Switching Gears
After a long, hot, torturous summer for most of us, seeing the cooler weather of Fall 
is a welcome relief. It’s also the time of year a lot of you switch gears on the business end.
Many of you in the northern-tier states and Canada are already prepping your pickups and yourselves for the snow season. And it wouldn’t surprise me in the least there’s been at least one good dusting already.
That means some of you have the plows at the ready, the trucks fully checked out and serviced, and the contracts signed for snow removal jobs that will see your business through the winter.
I suspect you’ve already thought about tires, too. But just in case you haven’t yet made a decision on what type or brand tire to shod your trucks with, we did a little snow-tire shootout in Colorado last winter for this issue that might be of interest.
If there’s one item on a pickup that makes the biggest safety difference, it’s tires. Dedicated snow tires are the best investment anyone can make when it comes to vehicles that are used day in and day out in snow country. Swap out the street/all-terrains this time of year for snow treads and put the all-purpose tires back on come spring.
Fall is also the time of year some of you in the warmer parts of the country start thinking about making upgrades to your pickups to make them more effective both on the job site and for your outdoor recreational pursuits.
We have you covered there as well. This issue has several good articles that will give you great ideas on upgrades you can apply to your own truck.
This is also a good time to check out the digital editions of ProPickup. Each digital issue has the full magazine plus bonus buyer’s guides and numerous other articles not found in the printed pages. Just click on “Magazine,” “Digital Issue” at propickupmag.com to see what you might have missed.
One such article is by Larry Walton, a contractor and one of our contributing editors, who spent a day taking part in a winter “snow tow” trailering class at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
He relays in his towing article the things you thought you knew about controlling a loaded trailer on ice – or for that matter on any slick driving surface – are not always right. You have to mentally switch gears and make some critical driving adjustments to be safe and in control when the weather turns nasty.
Speaking of the web, we have a special “recreation” section that covers the latest news in ATVs, boats, hunting, fishing and other pastimes we enjoy when the work week ends.
We’ve also started several open tech forums so reader’s can interact. So if you are a Ford, Ram, or GM owner, join in to see what your fellow contractors have to say or post questions/comments of your own.
Lastly, we like hearing from you. This is your magazine and if we don’t know what you are thinking, it’s hard to hit the editorial mark. Drop us a note, tweet us, send an e-mail, or do it the old-fashioned way: call. get there.
Ah, the joys of winter!
