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RE: [RC] Snow chains on trailers? - heidi
LOL! Lost Trail Pass is the pass between Ed's house and
mine... <g> I actually prefer it in winter to the freeway passes, because of the lack of traffic. I've had to cross it several times in winter since we moved back here, and so far have never had to chain up for it (although am sure the time will come)--I do use my 4WD over it in winter, and go slow, but you CAN go slow on it, because there aren't any yayhoos trying to pass you in traffic, or that sort of thing.
But then I grew up in the shadow of Lost Trail Pass, and also had to
know how to chain up a rig before my daddy would let me drive... <g>
Actually, the worst pass conditions I've had to drive in were in Oregon
on passes over the Cascades in really bad storms--and that's where I used to be pretty consistent about carrying drag chains for the trailer, although I never used them.
Lucy is right that Donner can get pretty ugly, too--and it is WAY more
impacted than our peaceful passes here by heavy traffic, much of which is not terribly experienced in bad-weather driving. IMO that's a far worse danger than the bad roads themselves.
Heidi
High country hunter friends of mine claim that you need to put chains on all 4 corners of both the truck and the trailer. Remember that they are talking about gravel, unmaintained mountain roads which often are banked completely the wrong way. On the other hand, on the way back from Phoenix we went over Morida Pass on I-15 between ID and Dillon MT. The pass was snow packed etc. and we had a 4x4 with summer tires. We just put it into 4 wd and went slowly. Now the highway department did not have "chains only" signs out, the pass has a rather gentle slope with no real switchbacks. We only saw 2 cars in the ditch, and only one had serious injuries associated with it. I suspect that going around switchbacks on the downhill would be the real test. We did not want to take that test so we decided not to go over Lost Trail Pass, but to follow I90 to Missoula. Lost Trail pass has some switchbacks signed for 20 mph. That is for dry pavement. The detour added 122 miles to the trip, but was better than unsuccessfully attempting a pass.
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