Regarding the dif lock, Don’t drive for any length of time with it engaged, it’ll bugger up the dif.
and if you have michelins on the drive axle, stay at home with some sort of disease. Try telling them you’ve got “Ecchymosis”, or anything else that sounds right, but means nowt. 
Throw some grit down under you drives. Clear around your tyres low gear maybe use your diff then don’t stop lol
newmercman:
villa:
So what’s best method when stuck and wheels spinning
is this right
Select manual not automatic
Diff lock on
Try to start off in 4th ’ 5th or higherIf you’re stuck and spinning the only way is to get it rocking a little bit at a time, so diff lock, manual and a higher gear and gentle on and off the throttle so that you get the rocking motion, you really need a clutch pedal though, in an autoshift it may be impossible if the clutch take up is an all or nothing thing
A bucket of cat litter is a very useful thing to have around, it will get you out of trouble, but can also stop you gettting stuck in teh first place. A good idea is to stop a foot or two before you hit a bay and put some down so that you have it under your tyres when you stop, then when you need to pull away, you get a bit of traction
Another useful tip is not to just stop and put the parking brake on as soon as you stop when it is well below freezing, your nice warm tyres will melt the ice underneath them, then as the tyres cool, the ice refreezes and as it’s stuck in the grooves on the tyres, you’re welded to the road and going nowhere, so either drive around the yard in the snow for a minute to cool off the tyres before parking up or pull backwards and forwards half a dozen times before you set the brakes to allow the tyres to cool sufficiently
TIRE CHAINS
limeyphil:
Regarding the dif lock, Don’t drive for any length of time with it engaged, it’ll bugger up the dif.
and if you have michelins on the drive axle, stay at home with some sort of disease. Try telling them you’ve got “Ecchymosis”, or anything else that sounds right, but means nowt.
I’m sure I had that disease once, many years ago, after buying drugs from a scouser.
(this is a joke. I don’t take drugs, and I have nothing against folk from Liverpool. I know some of you will be writing to Jeremy vine and the daily mail to complain as we speak)
Traction control off if your stationary, trying to get moving or at slow speed, sometimes you need to give it a bit of welly but i’d have it on once up to a reasonable speed, never drive with the cruise control in slippy conditions as you may end up in a ditch.
The best way to get moving if stuck & it’s a manual, just let the clutch out slowly, auto just try and be smooth, with low revs & diff lock on then knock it off once above 15-20 mph say, if left on above this speed it will knacker the diff and effect your steering. Each situation is different, sometimes it’s gentle other times you’re better off just thrashing it, once moving, momentum is your friend, just watch the corners!
Obvious ones are, more weight the better (just watch for jacknife on roundabouts and corners), lift your axle if you’re empty and tyres are the key, the more tread the better, all seasons good, winter better.
Saw one or two people coming to the end of untreated roads, not being able to stop in time and skiding in to main treated roads, lucky nothing coming so got away with it. After seeing all that, I did it in my car, coming out the yard down a steep slope, nothing coming luckily. 
sapper:
Never mind all the buttons, are ye a driver or a computer operator?, Diff lock, traction control, abs ebs, ffs what the f is that all aboot, drive it like it was supposed to be driven before all that pish.
Sapper
Spot on Sapper.
Trouble is unless the driver learns to drive properly without all the bollox whilst conditions are good, now is not really the time to start.
The tools of the modern lorry can be useful, once up and cruising it might be useful to engage the TC again, help stop a sideways developing in the first place, however if it detects a slip it will cut the power possibly just when you don’t want it to.
The diff lock should be used with care, sometimes it will get you going, other times it will allow the drive axle and the whole vehicle to slip sideways ending up in all sorts of difficulties, ie jack knife, when turning it off will sometimes allow allow one wheel to spin and dig down to some grip whilst the other doesn’t which helps prevent the vehicle getting out of line, best used when one wheel is unable to get grip but the other can.
If you have any control over how your vehicle is loaded, make sure you get as much weight (up to the max) as possible over the drive axle.
Use the tag axle dump valve sensibly, thats what its there for, approaching a hill?, pre plan before you get to the hill and dump the air as soon as speed drops enough to allow it, use common sense judgement about diff lock BEFORE its needed.
Diff lock can usually be engaged on the move, but ONLY when both wheels are rotating at the same speed, DO NOT engage diff lock with one wheel spinning or moiving faster than the other, ie on a curve, it will probably break something expensive and you won’t be going anywhere, preferably engage diff lock when stationary if possible.
There is no hard and fast set of rules to any of the above and each situation should be assessed individually, driving by the seat of your pants is something now considered old fashioned and met with sarcasm by some, aided and abetted by some trainers who insist on one approved by them driving style only.
However driving the old way will often get you through such conditions as these where relying on the one size fits all electronics won’t.
This learning of fine unassisted control is something that should be practiced regularly at all times, learn how your lorry behaves when you not the bloody computer drives it, in conditions like now is not the time to start, and all vehicle types and makes behave differently.
Be safe out there.
It’s only snow…
Juddian:
sapper:
Never mind all the buttons, are ye a driver or a computer operator?, Diff lock, traction control, abs ebs, ffs what the f is that all aboot, drive it like it was supposed to be driven before all that pish.
SapperSpot on Sapper.
Trouble is unless the driver learns to drive properly without all the bollox whilst conditions are good, now is not really the time to start.
For me troubles started when I learned that even if you switch off all this fancy electronic stuff, the computer still can take over the driving when it thinks you are doing it wrong. The results in my case were similar as to what you can see in my avatar 
Why is it coaches never slow down even when it is heavily snowing?
Only vehicle till this day cannot understand why they can go faster then 56mph and you can clearly see that the driver cannot keep it straight line 
Make sure you got a full tank, the night heater is working, a kettle, food, reading material, better still dvd/tv and if you get stuck, up an at em, phone the boss, tell him the roads blocked, your stuck, will phone later when the gritters have been out…job done.
taffytrucker:
just turn everything off and away you go dont use diff or anything over here and touch wood i been ok so far not so sure about Mr Cooper though
I’ve been fine taffy, it was’nt Me who was stuck I’d only been told to go & help this chap who was
I don’t think it will get this bad in The UK somehow but I live in hope
lol if every that bad in the uk coops they would have the army on the street and would be declared a national disaster
Look at our man Ross still smiling for the camera…
truckyboy:
Make sure you got a full tank, the night heater is working, a kettle, food, reading material, better still dvd/tv and if you get stuck, up an at em, phone the boss, tell him the roads blocked, your stuck, will phone later when the gritters have been out…job done.
I’d stick with lappy for tv/dvd/interweb etc. Kettle, WATER for kettle (snow takes too long to thaw and how do you know what colour it was), Cuppa soup, Pot Noodles, night heater and a pillow.
So, how would you get out of this ■■
sit and wait for the plough 