And I suppose the easiest thing to remember is SLOW DOWN.
It doesnt matter if you are late for a delivery or ferry or a jump. You will be there a lot quicker driving slowly than waitiing for a recovery truck.
Oh and if you get paid on hours you will be a bit richer too, rather than dead 
Iād love to get a go on some skidpan training to see if Iāve just been jammy in the past or have some sort of natural ability.
not long after I passed me car test in 1996 I borrowed the parents 1.8 montego when it began to snow - and went down to a local grounds with huge tarmac area and zero obstacles, and flung it round a bit, handbrak-turns, hard braking, hard gas to induce slides, and just kept going until I had it reasonably sussed - which didnāt take long.
Always done okay with the motorbike including in snow, when its been very easy to lose the back and push the front. especially when thereās 100bhp through a single contact patch the size of a credit card and only a few of hundred kilos weight to push it down - probably equivalent of bodging out 2500 horsies through a truckās bum end with tyres half the size they already are.
already had fun in a particularly large 7.5tonner on a diesel-coated and wet roundabout in northampton. rear stepped out with a car alongside. nature took over and grabbed it back sharpish and god knows how!
hope the same will be true with a loaded class 2 
Ive never had a problem in cars either. In fact i used to relish the snow falling so i could go and be naughty. used to have a fiat 127 
(sport may i add) that i could do a 360 in and continue on a normal width street. 
Would only manage a 180 in the dry though 
Lucy:
bring the whole shebang to as gentle and dignified an end as possible.
Confidence inspiringā¦
But helpful none the lessā¦ 
Gordo and Bonesā¦ I fully agreeā¦ A car is ace mucho funā¦
And I used to love damp roundabouts in the 7.5 tonnersā¦ Renault midlums have got 3rd just right for a power slideā¦ 
(Dafs are geared too low)
The rigids iāve driven I have felt āgoā, but not provoked it cuz itās seemed to be less funā¦ 
A 44ft artic on a greasy roundabout, let alone ice, is a well scary prospectā¦ NOT funā¦ 
The bigger the truck the more natural āresponsibilityā you get come over youā¦ Fortunatelyā¦
Luv
Chrisieā¦
Just recently with this cold snap, iāve wondered how youād get out of a slide, know what to do in a car but you canāt really do the same in an artic.
As to the question of skid pan training for trucks, it does existā¦ in the process of getting the details from someone who has been on the course. will post emup as soon as i get em.
I can remember last year it was icy as yer like, and i just tried to keep my speed reasonable and account for the fact that every bend could have ice on it and not to floor it coming out of the bend, keeping it all nice and smooth. I survived last year so i guess i can only build on it and survive this one too.
Did think about why this isnāt in part of the training for getting your licence, i canāt remember my instructor telling me anything about adverse whether conditions and how to get out of trouble appart from sit and hope youāll get out of it.
Lucy:
Donāt try and steer out of it, and donāt touch the throttle or brakesā¦all these things are likely to make matters worse, potentially causing the whole lot to simply come 'round the other way, or simply increase the velocity with which you impact whatever stops you, be that the trailer colliding with the unit or (as in my case) the whole lot embedding itself in the nearest solid bank.Try and steer as straight as you can, and ease off everythingā¦this reduces any added force on top of whatever caused the jack-knife in the first place. Basically, face the fact that you wonāt regain control and try and bring the whole shebang to as gentle and dignified an end as possible.
As lucy said donāt brake or touch the throttle
as I was speaking to a bloke how as tried
touching the throttle and he said It did not
work for him. He said ease of the throttle
donāt brake,steer straight and pray.
He also said it took him about 2 mile
to get it under control and It was caused
by 2 Curtin sided trucks passing quickly
and closely.
Now I was thinking about this very subject the other day when the rain was pouring down and I had the thoughts of jack-knifing going through my headā¦
I came up with this solutionā¦ can one of you more experienced guys or gilrs say if this would be feasable??..
Okay, you drivng down the motorway, and all of a sudden the trailer starts to come roundā¦ would you be able to basically drive the unit over to the side and make the trailer contact the barrier, and use the barrier to straighten the trailer??,
in other wordsā¦ if the trailer come round on your left side, you steer to the left, and gently push the trailer over to the left hand barrier??..
and vice-versa for the right??..
and something else I was thinking about was loss of brakes, I think I would look for something to rub along the side of, ie a crash barrier to bring the speed downā¦ But I spose in snow or ice, and you have no brakes, any movement left or right would enduce a jack-knifeā¦ Mmmm
Iām gonna be reading this thread with great interestā¦
I suppose so, theoreticallyā¦
Wouldnāt try it in practice thoughā¦Iād stick to the ādignified submittalā described aboveā¦ 
Theres absolutely nothing wrong with steering into the skid, if the back-end of your unit steps out.
