Need advice on winter towing. - Diesel Forum

Canadian_Ford · 02-19-2007, 01:56 PM

Will be pulling 26ft tt over mountain passes in 3 weeks. Should my weight be distributed any differently? WD bars higher or lower? What about the settings on my break controller, how should my breaking be setup?? thanks

John

00PSD1 · 02-19-2007, 02:55 PM

I would adjust the WD bar so the trailer is as close to level as possible so the tires are even distrubted on the ground. Also for your brake controller I would start on the low setting and adjust it from their. I would recomend you taking out the trailer for a test run in town and see how the trailer responds to the different WD bar settings and brake controller settings.

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Andrew

LMJD · 02-19-2007, 03:34 PM

This time of year I wouldn't be caught dead without a set of chains for one trailer axle. You can have dry black pavement one day and be on the longest ice rink the next if a cold front comes in. If you're in the slick stuff, keep your distance from vehicles ahead, etc. Slow down well ahead of sharp curves on the passes. Guys that have driven truck, etc, with a wide range of experience in the snow and ice will all tell you, the scariest most unperdictable combination is a pickup truck with ANY kind of trailer behind it. As you probably know, you can have dry pavement where the sun hits it, but bad patches of ice on the shady curves in the mountains that can last for weeks after a storm in the high country. As far as your controller, that's a dandy question, if it's set too high and the road's real slick, you're trailer brakes lock up and in a curve, the trailer's sliding sideways on you. Too low and you brake and suddenly your trailer is pushing your truck around the curve (jack-knife) because the truck's doing most of the braking. That's the reason's why I like a set of tlr. and truck chains if conditions get real bad. Key point in any event is brake real gradually.
I've never been to B.C. but I assume you get the central Or. northern Ca. type snow that turns to snowpack after it's driven on and provides fairly decent traction, but when you get around and over the Divide much of it looks like thin snowpack but it's solid white ice. When pulling a trailer I've never been too proud to pull over and check it out on foot to see how slick it was and I was glad I did a time or two.

Flywheel · 02-19-2007, 08:48 PM

Can you get studded trailer tires?

Bigshow · 02-19-2007, 09:35 PM

Just stay focused. Go slower into the corners if its slippery and descend hills slower than usual. If its slippery climbing, use 4x4.

Dualie · 02-20-2007, 12:51 AM

Remember if you chaining up your trailer to put the chains on the rear axle. Many people don't think of that.

Reason being is under braking the front axle tends to lift. Next time you see a big spread axle flatbed semi trailer that's on the brakes hard look at the front axle in relation to the rear axle. once you see in those circumstances you will be able to see it on most other trailers too.

And SLOW is your friend. I cant remember how many times some guy thought he was HOT $*** and went around me only to see them balled up in the ditch a couple of miles down the road.

Flywheel · 02-20-2007, 01:59 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Remember if you chaining up your trailer to put the chains on the rear axle. Many people don't think of that.

[/ QUOTE ] Assuming there are brakes on both axles, eh?

Dualie · 02-20-2007, 02:31 AM

I forget that some trailers have only one break axle.

I Always thought that was insane and would never own one that way.

BY all means if your trailer only has one axle with brakes on it, put them on that axle. The brake axle should be the rear for a half way engineered trailer. Makes the trailer much more stable during hard breaking.

Flywheel · 02-20-2007, 10:11 AM

Yep - it's all about cost savings. I looked at a 14K flatbed a while back..."our prices can't be beat" - they ended up $400 then I had lined up already - and only 1 brake axle....extra axle was $225 [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]

to the OP - be safe.

LMJD · 02-20-2007, 11:40 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Can you get studded trailer tires?

[/ QUOTE ]
If I remember correctly USFS or another govt. agency used to have a tire shop put studs in a certain number of their pickups' tires for winter use.

Another biggie to watch out for around and in the Rockies is the wind so you don't end up like this Never Park Facing N. or S. More than one TT gets blown over every year going down the road especially on icy roads. Bad part is, it can start and stop like you flipped a switch. Last Fri. and Sat. it blew and snowed so hard you could hardly stand up. Sun. a bunch of us moved 230 cows 15 miles on horseback and it couldn't have been calmer, sunny, and in the 40's (Lucky us for once). Today it's about to blow the house down again. Definitely not a towing day. With all that said, I don't mean to be overly negative, there's sure a lot of winter days great for towing, hope they're the ones you get.