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Topic Closedtravel in snow

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Happy Tripping View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: travel in snow
    Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 7:22am
The recent big storm caught us as we went from Virginia into West Virginia in the mountains. There has been recent discussion about using a trailer in snow and I thought the big fear was losing control and sliding. It isn't, at least for us. Our big concern was traction. If we hadn't had 205 tires (wide), we would have been hopeless. As it was, we finally gave up (should've quit earlier) when we saw a grocery store parking lot and stayed there overnite, with their permission and after buying a celebratory steak.




"There comes a time in the affairs of a man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation" - W.C. Fields
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furpod View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 8:03am
It's often a hard won skill to know when to quit.. safely.

It looks like that area will warm back up quickly and you should be on the road again.
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StephenH View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 8:32am
Or, when to stay put for a day or two to make sure you won't run into problems (like ice). Unhappy
I hope you have safe travels.
StephenH
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lostagain View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 9:45am
Furpod, you are absolutely right.  The skill of knowing when to quit is a precious thing that few possess.  I could fill a page with examples, but instead, I'll just say I'm really glad to hear that Happy is safe and sound for the very wise decision to wait it out.

Happy, when you mentioned traction, I assume you meant your car.  Is it awd?  Where we live, if we get an inch of snow on the road they'll put up chain controls.  For us it only matters if we're towing because then the snow tire exception does not apply.  

How did you handle the water / freezing pipe situation?  We've used our trailer while winterized with jugs of water, but it was on a very limited basis as we had access to my son's house where we could take care of the things that needed water and we were able to plug into electricity to run our West Marine space heater.

Hope your trip home passes safely.
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Happy Tripping View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 6:36pm
"There comes a time in the affairs of a man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation" - W.C. Fields
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Happy Tripping View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 6:56pm
Thanks for your kind responses.

We got out late the next morning, roads cleared and only wet.

We had already winterized because we are looking forward to some cross country skiing later in the year.

Yes, AWD (Jeep Trail Hawk), altho it got quite a strain and 4 WD automatically went 'down' on some of the longer climbs. Tires are wide, 245s, not 205s as written earlier, and that made a big difference, but still we were very, very happy to stop. (Jack-knifed semis and cars in the ditches) 

With a full charge of our single group 24 battery we can use the heater prudently and some lights for 2 full days in winter. We sleep under lots of warm blankets, so overnite was nothing. Also, head lamps are really valuable.
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StephenH View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Dec 2018 at 7:39pm
A big +1 on the headlamps! They are very useful, provided they are the bright LED headlamps and not the cheap ones with weak incandescent bulbs.
StephenH
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