I’d have used the snow as an excuse to drag it out a touch on a Saturday premium rate… 
'Tis near Xmas after all…
the nodding donkey:
If you can’t play with the big dogs, stay on the porch.You did fine Rob. I can not believe how the fast majority of ‘drivers’ in this country panic when a quarter inch of snow falls.
Depends how their cars are balanced in terms of weight distribution from front to rear and tyre width etc. My current motor is reasonably ok in snow, but my old car was an absolute nightmare. OP I think you were foolish with your blazè attitude, but you’re not alone or even in the minority. Most truck drivers would have done the same.
leo.saphira:
Juddian:
Just out of interest, anyone here work for a company who fits proper winter tyres to the drive axle for the season?Off road tyres at the firm I am at as we do farm work - code M&S (mud and snow) on the tyre side walls
They’re better than standard nearing recut road fodder no doubt (deep treads like that got me home a few years ago when the M11 and area froze over when everyone else ground to a halt), but unless the sidewall is stamped with the snowflake and mountain symbol they are not classed as winter rated tyres which requires different tread compounds (higher silica content) designed to remain soft and grip the snow the colder it gets.
difficult to answer the OP without knowing the conditions; sometimes people drive unnecessarily slow on winter roads, and others seem to drive stupidly fast. But whatever, overtaking cars in an artic in arctic conditions is not going to enhance our good reputation, oh, wait a minute … good reputation … lol
meanwhile, the following video is a great example how easy does it is the best tactic for achieving grip
Great pics Robinhood, reminded me of US winter I have driven, thanks for sharing. When I tell people in Europe(generally) that North American winter driving conditions are bad, many don’t believe.
The weather is crazier year after year, its mid December and we usually had foot of snow and 10 below zero in Bulgaria, not anymore. Now is 10 above and no snow, in november was 25 degrees, this is crazy.
Few pictures from mid march of this year in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Poor driving conditions do tend to move the advantage to larger vehicles and my max speed now is the speed I used to slow down to in prelimiter days when things got a bit tricky.
With our bulk, higher driving position, higher skill set, more visibilty, perceived bigger willies than your average car driver there are times when our progress is much faster.
In this situation picking a better running lane seems fine but proceeding with caution is essential as conditions can change, I would probably have considered the inconveinience factor to other motorists as well but a bit of splash back is fine and great for keeping a clean ring but it will further reduce the quality of the conditions for the motorists we are overtaking.
So having carefully weighed up all my trolling options I have deceided to bow to Robs judgement and give him the thumbs up for cracking on.
Course it would be nice if there was some diva cam footage to critique.
I wasn’t there so have no idea whether you were reckless in your actions or not, but trust to your many years of experience and the fact you thought it was OK
A large vehicle on healthy treaded tyres can clear far more slush/water than a car on low profile/sports/summer/worn out tyres and is far less likely to aquaplane - hence a 1mm minimum tread depth over 3.5t and 1.6mm below. Therefore it stands to reason your vehicle would likely have been far more stable than theirs at a higher speed.
However - had you misjudged - your heavy vehicle losing control would have been much harder to regain control of and caused far more carnage than a car might have done. So I reckon you took a risk the car drivers weren’t prepared to take. It is when people take greater risks it can go wrong - but we all judge this on skill and experience.
A lot is down to tyres more than driver skill. I always fit winter tyres from October to about March - an old habit from living in Germany where snow generally made no difference to traffic flow. But having such tyres can provoke taking more risk and finally losing it at greater speed. My car aquaplaned/slipped last night on a left hand bend. Deep water at the kerb, which I didn’t see in the dark and rain and combined with my speed momentarily pushed my car over the white line with a car approaching. I’ll call it mildly close to heart stopping. Lesson learned 5mph too fast - slow down and have respect for the conditions because the faster you go the nearer you get to the laws of physics taking over.
