Snow driving advice?

[fredcliff]

Hey all We are heading to Atlantic City with our MCI Coach on Tuesday. From Rochester NY to Atlantic City They are calling for snow anyone have any advice on handling or driving in snow?

[DMoedave]

What type of coach? 2 or 3 axle? Auto or manual? We have a 2 axle and it had a manual. We have been caught in snow a few times. Last Dec heading to Jacks even! We got caught in a freak snow returning from Arcadia one year in the Carolinas. We counted about 30 cars in the ditches before traffic came to a standstill. Remember down there they dont have as much snow removal equip like the NE. Anyway we jumped off in time to avoid the back up and drove 30 miles on US 301 and it took us over an hour. We had decent traction, no sliding but all 4 semi's and i kept plenty of stopping distance. If you stay on the major roads and listen hard to the weather and traffic and drive for the conditions you should be fine.

[lostagain]

Good winter tread tires. I also run all position tires on the steers and the tags, to keep you tracking straight and for breaking. Don't put too much pressure in them either. The hockey team's MCI 102 D 3 is at 100 steer, 85 drive and 75 tag.

If you have the time, pull over for a few hours untill the roads are cleared after a storm. If not carry on.

A bus has very good traction because of all the weight on the drive axle. You will be driving by semis spun out half way up the hills putting their chains on.

If you need to in really slippery conditions, take the air out of the tags air bags and lift them. That's only to get out of a slippery spot, don't drive long distance with the tags up.

Drive nice and slow, smooth, lots of space between you and the one in front of you.

JC

[buswarrior]

A coach is my number one choice to drive in the snow.

Decent traction, excellent directional stability, stopping just as crappy as everything else.

Leave a lot of space out front, and then leave more.

However, if there is freezing rain on the road....

The coach is not your friend anymore.

Strongly consider waiting, parked out of the line of fire, for the salt truck.

Good brake maintenance pays off large in slippery conditions. This is the last place you want uneven braking.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[chuckd]

Heed buswarrior's advice, you cannot have too much distance in front of you.  You will have good traction, less pressure in your tires is good, on my drive's to Montana my DVD is my best friend.  Pull over watch a movie and wait for the plows to come by

Oh yes lots of fluid in your windshield washers.

chuckd

[fredcliff]

Thanks guys its a MCI M9. we are headed to Atlantic City for a show at a casino so have to give our best shot. hopefully it will pas and the will have things cleaned up

[HB of CJ]

Nothing I can add to the excellent answers already given.  When I had my 1974 Crown Supercoach 10-wheeler, for laughs I would light her up; lock up the tandems and do burn outs and donuts in the 10" icy snow.  Stupid, but fun and drew lots of attention.

Way back in the dim past (around 1970 or soos) I occasionally drove from Frazier Park north to Bakersfield up and down the Ridge Route with my daily drive, a 1963 Crown Supercoach.  Usual load was around 50 high school kids.  Chaining up all 10 wheels was no fun.

But...I'm a LA boy and have no real ice or snow driving experience.  If given any kind of choice, I would simply not drive at all.  But....if you have to go, just drive from noon til dusk, go slow, be prepared for delays and chaining and drive safely.  HB of CJ (old coot)

[pabusnut]

DON'T--Unless you absolutely have to!

I have lived in Pennsylvania for 39 of my 47 years, and know how to drive well in snow in all my vehicles.
BUT--there are way too many people on the road now from who knows where that don't! 

The glut of 4WD SUV's with traction control have made even many people too bold--too adventurous!  People will pull out in front of you like the ground is dry--because they can with no consideration for anyone other than themselves. 

The interstates seem to become parking lots when a flake of snow or a drop of rain falls, especially if it is near rush hour.

I have been trained to do a Risk Assessment prior to all operations, and for me the risk is too high and benefit too low to travel in my bus when it is snowing.  There is no way to mitigate the risk that stupid people will be on the road.  My plan is to stop where safe off the road and fire up the heat and go to sleep until conditions improve. 

