Travel Winter Question

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danielr4122

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Dec 23, 2012
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I'm planning a 10 day trip x-mas day to north AR. Coming from south Ga I have limited experience with cold weather traveling. I have a 2005 Coachmen Cross Country d-pusher and pulling a jeep wrangler. Do I have to worry about pipes freezing while the coach is driving/sitting/camping. I just put a new set of tires on last week. How will it handle if there is any snow. I will have it completely detailed when I get back to remove/clean any salt from the road. Any advice will be great.

Thanks
Daniel 
 
In snow, ice or even roads with morning frost, a motorhome will quite easily lose rear end traction, when either braking or accelerating. Just take it easy - gentle starts and stops only. You may have an anti-lock system on the rear brakes - that will help a lot on braking. And don't use cruise or the exhaust brake on slippery roads.

As for pipes and hoses, yes you should stay aware of the expected temperatures. Several hours below freezing can freeze up an outside water hose, sewer hose, and the sewer dump spouts and valve. Probably no issue with internal water lines as long as the coach is heated enough for you to be comfortable.
 
Thanks for the help. My main concern is the interior pipes in the coach freezing and driving through mt eagle. I know they are calling for snow but I'm not sure i want to drive in mt eagle with out my engine break. Do other motorhomes and semi's just use the transmission to slow them down while driving down mountains like mt eagle.

Thanks for any advise.
 
Daniel...

About three years ago, my family and I were headed home in our motorhome on I-8. While climbing a  mountain pass east of San Diego, I noticed the temperature dropping quickly - faster than normal because a cold front was passing through. It was drizzling, not snowing, and when the moisture hit my windshield it started to freeze near the edges and around the windshield wipers. As we crested a hill and started down a 6% grade (at about 50 mph), I saw at least 10 vehicles spun out and stopped at different angles, all over the freeway in front of us.

People were outside their vehicles and running all over the place. As soon as I touched my brakes to begin slowing, I heard the tires begin to slide on the iced-over road, and the coach started to slip sideways, and spin ever so slightly, nose-left. The ONLY thing I could do was get off the brakes (I had barely applied them), and carefully weave between the people and cars. Luckily, we made it.

But I'm here to tell you that THAT was scary. Cyndi and I later learned that two people died in one of those spinouts when their 4WD SUV skidded off the side of the freeway and down a cliff. My brakes are anti-lock brakes and were/are in good shape, but they had virtually no ability to slow, much less stop my coach in those conditions.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you're going to be pushing a coach in similar conditions, just take it easy and give yourself lots of extra space and time. I know I have no desire to drive my RV through a mountain pass in those conditions again.

Kev
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
In snow, ice or even roads with morning frost, a motorhome will quite easily lose rear end traction, when either braking or accelerating. Just take it easy - gentle starts and stops only. You may have an anti-lock system on the rear brakes - that will help a lot on braking. And don't use cruise or the exhaust brake on slippery roads.

As for pipes and hoses, yes you should stay aware of the expected temperatures. Several hours below freezing can freeze up an outside water hose, sewer hose, and the sewer dump spouts and valve. Probably no issue with internal water lines as long as the coach is heated enough for you to be comfortable.

Gary, can you explain the reason for not using the exhaust brake? It seems like the exhaust brake should have much less tendency to lock up the wheels than do the regular disk brakes.

Joel
 
I'm only repeating the standard warnings from diesel chassis manufacturers and professional drivers.

I think the issue is that in most vehicles the engine brake would engage every time you let off on the accelerator, each time creating an opportunity to skid. And further opportunities occur each time the tranny downshifts during e-braking.  Plus, you can't disengage the e-brake as quickly as you can let up on a brake pedal, or modulate the force it applies. Thus the concern is about control of the braking force being applied to the rear wheels (and rear only) by the exhaust or engine brake or transmission retarder. In any sort of slippery conditions, you want to have immediate and ultra-fine control of braking effort. If it is really slick, you don't want any extra braking force at all applied to the wheels, either e-brake or service brake. You just coast and let speed bleed off gently as you maintain control the best you can.

The major handling issue with any rear engine coach on slick pavement is that any break in rear-end traction will immediately let the rear end start to swing around, because the rear is so much heavier than the front, and you have only a fraction of a second to counteract.
 
Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like everything will be ok as long as I take my time and not get into a hurry. I have decided if there is ice and snow on the roads then we will stay another.

Thanks
Daniel.
 
Gary is right about a very fine line in braking with a rear engine chassis. I used to drive fire trucks in Canada for years and on one call we were responding on glare ice. We had to make a right turn at the upcoming corner and I was barely moving. I appied the brakes just enough to make the turn and the rear end spun around 180 degrees, and there was no way of stopping it. We were just along for the ride. Fortunately no one was coming the opposite direction, and yes, fire truck was a rear engine design.
 
After driving on ice and snow for 56 years only one thing has ever worked for me on a downhill grade.  At the top of the grade shift down to a lower gear.  The steeper the hill the lower the gear.  Creep down the hill with no throttle and no brakes and hope nobody is going slower than you are.
 
Don't be in a hurry to die!

Use the gearbox gently, you don't need to be in Auto, you can work your way on side streets by selecting 3rd or 4th on a 6 speed box.

Allow 2 times as much distance as normal, if someone screams past and snatches your space, back off even more and avoid the stupidity.

Take turns gently and smoothly.

If you start to skid, turn into the skid with the front end, as it comes back into control, steer back the way you want to go, if you loose it again steer back into the skid.

If you are on a downhill beginning to brake, and the back of the DP steps out on you, you can sometimes stop it from doing a 180? by getting off the brakes and back on the gas... (it's another counterintuitive thing to do), but it should snap the DP back into line, and then when you brake again, the direction of force is through the center line of the MH and that is the optimal positioning for braking!

Take it slow, and you'll stand a better chance of getting where you want to go with the safest trip.
 
The reason not to use an exaust brake is that it brakes the drive shaft. Since you don't have locked differential, if one wheel is on slick spot all of the braking force will go to the other; this is the same reason you don'use a speed control, or brake using a lower gear in a gas rig, under slippery conditions.

Ernie
 
Arkansas gets so little snow they don't have equipment to do a good job of maintaining the roads in winter conditions. Don't get lulled into thinking it will be better after it quits snowing.  Last year we had an inch of snow and school was closed for 9 days.  The snow does not melt on the north side of the hills where the sun doesn't get to it.

With the current forcast, I would think twice or even three times about heading this way.  Especially if you are inexperienced driving a motorhome.  Most of the people you will meet on the road will be inexperienced driving on snow.
 
Great Horned Owl said:
Gary, can you explain the reason for not using the exhaust brake? It seems like the exhaust brake should have much less tendency to lock up the wheels than do the regular disk brakes.

Joel

Even with my Dodge Pickup the exhaust brake hit hard enough to lock the rear axle up on ice and start sliding. It actually strong enough on dirt road to start skipping the rear axle.  Exhaust brake have be used with extreme care in the winter. If the outside temperature is falling below 35*F it best to just turn it off. As for winter travel the best tool is that outside temp gauge and watch it. If the temp starts falling below +35*F I drop speed and treat the roads like they are black ice regards of the appearance.

In 23 years of living in Idaho I've only slide of the highway ONCE. That was enough so now I'm very aware of road conditions and weather conditions.
 
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