New program starting on Sunday night (20:00hrs) in UK on Sky, National Geographic channel. Its called Highway thru hell about truck accidents on Coquihalla pass and the company that goes out to recover the wrecks, I presume the program was filmed/recorded last winter as all the adverts for the program show the accidents in snowy weather. It’s being advertised on telly as the bermuda triangle of truck accidents so what sort of area is this in.
The Coke is a relatively new highway built from Merritt BC down to Hope BC in the lower mainland , so basically the main highway off the mountains to Vancouver . A great feat of engineering that can also be daunting for the unwary , it can be a clear bright sunny day on the lower half and then turn into the HTH halfway up requiring snow chains and clenching , likewise the decent is well known for cooking the brakes .
Check BC Traffic cams , that’ll give you some idea .
The programme is not too bad, quite realistic and it does give a good perspective of the Coquihalla Pass.
To give you some idea of how bad it gets, here’s a pic of the brake check area at the top of the pass, as you can see, there’s a fair bit of snow up there. From there it’s 18kms down at 8%, you have to respect that on a sunny day with dry roads, when there’s a foot of snow on the road, it’s pucker up time 
This is what you need to do to get up it when the snow’s flying 
This was taken last week 
Can’t anywhere near as dangerous as I-95 between NYC and New Haven CT 
newmercman:
The programme is not too bad, quite realistic and it does give a good perspective of the Coquihalla Pass.To give you some idea of how bad it gets, here’s a pic of the brake check area at the top of the pass, as you can see, there’s a fair bit of snow up there. From there it’s 18kms down at 8%, you have to respect that on a sunny day with dry roads, when there’s a foot of snow on the road, it’s pucker up time
This is what you need to do to get up it when the snow’s flying
This was taken last week
How far ■■
From the first chain up point to the top of the hill, plain sailing after that, worst part was I was going to stop at Chilliwack as it was ■■■■■■■ down with rain all day, so I knew it would be snowing higher up, but I thought I’d push on to Merritt 
Fortunately don’t have to run that far at the moment , but back a while when it looked iffy would always run for the canyon . Looks like your chaining up skills have improved this winter Certainly put mine to shame , mainly cos they’re non existent 
.
Done the Coq both ways today, left Merritt this morning, down into Calcutta, dropped and swapped and got out of there, then spent the rest of the day dossing in Kamloops. The sun was shining and for the first time in months the road is clear and dry 
it ain’t going to last, of that I’m sure
I notice on your pictures of the unit chained up that both axles are done, are all units double drive over there for the winters or just an optional extra you should have to make life easier/safer.
No that’s just the way Americans do things. A tag would probably be more use.
touch wood no chains so far this winter and dont plan on running the rock just yet lol
I have never used a set of chains yet, even crossing the Cascades in Oregon in 6 inches of snow and signs flashing ‘Stop and fit chains’ I would rather sit for a few months and wait for the snow to melt
shauntel:
I notice on your pictures of the unit chained up that both axles are done, are all units double drive over there for the winters or just an optional extra you should have to make life easier/safer.
I chained both axles as it’s a legal requirement to chain four tyres, you can either chain all four outer tyres like I did or use a set of doubles on the rear axle so that all four tyres are chained, the thing with doubles is they are a pain in the arse to fit and if you lose one going up the hill it wraps itself around the rims in between the tyres and causes a right mess of things, or worse still it wipes out a brake part or an airbag and that really messes up your day
In BC you cannnot run a tag axle configuration, it must be a 6x4, you can run 6x2 elsewhere in Canada, but you need a permit to do so in AB, SK and MB, ON & QC are fine and I don’t know about the Maritimes
kr79:
No that’s just the way Americans do things. A tag would probably be more use.
I dont agree with this Kev, im a big fan of a rear lift but not over here the place would be on lock down with single drives this winter…
fly sheet:
kr79:
No that’s just the way Americans do things. A tag would probably be more use.I dont agree with this Kev, im a big fan of a rear lift but not over here the place would be on lock down with single drives this winter…
I reckon a mid lift would be better than a tag out here, but you’re spot on Coops, having both axes driving has helped me out no end of times this winter, whacking the diff locks on going downhill and on level ground with an icy surface makes things feel a lot more nailed down, especially when I’ve got a full load of crisps on
As much as this hurts, I have to agree with Carryfast (even though I disagreed with him on this in the past ) the extra traction from the two drive axles far outweighs the traction you would gain from imposing more weight on a single drive axle, especially on the ice rink that is Saskatchewan