While I was born and raised in Wisconsin and have always called Wisconsin or Minnesota home, I've never been a big fan of winter. When the snow falls, I'm more of an indoor sports and entertainment guy than outdoor.
Driving truck is great for a Northerner like me who dislikes Winter. Every day South out of the snow is a bonus. While for a life-long Southerner, every day North in the snow is a penalty.
I developed my winter driving skills early in life with my teen-age peer group. We used to take cars out on large frozen lakes, get them up to highway speeds and throw them into a spin. It was great fun in the dark, watching the headlights act like airport beacons as the cars spun across the ice. While that is just a nutty thing rural-Wisconsin teens did back then, it also taught us a fair amount about handling a car in a skid.
In my first winter in a straight truck, I was glad to find an iced over open area where Diane and I could put the truck into a deliberate skid to see how it and we acted. We were far more careful then than I was at age 16 and we came nowhere near throwing the truck into a full 360 degree spin at high speeds. But finding a safe place to practice skid your truck can be a good education and confidence builder, especially for those with little winter driving experience. Start with very small and slow skids to get a feel. Learn what to expect when your ABS brakes kick in. Give yourself a safe place and time to learn how you and your truck will behave if you have to stomp on your brakes or steer out of s tight spot on ice or snow.
Regarding storms, our approach is different than some. If it is an obvious blizzard that locks up a region tight for days, we will of course avoid it. But if it is just a prediction of bad weather, we'll probably take a load in; being prepared to wait things out if we become snowbound. There's nothing heroic in that or reckless. People who live and work in the northern states do that all the time. You do your work and prepare for the weather.
To that end, we carry enough food, water, and survival clothing to keep us alive in the harshest conditions. Plan to survive an extended stay in sub-zero weather in and around a truck that will not run; and then hope you will never find yourself in such a spot.
Of course, you'll want to keep your truck in tip-top winter driving forum too...drain air brakes, keep extra wiper blades handy, use winter-weight oil...all the common sense basics.
