just for the odd tow out of trouble, a shovel & a £3 bag of salt/grit (on the catwalk) can help as well.
If it’s really bad, try to find a layby, pull your curtains & go to sleep, it’ll be a lot better in the morning. (Make sure that you’ve got a couple of days worth of goodies to see you through & always diesel up before leaving the yard/try not to let it get below a quarter, that way at least you’ve got a couple of days for your night heater)
Last thing- make sure you’ve got plenty of Cider (I hate running out of Cider)
Drive to the conditions. Use as little brake as possible. Be aware of other ■■■■■■■■■ bad planning. Expect the unexpected. Simple
It sounds silly but stick to the fresh stuff that nobody else has driven on. All the drivers that follow one another through the grooves are just compacting the snow to ice. Use the fresh stuff and keep it rolling and you’ll get more grip.
Also don’t use cruise control.
noney82:
My office is based in Tideswell
You mean ‘Tidser’
I’ve been driving attics for six years always manual boxes, this year I’ve got an automatic, can anyone tell me what autos are like in the snow?
lewis1991:
I’ve been driving attics for six years always manual boxes, this year I’ve got an automatic, can anyone tell me what autos are like in the snow?
Crap. Just stick em in semi mode and you select the gear you want.
I’ve been driving attics
So what, I’ve been driving a loft 
Seriously, some sound advice above.
Pete 
martinviking:
Traction is your friend, try to keep it moving, especially when your empty. If you’ve got any slight uphill section & the traffic is stopped, wait on the level until it’s clear to get to the top, if you stop on the hill/gradient & it’s icy or covered in snow, it’s goodnight until you get some grit down or a tow or reverse back down to try again.Good tread on the drive tyres helps as well, if they’re 100,000 km into their life, they can be a bit slippy on the cold stuff.
Learn where your Diff lock is, it can get you out trouble sometimes, use it with your crawler gear & feather the throttle (I got up a hill once, in crawler with diff lock on for about half a mile, took about 10 minutes & had a queue behind me, but at least I didn’t need an expensive wrecker to tow me up it)
Carry an old lifting sling in the side box, just for the odd tow out of trouble, a shovel & a £3 bag of salt/grit (on the catwalk) can help as well.
If it’s really bad, try to find a layby, pull your curtains & go to sleep, it’ll be a lot better in the morning. (Make sure that you’ve got a couple of days worth of goodies to see you through & always diesel up before leaving the yard/try not to let it get below a quarter, that way at least you’ve got a couple of days for your night heater)
Last thing- make sure you’ve got plenty of Cider (I hate running out of Cider)
Some good advice there, only problem I have is I drive a day cab so no night heater ect. My tyres are near new, and I know where my locks are(use them a lot on muddy sites). I can have my retarder on manual or automatic, would it be a idea to have it on manual?
Thank you everyone for your input
noney82:
martinviking:
Traction is your friend, try to keep it moving, especially when your empty. If you’ve got any slight uphill section & the traffic is stopped, wait on the level until it’s clear to get to the top, if you stop on the hill/gradient & it’s icy or covered in snow, it’s goodnight until you get some grit down or a tow or reverse back down to try again.Good tread on the drive tyres helps as well, if they’re 100,000 km into their life, they can be a bit slippy on the cold stuff.
Learn where your Diff lock is, it can get you out trouble sometimes, use it with your crawler gear & feather the throttle (I got up a hill once, in crawler with diff lock on for about half a mile, took about 10 minutes & had a queue behind me, but at least I didn’t need an expensive wrecker to tow me up it)
Carry an old lifting sling in the side box, just for the odd tow out of trouble, a shovel & a £3 bag of salt/grit (on the catwalk) can help as well.
If it’s really bad, try to find a layby, pull your curtains & go to sleep, it’ll be a lot better in the morning. (Make sure that you’ve got a couple of days worth of goodies to see you through & always diesel up before leaving the yard/try not to let it get below a quarter, that way at least you’ve got a couple of days for your night heater)
Last thing- make sure you’ve got plenty of Cider (I hate running out of Cider)
Some good advice there, only problem I have is I drive a day cab so no night heater ect. My tyres are near new, and I know where my locks are(use them a lot on muddy sites). I can have my retarder on manual or automatic, would it be a idea to have it on manual?
