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Towing in the Snow - like riding a bicycle - NOT!

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
We made plans to spend the first full week of March at Andrew Jackson State Park in South Carolina. We've been making last minute preparations and though everything was ready to go. Weather in Indiana has been all over the charts, but did not expect a very heavy blanket of snow to fall over night, and definitely did not expect to be driving on snow covered roads. After all, the weather man has been saying our cold snap was suppose to start turning around Saturday.... Right?

Well, snow! But we left anyway, even though the roads looked like this: Our destination for day 1 travel was Milton, WV staying at the KOA.






Towing in the snow was no problem at all. I've done it before, it just meant going slow. My top speed for the first hour was about 30 MPH, gradually moving in a Southward direction, but more East. And the speed increased gradually. Once we crossed over the Indiana-Ohio state line on I-70, now finally running 50 mph, we took the first rest stop and THAT'S when I remembered the toll that towing in the snow takes! No, not on my nerves or my skills. On this:

Yea, this is one of the door handles on the truck:



Here's another one:



Here's the full view. Oh My Gosh! I had given the camper a full bath just a week early. It WAS so shinny and I had it spotless! Now this:













Even after being on the road a couple hours, we still had snow hanging on.



But this is what really got my attention. Functionally, it didn't affect anything, it just looks awful:











We made it safely to the KOA, unwinterized the water line, and have been enjoy our traditional Wine and Cheese to celebrate our first camp-out of the year.

Tomorrow morning, we head out for Andrew Jackson State park. Hopefully, there's no more snow. Buy my goodness, my camper and truck is dirty!
35 REPLIES 35

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
Made it home. No snow at all, Temps hovered around 33 all day. I did the pink in WV KOA this morning. So all is good. Trip was fantastic and had a great time with my cousin and family too.

Now, back to work tomorrow. .. oh such joy.

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
kicker wrote:
Dutchman,
I live in Batesville, IN just short drive from Pendelton. If you are coming back this weekend, major cold front came thru. Sat thru maybe next Thursday day time temps here low 30's with night time temps low 20's. Just giving you headsup

Kicker


Thanks kicker.

We are now at the Milton, West Virginia KOA for the night.

We've been getting reports from home about weather conditions. We checked and Milton, WV was suppose to be below 32, so when we left Andrew Jackson State Park this morning, I blew the lines in the camper.

Here at Milton, WV, I pressurized with water again and got everything running again. My camper is suppose ot have the polar package, which mean about 50 percent of the heat goes under the floor. So, we should be OK tonight. I'm running water from my fresh water tank, and not hooked up to the campground water.

Tomorrow morning (Sunday), I'm planning on re-winterizing again (with the pink stuff this time), in anticipation of the Anderson - Pendleton area being below 32 and staying there. So, we've got the cold covered, no problem, I'm just hoping we can get home before snow hits again.

For anyone interested, tonight... Saturday, the folks in South Carolina (South of Charlotte, NC) are expecting temps to be below freezing also. There's still some really brave souls staying put at Andrew Jackson this week-end. Everyone we talked to are all basically in the same boat, they all say, "Bring it on! We're ready, and we aren't going anywhere!"

Thanks again! I appreciate the confirmation on the weather!

And by the way ... the camper and truck are still about as dirty as they can get! I'm not even going to try washing now. I'll now wait for a much warmer day ... at home now!

kicker
Explorer
Explorer
Dutchman,
I live in Batesville, IN just short drive from Pendelton. If you are coming back this weekend, major cold front came thru. Sat thru maybe next Thursday day time temps here low 30's with night time temps low 20's. Just giving you headsup

Kicker

dblr
Explorer
Explorer
Glad your trip is going well and it is always nice to meet someone who you have talked to on a forum, enjoy the visit and have a safe trip home.
2017 River Stone Legacy 38MB
2001 Kenworth T2000
2009 Smart on the deck.

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
Follow up!

We made it just fine to Andrew Jackson State Park in SC. We arrived Sunday evening after our stay in West Virginia at the KOA. We were greeted by fellow RV.net forum member kcfissel who was on campsite 15. We were on campsite 14. We'd never met before, just a casual contact via RV.net.