Obviously we have to consider the impact of your actions on others and whether your spray caused issues for them in terms of visibility/fear. I’ll end my waffle by saying that from your description I don’t think all things considered it was the correct thing for a professional driver to do. My list of wrongs is far greater than my list of rights.
But you took the decision. It paid off and have proven you got it right and I’d have been over cautious.
There’s a world of difference between reckless, confident, and terrified of the conditions. It’s the folk at either end of the scale who cause problems.
I fully accept that as pro drivers we have a duty of care to other road users, but how many of them cars were on journeys that could be deemed necessary? You could argue that the snow started once they were into their journey, but I’d say “so what?” If you aren’t confident enough to be out there either stop until conditions improve or turn around and head away from the snow.
Some will no doubt say that option is not practical, but I’d ask why not? If I were driving at night and my lights stopped working I would pull in at the nearest safe place and stay there until the lights were fixed or daylight returned. No different to what dithering drivers in snow should do really.
i would have done the same, out and round 
Interesting replies, most would have done the same as Robroy even though they weren’t there and couldn’t see feel or judge the conditions for themselves in their own particular vehicle, i’m not sure what to think about that common view to be honest, there is no one size fits all judgement call here, i couldn’t honestly say what i would have done unless i was there, i wouldn’t necessarily follow someone else unless it was obvious that the first brave soul’s tyres were cutting down to road and not simply packing the snow to a perfect ice coating.
We haven’t seen serious snow in most of the country for some years now, for many if it arrives this winter in quantity it might be many driver’s first outing in really bad conditions in a new to them lorry and for many others their first serious snow with not fit for purpose gearboxes where their previous vehicles were good in bad conditions.
Maybe i’m overcautious too, but an artic starting to fold up on you at a decent speed is frightening.
Impossible to say if it was the right thing to do without actually being there. In my experience a lot of drivers are over cautious when there is snow or ice. They hear on the radio the roads are icy and are told to drive slowly so that is exactly what they do.
Unfortunately they do not have the ability to work out for themselves how bad the conditions are. Saying all that being cautious is never a bad thing in snowy or icy conditions.
The problems arise when as someone said they bunch together and act like sheep. Then we get the impatient ones that feel they can drive faster and overtake which if the conditions are suitable is fine. It is when something unexpected happens it can all go wrong. eg The snow suddenly becomes thicker or there is hidden black ice under the snow or a another vehicle pulls out without checking his mirrors causing the overtaking vehicle to brake. An animal could run out. The list goes on.
Maybe better to be safe than sorry if your in any doubt.
Tris:
OP I think you were foolish with your blazè attitude, but you’re not alone or even in the minority. Most truck drivers would have done the same.
Ok mate that’s your opinion, but how do you rate my attitude as blase exactly? If you read my o/p, I did say I looked at the snow and made a judgement, whether it was packed or not, it was fine snow on water, hence the slush I was chucking up The me saying '■■■■ it' bit came after making the assessment, hardly indifferent or blase .
Thanks for the feedback, both positive and negative. It looks like most of us think the same, but in different degrees of perceived consideration to others, maybe mine was admittedly a bit on the low side on reflection.
I take on board the comments about caution etc. , especially the one about some ■■■ potentially pulling out, causing me to try and quickly slow down causing the whole situation to go seriously pear shaped.
I did all I could to avoid that in terms of max visibility for example, ie. headlights on, and also watching each car on approach, but you cannot fully account for careless idiots in any traffic scenario.
It’s all about the specific situation on the day. Who knows it may be similar weather conditions next week, but just that little bit more potentially hazardous which will make me do things entirely different.
We are all drivers so you will know exactly what I am prattling on about.
robroy:
Reckon you Top Trumped me there RH
I admit when it comes to driving in snow I aint in your league, if the snow yesterday was half as bad as your pics, I too would have been at the back of the slow convoy…at a safe distance.
