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Reply to "How Would You Rate Your Winter Driving Skills?"

I rated my winter driving skills as good and they are.  I spent a lotta years as a commercial driver in the northeast.  (You haven't truly lived until you've done 40-foot wide donuts in an empty bus in a big snowy parking lot!)

  I also rode a motorcycle through 11 New England winters. Practiced riding an old Honda CB450 on a frozen pond-spent a lotta time sliding on my ass with a very dented, pizzed-off bike chasing me until I got the hang of riding on ice and snow with street tires.  

The local cops used to ask *me* what the roads were like during a storm.

 

Teyates and JT nailed it. Unless you got a necker knob on yer steering wheel and know how to use it-put the dang phone down and use both hands and pay attention to stuff.

   Don't be afraid to slide around a bit.  All we had to do for five to six months a year up north was practice finding out what a car/truck *won't* do in a snow-covered parking lot. It was great fun and we learned just how much we could get outta our vehicles in slick conditions.

 

  Front wheel drive?  I don't like it. Even the 'traction control' that works with the ABS is crap useless.  All it does is pulse the brake on the wheel that doesn't have traction-which is OK if you're stopping but not OK if you're climbing a hill. You don't want to slow down atall when you're climbing a slick hill. You want full-tilt-boogie. Momentum is your friend.

I usually pull the ABS fuse out when driving in snow (it also controls the 'traction control') and ignore the ABS warning light on the dash. I want my brakes to do exactly what my foot tells them to do instead of what a module that can't see the truck coming at the bottom of a hill tells them to do. ABS is for dry pavement-not slick pavement.

In fact, in a very short time of the 'traction control' or ABS kickin on-if traction can't be found-the ABS/TC system will eventually give up in frustration because the brakes begin to overheat.

Come nice weather, I put the fuse back in and the light goes out. No harm, no foul.

 

  Another reason FWD sucks when hillclimbing is a vehicle's weight naturally transfers to the rear wheels when going uphill. Onto the non-driven wheels where it does no good-taking downforce off of the driven wheels in the front where it's needed.

  The cure, I found is to turn the FWD car around backwards, turn the BS 'traction control' OFF and gently climb the hill n reverse so the downforce is on the driven wheels.

 

Unless you're driving in a foot of dry powder snow (when it so cold the snow actually provides traction, like sand-it crunches under the wheels)-Four wheel drive is also next to useless. Driving in wet snow is akin to operating a boat. I'd rather have two steerable, non-driven wheels that provide some friction and act kinda like rudders instead of all four wheels spinning wildly.

  

The other best way to get where you're going in snow and ice is to allow yourself extra time for dealing with the conditions and just pick a flatter route.

 

Also, Alabamians.......Not tryin' ta be too picky.....but if ya have a manual transmission....learn how and when to shift gears.

  SRSLY.  If i had a nickel for everybody that came around the turn at the bottom of the hill I live on and stalled *repeatedly* trying to climb the hill *even in dry conditions*, I'd have a sock fulla nickels from the last four and a half years.

 

Do not try to turn a sharp corner uphill in third gear.  You will bog out and stall, and then you will have to start out on the hill in first gear. Most of you from what I've seen firsthand truly suck at this...

 

The clutch's friction point is different starting on a hill and you have to ride the clutch longer at that point until you get rolling fast enough to let the clutch engage fully-otherwise you're going to do what I see everybody do and buck three or four times and stall out again and then have to roll all the way back down the hill and try again in low gear.

  Don't be afraid to let the engine sing in first gear when climbing. That means the transmission is doing it's job. Don't try to upshift on a steep hill unless you got the revs and speed to use the next gear-otherwise you'll repeat the above procedure with the bucking and stalling. If you know how to tach-shift without the clutch using the gear lash-you got it made.

  You might only be doing 15-20 MPH all the way up the hill, but you'll still be moving forward which is a good thing.

The minute you disengage the clutch, the engine isn't pulling anymore and gravity will take over and you will need to jam it back down into the previous gear again (if you don't stall out).

 

Downshift *before* starting the climb. Low gears are there for a reason. 

 

If you DO end up stopping or spinning out-take a second and assess the situation. Look at your options. 

Use the hill to your advantage. Can ya back down into a driveway so you can turn around and go back down the hill?

  Are you in a hazardous spot? Will someone coming around a blind turn hit you because they can't stop? (Best to just park it in the ditch and call a wrecker then-get it off the road if there's nowhere to go.)

 

Driving in snow is all about straight lines. 'Cuz that's mostly all there is. That and forward momentum.  Turning is not always an option. Snow doesn't like drastic, sudden direction changes and stuff going in any direction tends to want to continue going in that direction (in a straight line) until some force (friction) or an immovable object in your path changes that direction.

  

Last but not least, if you don't think you can handle slick roads-Like others have said here....Just stay home until it melts.

 

 

WNY

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