We had a really great time! We shared stories about everything from A-Z, lots of discussion about RV.net and all the various topics that come up on here.

We're about the same age, (over 60 ... enough said)... so we weren't into the run, run, run type camping. Just lots of sharing together making a meaningful friendship.

Our doggies finally quit being so hyper with each other and mellowed down, so it was a really nice visit with each other.

Kcfissel left home this morning, we'll be here to Sunday morning.

I'm looking forward to meeting up with my first cousin and family on Thursday, who just recently moved to a suburb of Charlotte, NC (about 40 minutes from where we're camped at).

Friday is our 32nd wedding anniversary, no plans made, just lots of rest and relaxation and enjoy the VERY quiet and peaceful state park here.

We'll be heading back to Indiana on Saturday morning, will probably take 2 days to do the trip home, and probably end up staying over night at the same KOA we visited on the way down.

Not sure about re-winterizing the camper to get back to Indiana. March is still very "iffy-iffy" with temperatures, so we'll keep a close eye on the weather in Indianapolis via the local television station apps on our cell phones.

And by the way, I still have not had an opportunity to wash the trailer or the truck. No snow here in South Carolina. Temps today got up to 71 degrees, but the truck trailer still have all the cruddy dirt hanging on from the trip here.

Back to work again on Monday. Time is sure moving fast.

Once again, many, many, many thanks to forum member kcfissel for him and his wife's outstanding friendliness and generosity! They were truly a delight to meet and fellowship with. I hope we get to meet again someday. (They are from South Carolina).

Lantley
Nomad
Nomad
MeandMyLabs wrote:
We pulled our Jayco, several years ago, to northern Illinois in a snowstorm. Got there ok but by that time there was 6" on the ground. Scooped and got setup. Then it snowed another 3" overnight. I had the tv antenna up but when time came to leave, we had a lot of issues getting it back down because of snow and ice where it would lay. Travel home was uneventful but then the temps plummeted and I couldn't wash the trailer. After a few more weeks, temperatures warmed and I could clean the trailer, but things really rusted. I had to remove and repaint the front stabilizer jacks and take apart the manual tongue jack to lube and paint. The next summer we realized some of the pivot points on our manual awning had rusted also.

I will do everything in my power to not tow in that kind of weather again.

My thoughts exactly,
The effect of the road salt will be around long after the snow has gone.
19'Duramax w/hips,12'Open Range,Titan Disc Brake
BD3,RV safepower,22" Blackstone
Ox Bedsaver,RV760 w/BC20,Glow Steps, Enduraplas25,Pedego
BakFlip,RVLock,5500 Onan LP,Prog.50A surge,Hughes autoformer
Porta Bote 8.0 Nissan,Sailun S637
Correct Trax,Splendide

MeandMyLabs
Explorer
Explorer
We pulled our Jayco, several years ago, to northern Illinois in a snowstorm. Got there ok but by that time there was 6" on the ground. Scooped and got setup. Then it snowed another 3" overnight. I had the tv antenna up but when time came to leave, we had a lot of issues getting it back down because of snow and ice where it would lay. Travel home was uneventful but then the temps plummeted and I couldn't wash the trailer. After a few more weeks, temperatures warmed and I could clean the trailer, but things really rusted. I had to remove and repaint the front stabilizer jacks and take apart the manual tongue jack to lube and paint. The next summer we realized some of the pivot points on our manual awning had rusted also.

I will do everything in my power to not tow in that kind of weather again.
2017 Salem Hemisphere
2009 Chevrolet 2500 HD 6.0 L

Frostbitte
Explorer
Explorer
Crazy.
Up here the earliest we've ever stayed in our trailer was late March. Last fall we finished up with camping early November. This was out of necessity rather than "camping". That's another story and we enjoyed ourselves. Regardless, the time I had to drive with our 5'er in snow was in May. We had great, warm weather and then a freak snow and low temps hit us the day we headed home. This was back in 2010. It was scary driving home. Didn't do any more than 60KM/h. Even with a 2wd truck at the time the extra weight on the wheels helped a lot.
2011 RAM 3500 Laramie 4x4 6.7 Cummins 6-speed Auto 4.10
2004 Prowler 275 CKS (Sold)
2014 Sabre 36QBOK-7 5th wheel
2016 Forest River 8 x 20 Cargo Trailer

rhagfo
Explorer III
Explorer III
Turtle n Peeps wrote:
Snow is pretty easy to tow and drive in. Ice? Not so much!


