This is my absolute worst experience towing over the years. It could have been avoided. That's all i have to say about that...
I have towed twice on snowy winter roads with my Starcraft Gemini. Once in Colorado and once in Wyoming. It is not fun. Both times we were caught off guard by mountain snows. The Wyoming trip was the worst. We were at Yellowstone National Park and were packing up at 3:00 AM local time to head back east. It started snowing. Nothing heavy, just a light dusting. I have 4WD tow vehicles and wasn't too concerned, though we were about to cross over the Rockies. The snow stopped as we were pulling out of the camp ground and I thought we were good to go.
We were fine until we got to the very top of the mountain. I had put the automatic Xterra into 4WD HI about a mile from the top as we had lost traction a time or two. As we crossed the top and started into a banked left hand curve, I started slowing down. The wife said, "Whoa, that looks like ice!" I reached for the gear selector with the intention of dropping the truck down into 2nd. Before I could even move the lever, the rear of the truck started sliding. The camper had pushed us sideways!
We jack knifed before I could react! The camper was going straight but the truck was almost pointed back up the mountain! We were sliding towards one of those famous drop offs with no guard rail, and no way to stop it. Realizing we were going to go over unless I did something, I did the only thing I could think of, I cranked the wheel all the way to the left, floored the truck and grabbed the manual brake control on the Prodigy and slammed it on full. This had the effect of immediately causing the truck to slide toward the left edge of the road where there was gravel giving me traction. The truck then lunged forward causing the trailer to start sliding around behind us. We came to a stop on the edge of the road with the truck pointing uphill. I was thanking every deity I could think of. We were LUCKY.
The camper sustained some heavy damage. Busted the propane tank cover, busted the cargo lid, busted the molded side panel and busted one of my Trojan T105 batteries open so I had acid all over the tongue.
The truck had a couple of minor dents. We made it home with a couple of rolls of duct tape holding the plastic pieces together.
Lesson learned: If it's snowing, and you have to cross the Rockies, and you have no tire chains, go back to bed... I now carry tire chains if we are headed out west.
I have towed twice on snowy winter roads with my Starcraft Gemini. Once in Colorado and once in Wyoming. It is not fun. Both times we were caught off guard by mountain snows. The Wyoming trip was the worst. We were at Yellowstone National Park and were packing up at 3:00 AM local time to head back east. It started snowing. Nothing heavy, just a light dusting. I have 4WD tow vehicles and wasn't too concerned, though we were about to cross over the Rockies. The snow stopped as we were pulling out of the camp ground and I thought we were good to go.
We were fine until we got to the very top of the mountain. I had put the automatic Xterra into 4WD HI about a mile from the top as we had lost traction a time or two. As we crossed the top and started into a banked left hand curve, I started slowing down. The wife said, "Whoa, that looks like ice!" I reached for the gear selector with the intention of dropping the truck down into 2nd. Before I could even move the lever, the rear of the truck started sliding. The camper had pushed us sideways!
We jack knifed before I could react! The camper was going straight but the truck was almost pointed back up the mountain! We were sliding towards one of those famous drop offs with no guard rail, and no way to stop it. Realizing we were going to go over unless I did something, I did the only thing I could think of, I cranked the wheel all the way to the left, floored the truck and grabbed the manual brake control on the Prodigy and slammed it on full. This had the effect of immediately causing the truck to slide toward the left edge of the road where there was gravel giving me traction. The truck then lunged forward causing the trailer to start sliding around behind us. We came to a stop on the edge of the road with the truck pointing uphill. I was thanking every deity I could think of. We were LUCKY.
The camper sustained some heavy damage. Busted the propane tank cover, busted the cargo lid, busted the molded side panel and busted one of my Trojan T105 batteries open so I had acid all over the tongue.
The truck had a couple of minor dents. We made it home with a couple of rolls of duct tape holding the plastic pieces together.
Lesson learned: If it's snowing, and you have to cross the Rockies, and you have no tire chains, go back to bed... I now carry tire chains if we are headed out west.
