driving in snow

ho hum, my first experience of driving in snow today, and to work was ok, driving home wasn’t quite as succesful. driving up the lane to my house managed to loose traction and cease to go forwards. oh well carefully parked the car in a hedge and will worry about seeing if i can drive up a sheet of polished snow/ice tomorrow.

Just curious on this, how much good would a cheap set of chains make, only for emergency get me home if caught out situations. Although i might just claim to be snow bound next time the snow falls.

I was out riding today, rode down a country lane to a house at the far end and someone had clearly had a very difficult time driving their car home! Tracks weaving all over the lane and then deeper skidmark tracks into the hedge half way down! The centre ridge of snow was really grippy, I didn’t have a problem. 😉

In my experience chains work great in snow; but not ice or patchy snow/tarmac. I live in Braemar and over the years have used them to get out to the hills on occasion but 99% of the time they aren’t worth the hassle; Good snow tyres that you change in the spring are, though. I don’t know where you live but you might like to consider something that is easier to fit than chains for get out of trouble incidents; there are various clamp on gizmos that will do the job.

This is a favourite bugbear of mine. People in England, and up here now to a certain extent, can’t drive in snow for toffee. I remember living in Huntingdon in 02/03 when 2″ of snow closed the M11 for over 24hours and people had to be rescued. I sat watching the news in utter disbelief. I nipped down to the local Tesco and was amazed when the only other car on the road insisted on driving 2 foot off my rear bumper on the snow and ice. It’s pathetic. A 1″ fall managed to shut all the schools and stopped 50% of our workforce making it in to work through the mountainous East Anglian roads. Strangely, the roads in Scotland, Scandinavia and mountainous Europe stay open through monster snowfalls and cold weather. It’s all about education, adapting to the conditions and preparation. Yes, snow chains will make a huge difference but if all the tossers around you have blocked the road then you still won’t be able to get anywhere.
The first thing that happens around here if snow manages to fall quicker than they can treat the roads, is that everyone jumps into their car for a bit of Colin McRae rally fun. Naughty on the face of it but it teaches people how to drive in the snow.

AFAIK, chains are illegal in the UK…. Correct me if I’m wrong though. I’ve certainly never seen them for sale…..

Sensible way – Go slow, VERY SLOW, use high gears and low revs to avoid wheelspin, pull off in 2nd gear, and leave 3x the distance you think you need in front of you. Slow down by coming off the throttle REALLY EARLY rather than braking.

Fun way – Get the damned thing sliding on purpose, so it’s not unexpected and it’s on your terms. Use the handbrake to get round corners faster and keep the wheels spinning to bite through the snow to get to the road underneath.

😀

What I love seeing is people zipping by in their multi-tonne 4×4 behemoths, superior in their better traction, then rediscovering a few of Newton’s laws of physics when they come to a sharp bend under brakes. (So long as they’re not hurt, that is).

There’s a road sign near me that gets clobbered that way every winter.

It’s all about education, adapting to the conditions and preparation.

Indeed, but its quite difficult to teach people how to drive in snow when the majority of people in the UK live in parts of the country that rarely see the stuff, hence their unfamilarity with it.

In Scandinavia on the other hand…….

I will echo your comments on the fun to be had driving in the snow if you know what you’re doing though. I was lucky enough to be taught to drive in snow in Norway whilst on pre-exercise training with the RAF. 4 wheel drift in a Land Rover is great.

Chains aren’t illegal but as I said they are really only any good in consistent snowy conditions… and as devs says most people won’t be out then anyway as it’s too snowy. I wouldn’t get them as a get out of trouble card; they’re a pain to put on on a flat surface never mind in a ditch!

PS – I only ‘have fun’ when there is nobody else around.
🙂

I live in the Cotswolds so anything that would be ideal for snow would be overkill most of the time. Driving to work was ok managed to keep the car under control, most of the time. The problem was driving up a hill on the way home that had been polished by spinning tyres and sledges.

Scariest bit was when i got out to have a look and the car started to slide back down the hill.

Just been out and I can say that the snow has made bu66er all diference to the driving stds of the students. Once I got the car out of the gap two spotty oiks had left for me (about 6″ either end…my 2.2l Vectra WILL shunt a Renault 5 if I have to so don’t make me!) I was greeted on every corner by a yourg lad trying to drift round narrow residential streets coming the other way…t0ssers.

And breathe….

what do you expect in St Pauls*.

*I seem to remember you saying you lived there?

I’ve only used chains so can’t vouch for these snow chian thingsbut they might do the job.

it’s all about keeping things smooth and planning your moves well in advance.

AFAIK, chains are illegal in the UK…. Correct me if I’m wrong though. I’ve certainly never seen them for sale…..

Nope. I’ve got some. Never needed them, even in the alps. Just slap it in 4wd.

Arghh! Chains? 4WD? I think I might start a driving school in this country with the sole purpose of teaching people, one by one, how to drive in winter. My Canadian uncle once said to me when I said I wanted a 4WD: ‘What the h3ll do you want one of those for? What you need is a good set of tyres and some skill.’ And he was absolutely right.