Steve Toomey
Pabusnut

[lostagain]

I forgot to tell you: if it is really slippery wet snow or freezing rain, don't use the Jakes or Cruise Control. And a heated seat cushion is so nice...

JC

[ruthi]

Don't if you don't have to. We were driving a few yrs back from Kansas to Colorado, and it was cold. There had been a little snow previously, and we were out in the middle of no where. We came over a small hill and we hit some black ice and the bus slid sideways for a while. Pretty scary. In the same spot there was police standing in the middle of the road stopping traffic. Trouble was, he should have been up the highway far enough to warn people there. I thought we were going to hit him, as we could not stop. There was a bus from the blind school there in Co. Springs that had also hit the ice, and had lost control and rolled. There was clothes, pillows, luggage everywhere. Luckily no one was hurt seriously. It must have been really scary for those kids. Black ice scares me more than snow. Ya never know where it is lurking. Be safe, Ruthi

[belfert]

I forgot to tell you: if it is really slippery wet snow or freezing rain, don't use the Jakes or Cruise Control. And a heated seat cushion is so nice...

My experience with an early winter storm in Utah/Wyoming in early Oct 2009 was that the Jakes worked better than the service brakes.  If I hit the service brakes we would start sliding.  The Jakes worked fine, but we were only going 25 to 30 MPH.  I was driving and I pulled off at an exit, but it takes a long time between exits out west at slow speeds.

I know the conventional wisdom is not to use Jakes in slippery conditions, but they worked better in that circumstance.

[trucktramp]

Rochester on east is usually not too bad once you get away from that Lake Effect snow.  If you are going across I 90 they usually keep the thruway pretty clean.  I would suggest that you take your time.  Leave early so you don't have to rush.  Make sure that you have plenty of fuel for the coach and the genny because you may have to sit for a while.  Learn to read the road.  If the lane is shiny and you can see the reflection of the tail lights of the car in front of you on the roadway, and they look smeared like the road is wet as opposed to just a glow then you are quite possibly running on ice.  On coming headlights will do the same thing.  At this point snow usually has better traction than the clear road.  You can run "offset" in the lane which is where you travel close to or partially on the shoulder or next to the center line putting your wheels out of the shiny area and on to the snow covered area.  The traction is better here.   Watch for spray off the tires of passing cars/trucks that tells you that the shine is just water.  If it is bitter cold (below 0 degrees)  salt does not work well so don't count on it.  Also, the heat from tires will melt the ice and it will quickly re-freeze very smooth like a Zamboni on a hockey arena.  This is another time to run offset.  Don't drive if you are not comfortable in the weather.  Pull off the road and wait it out.  Sorry about the long post.   

[TomC]

If the weather starts getting bad and it is snowing- PULL OFF AND WAIT IT OUT!  I drove truck for 21 years and 1.3 million miles-had to carry chains, but never used them.  When the roads started freezing up (at about 28 degrees), pull over and camp out till the next day.  9 times out of 10 the storm will have blown over and it will be nice and sunny.  Only once in the entire 21 years did I have to wait 2 days for the roads to open up-and that was in Wyoming.  Wyoming has the right idea-if the roads are too slippery or snowy to drive on without chains-they just close the roads until they are.  I hated running in snow so much, I only worked 9 months a year and took the 3 winter months off (they were usually slow anyway-not many people want to move in the winter).  Good Luck, TomC

[bevans6]

My experience came from driving school buses in  Ottawa, Ontario.  I would worry a lot more about getting to the bus yard and getting the bus to start than I did about driving it, it just seem solid and stable no matter what.  We used to get snow days when they sent the kids home early, so we used to drive in a lot of snow storms.  6" overnight didn't cancel school runs, it took closer to 10" to do that...

If I got caught in a storm, I'd probably either stop or do whatever the truck drivers were doing.  But you don't want to run out of fuel to keep warm either.

Brian

[kyle4501]

Here in the south, aside from the lack of snow removal equipment is the problem with afternoon melting & nightly refreezing makes for lots of black ice.

Keep your fuel tanks full & don't rush the trip.

When he sensed excess urgency, my grand dad asked the guestion - 'what's the point of taking the trip if you die on the way there?'