Thank you everyone for your input
Use it on manual. Even the weakest retarder would manage to lock wheels up if they have no traction to counter the braking effect applied.
m1cks:
noney82:
martinviking:
Traction is your friend, try to keep it moving, especially when your empty. If you’ve got any slight uphill section & the traffic is stopped, wait on the level until it’s clear to get to the top, if you stop on the hill/gradient & it’s icy or covered in snow, it’s goodnight until you get some grit down or a tow or reverse back down to try again.Good tread on the drive tyres helps as well, if they’re 100,000 km into their life, they can be a bit slippy on the cold stuff.
Learn where your Diff lock is, it can get you out trouble sometimes, use it with your crawler gear & feather the throttle (I got up a hill once, in crawler with diff lock on for about half a mile, took about 10 minutes & had a queue behind me, but at least I didn’t need an expensive wrecker to tow me up it)
Carry an old lifting sling in the side box, just for the odd tow out of trouble, a shovel & a £3 bag of salt/grit (on the catwalk) can help as well.
If it’s really bad, try to find a layby, pull your curtains & go to sleep, it’ll be a lot better in the morning. (Make sure that you’ve got a couple of days worth of goodies to see you through & always diesel up before leaving the yard/try not to let it get below a quarter, that way at least you’ve got a couple of days for your night heater)
Last thing- make sure you’ve got plenty of Cider (I hate running out of Cider)
Some good advice there, only problem I have is I drive a day cab so no night heater ect. My tyres are near new, and I know where my locks are(use them a lot on muddy sites). I can have my retarder on manual or automatic, would it be a idea to have it on manual?
Thank you everyone for your input
Use it on manual. Even the weakest retarder would manage to lock wheels up if they have no traction to counter the braking effect applied.
Manual is it then, I need to remember to use it. When mine is in for work to be done and I have to use a daf I always forget about the retarder because I’m use to my auto one.
And iv just had a call from the boss, I have to use a daf next week ewwww. I had my clutch replaced a few weeks back and it’s never been right. After weeks of complaining about it the mechanic has had a proper look and it seems the synchro clutch has gone.
Some excellent advice above, especially Martin Vikings post.
Couple of points to add though.
Whilst diff lock is a very useful thing, sometimes it can be counter productive, when in use obviously both drive wheels will spin together, this can induce the drive axle to swing out of line especially if the road is cambered, in some circs allowing one wheel to spin (invariably the spinning wheel will find grip and its opposite number will then spin up) and cut through the muck whilst the non spinner keeps the lorry straight is better…its all a learning curve and there’s no hard and fast rules here.
Diff lock shouldn’t be engaged when the wheels are spinning, ideally when stationary but can be engaged when moving so long as the drive wheels are turning at the same rate.
Get used to driving your vehicle in manual mode regularly, too late to learn the gears and the gearbox idiocyncrasies when the snow’s down.
If you have a lift axle dump the air and hopefully lift it entirely to get as much weight onto the drive axle as possible when the speeds are low and spinning up is likely, similarly if you are approaching an iced hill, be prepared to dump the mid lift air as soon as the speed drops low enough to allow it…experiment with the device so you know exactly what speed is involved, it might make the difference between ascending a hill or not.
If you have a lifting front axle on a trailer, make sure the device is switched on (usually a air button or switch) so the axle raises when the load is light enough, bit more weight on the drive axle.
Check how your trailer lift axle works, on some of ours even without switchable lifters if you drop the trailer suspension fully down the lifter will raise even if the trailer is loaded (try yours now so you know if its an option or not when stuck)…you shouldn’t drive anywhere like this obviously but it might prove useful to transfer some more weight onto the drive axle to get you up an iced slope in a yard, or a steep hill on the road if you stop immediately after and re-inflate…don’t tell 'em Pike.
Most important this…Traction Control/ASR…this is the thing most likely to stop you getting up a slippery slope, soon as the system senses a drive wheel spin it will cut the power, which might well trigger a gearchange if in auto, which will then immediately spin again in the power gear again triggering a power cut, result stuck.
Turn off TC/ASR, experiment turning off before you need to do this in desperation, typically as you approach a steep slippery hill, so you know what effect it has…not suggesting you drive down a twisty slippery road without ASR/TC necessarily but turned off at the appropriate moment can keep you going.
