ALWAYS carry tire chains....yup, I said always

John316 · September 21, 2012, 09:56:02 AM

We were at a house for a few days, that had a rough entrance. I honestly thought about the entrance as being the worst part. Tight turn onto gravel type driveway with a pretty steep down hill. Going in was fine. Tough turn, and we had to cut across the grass, but not bad.

The problem was getting out. Gravity helped get us in, but NOT out. Just like most buses, ours can get stuck on a banana peel. The road that we backed out onto was one of the smallest two lane roads that is out there. VERY tight. First couple runs didn't make it. Spun out way to early. Finally, we got some more gravel in there, packed it down with a car, and decided to take another run at it. A Sheriff's deputy was blocking traffic for us. He told us to take all of the time that we need, great guy.

I remembered that we might have one set of chains still on the bus. Usually I take them off, but somehow I left one set on there. I put chains on the two driver side drive axle (one on each dual). We just barely made it out of there. Still slipping, and just about a 12 point turn when we were at the top.

If we wouldn't have had the chains, we would have had to call a wrecker. Carry chains. You never know when they will help.

FWIW

John

Utahclaimjumper · September 21, 2012, 03:25:57 PM

A short walk and a hard look may have saved you all that trouble.>>>Dan

LowTide · September 21, 2012, 04:00:42 PM

Wow! Sounds like you cut that one close....good to hear you made it out.

pabusnut · September 21, 2012, 06:00:59 PM

I guess you are also glad you have an automatic!

John316 · September 22, 2012, 11:25:14 AM

It was a close one.

Dan, I agree. We should have seen that. I think we checked every other angle, and the grade didn't look too bad. Problem was we missed that. I always walk anything questionable first. Didn't help us this time, LOL.

And yes. I love our S60 with the B500. There wasn't a question of enough torque to get up. Just traction. If we would have had an old manual, whee. That would have been bad.

Have fun.

John

Tony LEE · September 22, 2012, 06:14:38 PM

Did you let the air out of the tags to increase traction

John316 · September 22, 2012, 06:54:24 PM

Quote from: Tony LEE on September 22, 2012, 06:14:38 PM
Did you let the air out of the tags to increase traction

No sir. We needed every single inch of height we had, including the rear "high rise" feature (when activated it inflates the rear air bags all the way, gaining us maybe another 4-6in of clearance). It was so close to high centering as it was. If we stayed on the gravel driveway all the way up (without turning to get on the road) the tag axle was actually off of the ground.

I have mixed feelings on dumping the air on the tag (BW, JC and other pro's, y'all weigh in). I really wonder if it helps that much. We have closed shoulder tires. On the outside they look like a drag racer tires, and inside of that it has tread pattern. Does adding more weight when on something slick really help? I have heard it does, but I wonder....Any thoughts? I can start a new topic if you all want...maybe I should.

Thanks,

John

lostagain · September 22, 2012, 07:09:30 PM

I know from experience that dumping the air out of the tags adds a lot of weight onto the drive tires and helps a lot on packed wet snow and ice. Doesn't help in deep snow or mud, would make the drivers bog down. Need good winter tread for that.

JC

John316 · September 22, 2012, 07:12:51 PM

Quote from: lostagain on September 22, 2012, 07:09:30 PM
I know from experience that dumping the air out of the tags adds a lot of weight onto the drive tires and helps a lot on packed wet snow and ice. Doesn't help in deep snow or mud, would make the drivers bog down. Need good winter tread for that.

JC

Bingo. I wondered if that was the case. Usually we always have closed shoulder tires on our bus (more like that is always what we have on there). That makes a lot of sense.