Don't Drive if you Don't Have To

[TomC]

I've been seeing about bus crashes, leaking windows, tires going out, etc.  It is hard enough to get the bus into driving condition, let alone throwing in serious rain, snow, cold, heat, etc.  If you don't have to be somewhere right away, sometimes just a few hours makes the difference of having to be in inclement weather.
Personally, when I was driving truck during winter, if the snow chain laws went into effect, I just pulled off the road for the day.  Usually the next day would be sunny and nice-only once in 21 years of driving did I have to spend 2 nights in a truck stop waiting for the road to open up-Wyoming just closes the roads instead of having chain laws-which I think is smart.
Give yourself the best chance of arriving safely and do your driving during the day, when sunny, without any inclement weather to contend with.  No family get together or activity is worth risking a crash over.  Good Luck,  TomC

[gumpy]

Wyoming just closes the roads instead of having chain laws-which I think is smart.

That's because we got tired of having to go out in inclement weather and extricate stupid people from the carnage.

Didn't really matter if the roads were impassable or not, the EMS personell still had to respond.

[Lee Bradley]

Good advise, Tom. Of course, us skiers will ignore it but we are usually prepared for ice and snow.  

[ChuckMC9]

Great advice, Tom.
It's gonna have to be a serious emergency for me to get out in inclement weather or even at night.
I resist even driving my car at night.

Besides, I know it would have to be me who would have to clean all the crud from the undercarriage later on. I grunted and groaned enough cleaning up 20+ years of accumulation done by someone else. I hate it when I have to curse myself!

[lostagain]

Great phylosophy, however...

One does not always have the luxury to wait out the weather. Driving for Brewster's in the 70s, (Banff, Canadian Rockies), we drove skiers to the ski hills in all kinds of weather. The only thing that stopped us was the highway being closed for avalanche control or really bad conditions.
Now I drive our Junior Hockey team's bus all over southern British Columbia and northern Washington all winter. To drive or not to drive is my decision, but again the only thing stopping us is a closed highway. Coming home from hockey games is the hardest because it  is in the dark, and sometimes it is snowing or raining, no fun. If we can, we'll drive back the next morning if it is a Sunday.
The bus is kept in good repair, with the best tires we can get with a winter tread. I slow down in adverse conditions and drive as defensively and safely as possible. I have a good hockey coach in that I know my decision to stop would never be questionned.
So what I'm saying is in bad conditions, slow down, increase your following distance and stay off the Jakes and the cruise. Don't hesitate to stop once in a while to walk around the bus to get some fresh air and take a whiz. Stay awake.

[ttomas]

Lostagain, You advise to stay off the Jakes brakes in en-climate weather. I plan on installing Jakes in the future. I have never driven with them.
Would you or someone be kind enough to give a safety lesson as to why they should not be used in certain situations. Is it to avoid skidding? Thanks  Tomas

[HB of CJ]

Yep...one of the blessings/curses of living mostly in sunny Southern California is that most people from there (like me) never gather any real meaningful experience driving in crudy conditions.  When I drove Bus #21 for the Kern High School District in sunny pretty Bakersfield way back in 1970 or soossss, I remember only having to chain up the Crown twice or maybe three times.

Do remember how scary it was to step on the brakes for that known stop sign (empty, thank God) and having the 24,000 pound 10-wheeler just keep on sliding.  Aughhhhhh!  Also remember locking up the tandems and having the Crown just keep on going straight while the steering wheel is turned hard over.  Had to power turn her using farm tractor steering/throttle techinques.

Very lucky up here in SW Oregon in that we hardly ever get any real bad weather.  Oh, it snows a couple or three times a year, but usually it is less then 6 inches or soosss and it melts very quickly.  Also we are lucky that the State of Oregon and the local city/county does an excellent job of clearning what snow there is.  Sosssss far, never had to go during bad conditions.  Lucky. 

[bobofthenorth]

Tomas - the reason you don't want to use Jakes on ice is that you could find yourself coming off the power and having your rear wheels lock up.  Not good.  You want a gentle touch and everything under your control when driving on ice - that means no cruise and no jakes.

[lostagain]

Jakes is the best thing since the diesel engine was invented a hundred and some years ago. But they could lock up your drive wheels in slippery conditions (ice, heavy rain, etc). So don't take them for granted. Don't use them in questionable conditions. And yes you have to be one or two gears lower going down hill whithout Jakes, so you are still light on the brakes. Oh and by the way, I use a steady pressure on the pedal, "stabbing" would not be good in slippery conditions. Alluding to a recent thread about braking methods...)
Regarding cruise control, say you have it on going up a slight incline in winter conditions, then go over a bridge which might be icy. You might spin your drives and go out of control . It takes too long to reach for the switch to turn it off. You have a better feel for your vehicle and the road without Jakes or cruise control.

[RJ]

A long time ago, a grizzled old retired Greyhound driver told this rookie that when driving in poor conditions, drive like you've got a raw egg strapped to the bottom of your shoe, the objective of which is to not break the egg using the throttle or brakes.  I figured that this little tidbit of info from a 41-year career Blue Pooch Pilot, all 41 of which were without an accident, might just be worth something.

It sure was. . .



FWIW & HTH. . .

[prevost82]

I use my Jakes in snow but not in ICE or wet snow. I've never had a problem. I think the logging industry, around here, would have to shut down if they didn't use their Jakes. I've slipped more using my brakes in snow than I have with the Jakes. But I do agree you have to be careful and know what type of snow you're riding on. We have very dry snow in this area and it has good traction which is much differant than wet snow that has no traction.

[bobofthenorth]

The concept of different snow & different traction is really hard to explain to these southerners who only see snow about twice a year.  The word "snow" covers a wide variety of evils - the eskimos are supposed have like 257 different words for snow.  Those of us who drive on it regularly learn to recognize which type we are on & I agree, some types of snow driving actually have pretty good traction.  Its kind of in the category of "if you have to ask ............ "  If you are trying to develop a rule then the safest bet is "if you see snow turn off the cruise and jake" but I'd be the first to admit that I drive on snow with the cruise and jake regularly, like later on today for instance.