Also Learned Some Stuff
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Huh. I wrote this a few weeks ago and I thought it had vanished. While exploring notifications for this site, it turned up again. This is a riff off of one of Steve's posts from a while back:
We live at the tippy top of a hill, at the end of a steep driveway that connects to a steep dirt road that drops precipitously to pavement--a quarter mile of luge run in the winter.
A couple of weeks ago we had an ice storm--very unusual for our part of the world. Not just us, but the entire valley and downtown were encased in ice. In town and in the valley it all melted pretty quickly. But up at our place--1,000 feet higher than the city--the ice persisted. Today was actually the first day I could drive down our road without going into a skid. And a few days ago, we slid sideways down our road in Mr Pique's 4Runner--while it was in first gear and set in 4W-EL!
Now for the education.
A week ago had recently gotten some snow atop the ice, which had melted into it, creating a non-slippery surface. I was due to go to my riding lesson, which for me is kind of like going to church. As is typical for this time of year, I did some reconnaissance to see if the road was safe for pulling a loaded horse trailer. I have a method for this--walk out on the ice in rubber boots carrying a metal tipped hiking pole. If I don't slip and the ski pole doesn't skid in the areas I plan to walk and drive, I can navigate the hill safely with my truck and trailer. Always worked before.
One little problem--between my car accident and Covid, I hadn't gotten around to putting studded snow tires on my truck. I kind of forgot about that. Also forgot that my new trailer is 1,000 lbs heavier than the trailer I was hauling last winter.
Anyway, Deva and I are walking from the barn to the trailer just fine, no slipping. All looks good. Get her loaded up, put the truck in gear, and almost immediately I went into a skid heading down the driveway. Got us straightened out, but then I had to turn to go down the road. The rig jacknifed on me and the nose of the truck ended up in a bank of dirt. We were totally blocking the road.
Of course the neighbors came out to see if they could help, and when I said I really just wanted to wait for a tow truck, they hung around telling stories of all the times they had jacknifed a trailer or slid off this road. Our closest neighbor described how he'd left his house at 4 am to go hunting, put his rig in gear, and immediately slid right into his house, decapitating his natural gas meter, with his wife inside the house and his engine running practically on top of the broken gas pipe. That must have been very exciting. He got that solved, decided to go hunting anyway, then proceeded to slide off our road with his camper.
All of this made me feel so much better, of course.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pique had gotten Deva out of the back of the trailer and onto the road, which now was incredibly slippery--between the time I had loaded her and then unloaded her, conditions changed from traction to no traction. Luckily she didn't fall on her way back to the barn. I was too shook up and was spooking my horse, which was why I left her unloading to the unflappable Mr. Pique.
The tow truck driver made it up the road with chains on. We had put chains on my truck, but the engine had died for some reason, so we needed a jump, too. The neighbor with the broken gas line gave permission for the tow truck driver to drive through his forest to come around to the uphill side of my rig. Whereupon he pulled the trailer straight, allowing me to drive the truck down the hill. The plan was the tow truck driver would follow behind me, then drive ahead of me coming back up the hill, so that he could help out if the truck died again or if I couldn't get up the road.
Here's where I learned some stuff:
The tow truck driver pointed out that the jackknife was caused by the trailer brakes locking. So step one was to unplug the trailer brakes.
He also said I need to drive both downhill and uphill in 4W-EL. And in first gear.
And then I found out that both going into and coming out of 4W-EL I had to put the truck in neutral.
Following his instructions, I was able to get down and then back up the hill.
The trailer has a minor dent in the nose, but my truck now has a twisted bumper and a cracked windshield.
Luckily the tailgate still opens and closes. Because the next thing we did was load up the studded snow tires in the bed of the truck so I could get them put on.Today there are still some really bad ice rinks on our road, while everything downhill from there is bare and dry. I followed the new protocol and got down and up safely with Deva in the trailer. And I got in my lesson!
And I am done with this hill. We are going to move somewhere, even if it is just into town.
fear is the thief of dreams
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Scary. Time to move.