X2
Snow I will tow, ICE not so much!!
Russ & Paula the Beagle Belle.
2016 Ram Laramie 3500 Aisin DRW 4X4 Long bed.
2005 Copper Canyon 293 FWSLS, 32' GVWR 12,360#

"Visit and Enjoy Oregon State Parks"

NJRVer
Explorer
Explorer
DutchmenSport wrote:
We made plans to spend the first full week of March at Andrew Jackson State Park in South Carolina. We've been making last minute preparations and though everything was ready to go. Weather in Indiana has been all over the charts, but did not expect a very heavy blanket of snow to fall over night, and definitely did not expect to be driving on snow covered roads. After all, the weather man has been saying our cold snap was suppose to start turning around Saturday.... Right?

Well, snow! But we left anyway, even though the roads looked like this: Our destination for day 1 travel was Milton, WV staying at the KOA.






Towing in the snow was no problem at all. I've done it before, it just meant going slow. My top speed for the first hour was about 30 MPH, gradually moving in a Southward direction, but more East. And the speed increased gradually. Once we crossed over the Indiana-Ohio state line on I-70, now finally running 50 mph, we took the first rest stop and THAT'S when I remembered the toll that towing in the snow takes! No, not on my nerves or my skills. On this:

Yea, this is one of the door handles on the truck:



Here's another one:



Here's the full view. Oh My Gosh! I had given the camper a full bath just a week early. It WAS so shinny and I had it spotless! Now this:













Even after being on the road a couple hours, we still had snow hanging on.



But this is what really got my attention. Functionally, it didn't affect anything, it just looks awful:











We made it safely to the KOA, unwinterized the water line, and have been enjoy our traditional Wine and Cheese to celebrate our first camp-out of the year.

Tomorrow morning, we head out for Andrew Jackson State park. Hopefully, there's no more snow. Buy my goodness, my camper and truck is dirty!




Pretty interesting how dirty the truck and trailer are with the exception of the rear cap.
I would think it would be worse, like the back window in an SUV gets covered in road grime.

dblr
Explorer
Explorer
73guna wrote:
dblr wrote:


That looks like a UPS pup?


Yes it is.
I drove through some freezing rain/icy roads about a week ago.
Ice takes its toll on a guy after a long night of driving.


Thought it looked familiar, I drove for UPS for over 30 years and remember those nights, used to have a cab over Mack and that poor Bulldog got covered with ice so much I didn't think it would thaw out until July!!!!!!! Drive safe
2017 River Stone Legacy 38MB
2001 Kenworth T2000
2009 Smart on the deck.

tinner12002
Explorer
Explorer
Yuk, I don't really even like the cold weather anymore let alone camping in it...have a great time!
2015 Ram 3500/DRW/Aisin/auto/Max tow/4.10s,Cummins, stock Laramie Limited--Silver
Tequila Sunrise 2012 Ultra Classic Limited
2018 Raptor 428SP

73guna
Explorer
Explorer
dblr wrote:


That looks like a UPS pup?


Yes it is.
I drove through some freezing rain/icy roads about a week ago.
Ice takes its toll on a guy after a long night of driving.
2007 Chevy Silverado Crewcab Duramax.
2016 Wildwood 31qbts.

Turtle_n_Peeps
Explorer
Explorer
Snow is pretty easy to tow and drive in. Ice? Not so much!
~ Too many freaks & not enough circuses ~


"Life is not tried ~ it is merely survived ~ if you're standing
outside the fire"

"The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly."- Abraham Lincoln