All the winters I have done, I still hate snow and ice to this day, and when among it I always think there are better ways to make a living and feel like jacking. But then the summer comes and I’m sat posing in my shorts and shadesit’s forgotten.
I’m just the same mate. I hate snow and every time I wake up in the morning having to go to work, or pull the curtains open in the truck and see it, my heart sinks and I just want to bugger off back to England to a respectable climate. Once the initial shock passes and you stop being suicidal and start to get on with it, it becomes easier and because we usually get a few months of it solid here, you get the chance to get used to it. At the beginning of winter is the worst when it comes and goes as one day its terrible, the next day its fine, then the next two days its horrendous, the next three days fine etc. Come January its just crap all the time and life becomes much easier for it as you’re not constantly readjusting to it every day or so.
I still say you did right. You were not reckless or blaze about it. Being blaze about something you consider to be an insignificance would hardly have resulted in you feeling the need to start this thread. You used your head, you weighed the options and slowly eased passed and did so properly without incident. As I said before, the worst thing you could do is maintain a position in the middle of a convoy of cars, all of whom were out of their depth and a risk to themselves and everyone else around them, why the hell would anyone want to be in the middle of that? Move out, ease past, get in front of the four wheeled liabilities and go your own speed that you feel comfortable with with space around you.
If more people did that in lane 2 (and 3) then it would help greatly in keeping the road moving without losing capacity. Too often when it snows you see everyone at a standstill in lane 1 as they’re all scared to death of driving on an inch of fresh snow. Trucks are the perfect vehicles to keep the other lanes clear of snow (in the absence of a plough) and if it’s snowing hard enough to cover lane 2 I will usually be driving in it for that reason and to continue making progress at a sensible speed.
People forget when it snows it’s still your brakes that stop you not the road that’s covered in snow,brake gently and your wheels will slow down regardless of what amount of snow is under your tyres…here ends the lesson of not turning into a complete ■■■■ and driving at 20mph just because of a bit of the white stuff.
Crack on…
Thought you only grit for ice anyway.
Ya don’t see em gritting in Canada for a bit of snow they plough or should I say plow then only grit where it’s gonna go icy
Thats fair comment Carl Usher and something i do too, however if i’m doing my share to help keep a lane clear then i’ll probably do so at the same or similar constant speed as the other lane(s) without necessarily the intention of overtaking the snake of cars, that allows anyone with half a brain to realise whats going on and keep out of the way of any slush spray, if they deliberately or unthinkingly come up beside you and put themselves in the slush spray there isn’t much you can do about it anyway.
Its overtaking unskilled and nervous people in bad conditions where the problems arise, you don’t know what they might do deliberately or if they are driving a modern clone car fitted with stupid elastic band tyres they might lose it accidentally anyway.
Juddian:
Its overtaking unskilled and nervous people in bad conditions where the problems arise, you don’t know what they might do deliberately or if they are driving a modern clone car fitted with stupid elastic band tyres they might lose it accidentally anyway.
That’s the biggest problem when it comes to driving in any adverse weather.
As others have said, there isn’t one rule that fits all, each individual situation needs to be assessed.
robroy:
Tris:
OP I think you were foolish with your blazè attitude, but you’re not alone or even in the minority. Most truck drivers would have done the same.Ok mate that’s your opinion, but how do you rate my attitude as blase
exactly? If you read my o/p, I did say I looked at the snow and made a judgement, whether it was packed or not, it was fine snow on water, hence the slush I was chucking up The me saying '[zb] it' bit came after making the assessment, hardly indifferent or blase.
I wasn’t there so can’t judge really, I’m just basing my view on the times I’ve been in my car and I’ve been forced to slow right down because I’ve got no grip. And I’ve had lorries motoring past me and thought what a bunch of c00nts - if either I or they lose control I’ve got 44t ploughing into me. I’m not having a go, but what would you have done if a car had pulled out in front of you? Would you have been able to take evasive action?