[VAC] Re: winter towing

[Jim Dunmyer <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

A friend who used to drive tractor-trailer rigs a lot when not farming
told me an interesting story:

He was coming North through Ohio one cold day, cruising along at 50-60
MPH at night in a light rain. He happened to notice that oncoming
traffic seemed to be going very slowly, and many of them were running
with 2 wheels on the berm of the road. He took his foot off the throttle
and was horrified when the speedometer dropped almost instantly to about
5 MPH. Being quite aware of what's going on, he knew that he was on
glare ice and the drive wheels were sliding. Naturally, he got back on
the throttle, then took about 2 or 3 miles to get 'er slowed down.

Personally, I'm in the "tohellwithit" camp when it comes to driving on
ice, particularly with a trailer. I keep balancing the "I gotta be there
at suchandso a time" vs. "I'll be really, really, late and maybe dead if
I crash". That thinking makes it easier for me to stay put for a while
and stick to the Interstates when they get things cleared up.

Ice is horrible, rain on ice is impossible. I've fallen smack on my butt
while walking VERY carefully on ice in the rain. I've also failed to
negotiate a mild hill with a 4WD Jeep CJ5 when it was raining over
ice/packed snow. That was after sliding right across the road into a
shallow ditch as I left my drive.

                                               <<Jim>>