When I see people gunning it uphill because they think that that’s the way they will get to the top, I just want to scream. All they are doing is warming up the frozen ground underneath them and creating the prime conditions for turning everything to ice! Ask a Scandinavian or Austrian or Canadian (or anyone else who knows about winter) and they will tell you that that is exactly the WRONG thing to do.

devs (above) is right: ‘It’s all about education, adapting to the conditions and preparation.’

Guys, get some proper Winter tyres! And read this.

Powerful front wheel drive cars with wide tyres and electronic-interference-systems don’t help.

my old 34hp beetle could trundle past anything.

ha ha! 2 inches! There was 3 inches outside my front door when i left to come back home to the uk mid december, just got back home to canada a few hours ago and found this up my street. Taking tomorrow off work to go play.

We’ve had about 3ft of snow in Squamish in 2009 so far and we’ve probably done 500kms on hard packed snow highway so far this winter! I wouldn’t have bothered driving without snow tires in all honesty.

Winter tires are legally required when the highway here gets winter rated (i.e snow covered)

Most of the cars we see in the ditch are city based 4×4’s with all season tires.. 4×4 helps you go – it doesn’t help you stop!

Last car I saw spin off the highway in backed up traffic was a Subaru Forester… so I’d choose snow tires over 4×4 anyday.. although 4×4 with snow tires would be nice.

I’m in burnaby on top of the mountain, couldn’t believe how much snow there was when we drove back up today. Got the 4×4 which works pretty well except when you need to stop. Need to look into some snow tires for it i think if i’m going to make the most of this winter.

Just leave plenty of room and be super-cautious about other drivers. Ok, I drive a 4×4, but I learnt very early on (back when we actually used to get snow over christmas in the UK) that you can drive as slowly and as carefully as you need to to get to your destination. You get points for arriving, not trying.

I agree about the skills of most people in the snow though. Got back from Calgary end of last month and was amazed at how normal things were to the locals, even though there was snow all over the place. The coach drivers were just unbelievable. You’d never see National Express coping with that depth of snow and ice.

As others have said take it very easy and plan everything well in advance. We went up to Aviemore on a Friday night at the end of January last year, the A9 was closed due to snow so we went up to Fort William and across the A86 to the A9. Now that was some serious snow.

There was a car in front of us at Spean Bridge which turned back as the snow was getting really deep and still snowing heavily which left us on our lonesome. We just drove real easy, there was no way I was drifting a honda accord estate round corners on a single track road. The section along the banks of loch laggan was very scary and our son was terrified. We thought once we got to Newtonmore and Kingussie things would be easier, but the snow drifts made driving quite difficult. However we got there in the end.

I’d say it was interesting rather than fun. Just keep braking to a minimum, stay well away from other vehicles, and make every movemnet a slow controlled one. All this drfiting round corners wouldn’t really work in proper thick snow, you’de just end up stuck in a snow drift.

Of course had I fitted a set of winter tyres to my Honda then I could have driven up the A9 at 90mph through the snow gates 😉

I love driving in the snow, great fun and really quite easy to do once you get the hang of it. it’s just a shame i no longer own a Ford KA as that was brilliant in the snow, light, front wheel drive with thin tyres and very “chuckable”, great fun.

SaxonRider:
Arghh! Chains? 4WD? I think I might start a driving school in this country with the sole purpose of teaching people, one by one, how to drive in winter. My Canadian uncle once said to me when I said I wanted a 4WD: ‘What the h3ll do you want one of those for? What you need is a good set of tyres and some skill.’ And he was absolutely right.

You dont NEED 4wd (my old 40hp peugeot 205 was fine in most snow conditions due to really low torque and narrow tyres) but its much more fun and much more capable. When its snowy/icy there is a hill right near my old college and I’ve lost track of the number of 2wd cars that just sit at the bottom polishing the road – never failed to drive past them with my celica (full time 4wd, LSDs) even on summer tyres. The only time it has issues is when the snow is >6 inches as it runs out of wading depth and just sits on the floorpan until the wheels spin down to tarmac lol. My parents own a big 4×4 with mud and snow tyres, the grip in snow (even in corners and braking) is staggering, but those tyres do have 30mm tread depth – you see the X5 drivers skating about all over the show. In comparison, I have to drive VERY carefully and VERY slowly in the diesel estate as it has zero grip and plenty of torque, even just in the wet!

As mentioned up at the top, the key is to get used to driving in snow – most people rarely see it and so get scuppered. As said above also, as soon as it snows I get out on a deserted bit of tarmac (be it a car park or mid-field road) and test the limits. And pray I dont push it too far while testing 🙂

what about these things: Autosock[/url] they’re about 60 quid a pair i think and take up v little room. Look quite easy + quick to fit as well.

Not seen anyone using them mind, but they seem to get ok reviews. I’m toying with the idea of getting some just to get from my house to the main road as being self employed means if i cant get to work i dont get paid. Got stuck a few weeks ago as i couldnt get more than a few feet along the lane from my house. Seem easier + cheaper than chains and can use them on cleared bits of road (although this will probabaly wear them out fairly quickly)

Of course a big virtue of real 4wd , not Imprezzas and BMs is that when it all gets nasty you stick wheels on the verge where there is grip. Also stuffing it up banks to stop and go round others is possible .Especially with landrovers. Nothing stops on ice but they shrug off the encounters with trees.
Or get an old mini van. 5 climbers and gear in an 850 with fur lining will go anywear