Learning your lorry as much as possible is always a good thing.
Whenever possible make sure your load is weighted towards the drive axle being up to max weight, TBH this is good practice on most vehicles especially artics at most times, lessens chances of the tail wagging the dog.
Gentle inputs on all controls, the most important thing is to keep moving if at all possible, keep a good distance from the vehicle in front, just because some hero in a lorry goes past everyone in the third lane of a three lane motorway doesn’t mean you can, this is a favourite practice of some foreigners but they well have a full set of winter tyres fitted and be able to do this quite safely even if its wrong.
Most importantly, keep your lights windows and mirrors spotlessly clean inside and out, chances are you’ll be doing some ducking and diving in poor visibility, the more you can see the better your chances of pulling through.
Press your ASR button or Traction control button off.
Wow, good advice, you boys know your stuff, but isn’t it true that a heavy loaded drive axle and lightly loaded trailer axles is the best formula to jack knife which is quite common in the winter?
Most manufacturers seem to recommend appropriate use of the exhaust or engine brake, even in snow, it uses the abs sensors to sense a wheel lock, then disengages, however it then reapplies and it gets at bit jerky!
Like the advice to learn your truck, often woefully overlooked but so essential in a variety of emergency situations. Find a big airfield covered in snow and try out a few things, that could be a good seasonal driver CPC course!
Tockwith Training:
Wow, good advice, you boys know your stuff, but isn’t it true that a heavy loaded drive axle and lightly loaded trailer axles is the best formula to jack knife which is quite common in the winter?Most manufacturers seem to recommend appropriate use of the exhaust or engine brake, even in snow, it uses the abs sensors to sense a wheel lock, then disengages, however it then reapplies and it gets at bit jerky!
Like the advice to learn your truck, often woefully overlooked but so essential in a variety of emergency situations. Find a big airfield covered in snow and try out a few things, that could be a good seasonal driver CPC course!
Ive always found a well loaded drive axle to lead to the most stable vehicle in all conditions, but would welcome other views on this.
I nearly got caught out by a Volvo FM retarder about 5 years ago, yes i was an agency wallah on the day in question so was issued the first lorry available which happened to be an FM instead of me usual Axor, well unbeknown to me the retarder was still on stage 3, maximum…used to have one full time but i hadn’t driven a Volvo for a long time so was unfamiliar again and i plainly didn’t notice it.
I left the depot with trailer empty on this crisp morning and about 1/2 a mile away was a roundabout, what i didn’t realise was that the roundabout was covered in black ice, anyway as i entered the roundabout, gently, the bloody gearbox decided to drop about 3 gears and then the retarder immediately cut in on full power locking the drive axle solid and sending the vehicle into a full jack knife slide…luckily i managed to recover it without incident and yes i hold my hands up that it was my own fault in many ways…i’m telling this tale because the exhauster didn’t cut out as soon as it sensed a lock up and i would never use one when in automatic in very slippery conditions, unless i was the regular driver of the vehicle in question and knew the lorry inside out.
I drive my regular lorry in manual when loaded and use the exhauster in all conditions including torrential rain but i’ll be very selective about using the thing in the lower gears especially when empty when icy.
WHAT? a sensible bit of skid control and real lorry handling training on a DCPC course?
For Gawds sake don’t spout that aloud or next thing they’ll be sending those nice chaps in white coats round for ya… 
Engine brakes are safe to use in snow, but do not even think about it on ice.
I have run the “highway through hell” off the TV with light loads many times, sometimes two round trips a week and for the last winter I had almost worn out drive tyres, I used my Jake brake (better than any engine brake and nearly as powerful as a retarder) all the time and never had a problem. That’s a bloody big hill and it has some ridiculous amounts of snow.
The main thing is not steering, braking or accelerating unless you have to and when you do, make sure you do it gently.
You also need to have a lot of extra distance to stop, whatever you think is safe you should double.
Something that seldom gets mentioned are bridges, even when the road isn’t icy, it may be on a bridge (no matter how small it is) as cold air from above and below can cause black ice, even if you know it isn’t icy, knock off the cruise before going over any bridge if it’s cold enough, anything below -5c is my threshold.
Good point about bridges Newmercman. It also applies to tunnels too. Theres a tunnel in Russia thats got loads of videos of crashes on youtube wherr people don’t see the black ice thats formed.