At my place we are getting more ice. I think ii is because it is warmer, making temperatures around freezing more common. Big ice storms are common around the latitude of the Missouri -Arkansas border. An ice storm ruined all the trees around my parents home home in Missouri and knocked out power for over a week. -
Yes. We still have ice here since that ice storm. It never went away. We've been cycling between 40s during the day and freezing at night, and the ice just gets worse and worse and worse. I made a mix of sand and shavings in a utility sled, watered it well, and sprinkled it all over the ice in the horses' dry lot, but they are still afraid to venture much beyond their paddocks. Plenty of evidence of slipping and sliding by them. My mare has been all hunched up for weeks because of her tippy-toeing. We are shipping them off to boarding for the winter in a warmer valley, about 3.5 hours from here, where at least the ground is level. I'll be riding my teacher's horses the rest of the winter. I'll bring mine home when the ground is safe to walk on again.
Last year at this time we had a couple of days of 50 below zero ambient temperature. I'm told we'll be back to that by the second half of January. Maybe we'll be on a plane by then to a warmer climate.
We have also made "safe" paths with a sand/ashes wet mix between the house and the barn, and the house and the cars. At least the steep road is south facing and most of the ice melted off in the sun over the past few weeks. But now we have wet heavy snow on the ground again, and it is going to again turn to ice. I can't keep up.
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The tow truck driver pointed out that the jackknife was caused by the trailer brakes locking. So step one was to unplug the trailer brakes.
That doesnāt sound right to me. Do you have electric brakes or surge brakes?
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Wow. Thatās terrible! Glad it wasnāt worse. Taking riding lessons on your instructors horse sounds like a great plan. We had terrible ice out at the barn a couple of years ago - itās built up down near the gates to go in and Ruler fell and couldnāt get up - I had to get them to drive the manure cart out and we threw the manure all around him he was really traumatized - luckily the farrier was here - I had him put front shoes back on with the borium nubs on the bottom. I usually donāt do shoes in the winter, but that winter it was the only way to go. We managed barefoot last winter, and hope to again this winter
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Hmmm.
The purpose of the trailer brakes is to keep the weight of the trailer from pushing the back end of the truck around. Iāve even seen suggestions to use only the trailer brakes (hand control) on slippery downhill slopes to keep truck and trailer lined up.
OTOH, I can see where locked up trailer brakes would turn in to skis and would do nothing to assist with braking. Thatās probably what heās talking about.
Do you carry extra weight in the back of your truck in the winter? Pickups are notoriously light in the back and a lot of guys around here will add sandbags and such for better traction at the rear wheels.
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"Do you carry extra weight in the back of your truck in the winter? Pickups are notoriously light in the back and a lot of guys around here will add sandbags and such for better traction at the rear wheels."
I never go anywhere in winter without sandbags in the bed of the truck. Not just for the weight, but also to use the sand for traction if needed. I have a shovel back there also. But with a 2,600# trailer on the hitch, carrying an 1100# horse, I would think there's plenty of weight back there.
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Jeez, Jodi, that's terrifying! Deva has slipped on the ice here, fallen hard on her side, and slid 30 feet down the hill. That was our first winter here. A vet friend told me she put down four horses that weekend due to falls on the ice.
Now I put boots on Deva with ice studs in them, and when those don't work any more--the ice has gotten too slick even for studs--I have no choice but to lock her up while I get wet shavings down on the ice fields.
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they empty the manure cart on the road out (which is a fairly steep hill) and barn areas when it gets icy here - 60 horses make for a lot of manure, so it works for them. We also have a ton of sand around here, and I (which my back can handle it) often toss several shovelfuls in the icy areas between Rulers stall and the pasture gate. Itās a constant thing, for sure. Theyāve just fixed the gutters on the back of the 4-plex stall set that Ruler is in - which has made the paddocks way better, but now empties the melting snow out onto the path between the stalls and the pasture gate. I fell pretty badly there on my tailbone couple of years ago, and wonder if that didnāt contribute to the back issues Iām currently having. YakTrax for me now when the ice builds up!