A good few years back, I was loading coal, at the top of a steep, muddy bank. The only way out was down the slope at an angle. As I traversed the slope, the weight of the coal started pushing the arse of my unit out. I floored it and steered into the skid. Just hoping that the trailer wouldnāt catch my unit up, before we reached the bottom of the slope. It didnāt, but it was a close run thing and I had a good grip of the seat cushion all the way down.
If you are driving down the m/way and your trailer starts to come round, do nothing.
Donāt touch the brakes.
Donāt let off on the loud pedal, keep it at the same speed.
Donāt even try steering the trailer into the barrier, you will only block up more of the road and cause more panic among the car steerers.
IF you have traction and youāre not on the limiter, you can try a little gentle acceleration.
If you donāt, just pray.
Thats what my experience tells me anyway.
Many moons gone past I had the plesure of taking a Double Decker Bus onto a skid pan.
We were taught once it starts to go just pull your feet back off the peddles, pull your hands off the steering wheel & hold onto the seat, as once you have lost it you are nothing more than a pasenger & all you can do is minimise your own injuries.
The skid pan was about teaching why you should not get into a skid more than what to do if you get into one, & evidence seems to be on the side of not having skid training as it increases the accident rate & the severity of accidents amongst those that have had it, as it give them a false sense of security.
AndyM:
ā¦Okay, you drivng down the motorway, and all of a sudden the trailer starts to come roundā¦ would you be able to basically drive the unit over to the side and make the trailer contact the barrier, and use the barrier to straighten the trailer??,
in other wordsā¦ if the trailer come round on your left side, you steer to the left, and gently push the trailer over to the left hand barrier??..
and vice-versa for the right??..
and something else I was thinking about was loss of brakes, I think I would look for something to rub along the side of, ie a crash barrier to bring the speed downā¦ But I spose in snow or ice, and you have no brakes, any movement left or right would enduce a jack-knifeā¦ Mmmm
Iām gonna be reading this thread with great interestā¦
I guess it would work, provided you donāt bounce off the barrier, then end up with extra momentum jacknifing even worse on the other side when the pendulum effect takes over. One assumes that you were actually braking to avoid something, which is often right in front of you. If you do this, you will still be braking heavily, and spending the extra time looking for a convenient barrier is taking precious milliseconds away from the immediate task, namely trying to avoid hitting whatever it was that caused you to brake in the first place.
Donāt try to analyze escapes. Just react quickly and precisely when the occasion arises.
Everyone up here says just do as little as you have to on snow. Gentle steering, braking so early your braking points are in Eisenhowerās last state of the Union addressā¦ you get the idea.
Always have your engine brakes off.
Never brake, or accelerate hard.
Never steer hard either.
It may be worth steering gently into the skid to control it, but never do that so hard you lose the unit as well. Gentle acceleration is the best answer.
Iāve been told of a truck going up a hill who managed to jackknife the trailer on the way up! That was over here, where a couple of inches of snow is nothing worth commenting on. They donāt call this place WInterpeg for nothing you knowā¦
And I gotta do an artic test in thisā¦
Way to go with the deep endā¦
When aproaching junction with artic and itās slippery try to keep in motion. It 's not funny when youāre stuck becouse there is no traction. When aprouching ramp and youāre not sure if thereās grip on that ramp slow down before you steer. Driving against speed limiter isnāt generally good thing in winter. You can jack-knife when limiter cut down your revās, same thing that happens with exhaust brake and retarder.
If youāre driving āa frameā and trailers begans to do something nasty only thing you can do is to push pedal to engine room and pray. I suppose that accelerating works also with mid-axle drags. No matter what kind of trailer you have, donāt touch the brake. If you touch the brake you have lost the game.
el gordo 78:
Always done okay with the motorbike including in snow, when its been very easy to lose the back and push the front. especially when thereās 100bhp through a single contact patch the size of a credit card and only a few of hundred kilos weight to push it down - probably equivalent of bodging out 2500 horsies through a truckās bum end with tyres half the size they already are.
If you are unleashing all 100bhp in snow/ice then you either have balls the size of Basildon, or you are mad (or both). Motorbikes CAN be hard to control in snow/ice if you are clumsy with the controls, but in reality they are operating so far outside their peak power that it really isnāt that difficult.
I think the point Raymondo, was learning control of the power available.