Towing in slick conditions

Have you done a "search" of this site yet? I seem to remember a discussion of this last year and a lot of folks from Colorado, Idaho and Utah chimed in with good advice.

Good luck,
Teach

Practice putting on your truck and trailer chains home before you head out

Slow and steady arrives safely.

If from Cottage Grove is it safe to assume headed over Santiam Pass? I think that is the highest commonly used pass in the state about 4,500’ or so. It can get pretty bad at times, just watch “Trip Check” and plan according.

rhagfo wrote:
If from Cottage Grove is it safe to assume headed over Santiam Pass? I think that is the highest commonly used pass in the state about 4,500’ or so. It can get pretty bad at times, just watch “Trip Check” and plan according.

Headed for Sisters, so it'll be via 126/Santiam. My kids have a 5 day Ski race camp up at Hoodoo ski area :)

I used to tow over Santiam Pass twice a weekend (commuting home when I was building one of the Facebook buildings).

Santiam Pass is well maintained. So is the 126. Highway 20 is not. It's the lowest priority, so if there's an incident on 22, they'll defer snow clearing on 20.

If there's an incident on 126, I'd recommend going all the way north to 22 rather than taking the 20 "shortcut", especially if you haven't towed over it in good weather. It's steeper, and has nearly 20 miles of slow speed corners.

They do patrol Santiam pass for chains violations, so if the signs are up, definitely chain up. It's unfortunately a necessity, because of the number of out-of-state truckers who ignore the signs.

I try not to tow when chains for the TV and TT are necessary but when I do it’s SLOW and CAREFUL. Not too worried about me but those chainless speeders are nuts.

You may need to adjust brake controller settings. It can be tough to modulate gently to avoid lockup on slick surface

I've done lots of towing in slick winter conditions.
Good advice above, common sense, slow and easy especially on downhill corners.
About 5 years ago I was towing uphill in winter conditions, in a right hand gradual corner. Didn't see the black ice. I suddenly started to jacknife. Got about 20 degrees into going sideways. First thing I did was get off the throttle right now and leave the brake pedal alone. Brake pedal is your enemy if you are sliding on ice. I instinctively reached down and grabbed the trailer brakes, not real hard but enough to slow the wheels from turning. This action pulled my truck and trailer straight, then I steered out of it until I was back in control.
I was halfway into the opposite lane by then, but fortunately there was nobody there.
Scared the stuffin out of me, and I slowed down even more.
The roads looked bare at the time.

This worked for me when I got into trouble towing.

I’ve only had to tow my camper on slick roads twice in eight years of ownership in North Jersey. Neither time was expected. The first time, I was winter camping with my two cousins in the woods and the weather forecast as of Friday was sunny but temperature in the 20s with no precipitation forecast till Monday. We were all quite surprised to wake up Sunday morning to a thick layer of ice everywhere.