Any tips for driving in crazy snow?

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Chaps, this is how I'm rolling at the mo! The weather over here at the mo is mental, it was about 6" of snow yesterday. Took me 30mins to get home the other day, twice as long as per usual and at a push I got to 45kph! When I get up in the morning the handbrake seems to stick on at the rear of the car!! :help:

 

 

I'm just taking it steady-as, and staying in as higher gear as possible, right? The autobahn's have been shut too.

 

The Toyo T1-R's are fairly new, but I suppose the thing to do is to buy winter wheels and tyres if this is to stay this way for weeks :gag:

[diggerbucket 0]

Dunno about the Rs, but the T1-S's that I had on my old Golf were absolutely useless in the snow. Got a set of Avon snow tyres and the difference was night and day, coulda cleared the roads if I'd put a plough on the front :lol:

 

Oh and just leave it in gear with the handbrake off if it's cold. Or replace the handbrake cables, they tend to freeze up a bit :)

[vwdeviant 0]

Yup Cables will be down to splits in the boots where they leave the body letting water in which Freezes...

 

So either leave in gear handbrake off, or get under and replace the boots!

 

Thought it was "law" to have Winter wheels and tyres in Germany?

[craigowl 0]

Germany gets a lot of snow and severe frost compared to the UK. Surprised you sound surprised!

 

Have you just gone there?

 

Fat tyres are as useful as a chocolate teapot on snow and ice unless you are a one in a million driver.

 

Best car in snow I had was Citroen Dyane. - You are not so paranoid about bending it either.

 

Dont show the Germans you are in a flap about the snow - they will think we Brits are all precious wooses!

[Leonard 0]

My snow tip is, you can aways go twice as fast in the snow as you think you can :D

 

*disclaimer - not my fault if you bin it ;)

[tedman 0]

 

i had a great time in the snow! the amount of people stuck was unbelievable every body reving like mad and getting nowhere :D .keep driving as you are mate.

[pete_griff 0]

sounds like a good excuse to buy a quaife to me ;)

[coullstar 0]

Plan ahead and use your momentum i.e. try not to stop once rolling. Go slow and use the torque of the engine as you have been doing and get some thinner snow tyres, they make a big difference.

[corozin 0]

sounds like a good excuse to buy a quaife to me ;)

 

As someone who has a Quaife I think I disagree! Although in theory using an ATB should help traction it really is unhelpful to have one in situations where you might lose all front end grip. With an ATB fitted both wheels will lose lose grip at the same moment but more worrying both regain grip at the same moment too. In reality there are two impacts from this :

(a) You will end up driving more quickly than you should without realising it... right up to the point where you lose the entire front end in a big way.

(b) As the wheels regain traction together you get a monumental tank-slapper. Really it ain't fun to experience, trust me.

 

But back to the point, the best advice I can give the OP is to buy snow chains. If heavy snow is a regular problem get snow tyres - which are legal across most of Europe and I have seen them used in Scotland too. Keep the inputs smooth, change up at low RPM, brake early & use engine braking wherever possible.

[g60karmann 0]

lots of throttle and handbrake use ;)

[Jim Bowen 1]

drive backwards

[g60karmann 0]

drive backwards

 

mythbusters proved that wrong :wink: you have more grip but less control when turning

[KipVR 1]

i went to Iceland a couple of weeks ago, everyone over there uses studded tyres which we had fitted to our hired Yaris, they were feckin brilliant, you hardly notice any difference and have to really try hard to make it wheelspin, just like in the dry. Noisy though.

[Jim Bowen 1]

drive backwards

 

mythbusters proved that wrong :wink: you have more grip but less control when turning

 

i never heard the rumour before, thought i'd just made that up :lol:

[g60karmann 0]

good ol' mythbusters :D

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Thought it was "law" to have Winter wheels and tyres in Germany?

 

Its a recomendation, however not everyone sticks to it. As long as you've got newish, decent tyres its ok, its a bit of a grey area by all accounts. It only really comes into play if you've had a major accident where you've been driving like a dick (not the the best example to come up with, but hey...I'm tired!)

 

As for the winters, I've been here a while, but last year was nothing like this. The cars I have to drive on a daily basis (i.e. not my own!) seem to handle it fairly well as they are not as powerful and a bit heavier. I've been secretly honing my skills on the skid pan when no-one is about :norty: I've driven in the snow before of course back in the UK, but this is stupid. It can be hard pulling away from a standstill - in the Corrado - but I've kinda 'mastered' that too now. Been using gears to slow down and have been changing gears low in rpm, cadance (sp??) braking, etc. Its no where near as fun.

 

Cheers for the tips chaps.

[Adz The Rat 0]

Ive never driven the Corrado in any snow as not had any here this year yet.

Remember years ago when I had a MK1 Golf it snowed quite heavy so a few of us found a massive empty carpark and, well you can see where Im going with this hehe

Was great til me and mate crashed into each other

[Toad 0]

Was great til me and mate crashed into each other

 

ROFL!

 

I'd have thought the VR was ideal for pulling away in snow with plenty of weight over the front wheels and lots of low down torque so you didn't need the throttle?

 

My old Maestro Turbot Deisel was awesome for pulling through the stuff.

[Skimask 0]

i suppose it depends on the type of snow and the car. the last time I tried to drive the valver in the snow - the wheels just spun when you let the clutch out - and the engine was just idling!

[Philuk 0]

if in doubt, flat out - good old colin mcrae lol

 

i got a awd justy as my winter runabout so im wanting mroe snow so i can go play with it :D

[coolrado 0]

I was overtaken by some halfwit in a vectra at about 5.30 this morning on the way to work, it was so foggy that you could only see about 2 car lengths, and it was reading -2 on the outside temperature guage and the roads where quite slippy, I caught up with him about 2 miles down the road sticking out of a hedge after a sharp bend :lol: I stopped and asked him if he needed a hand but he just gave me a gob full of abuse :lol: obviously has mental issues :cuckoo:

Some people just don't think the weather conditions have an effect on how you drive :scratch:

[MonkeyVR6 0]

Snow is crazy again, so I've been reading up on this thread again!

 

Its normally -5/6, but has got as low as -11 during a few recent nights, according to our weather reports is going to be -18 next week and its going to snow BIGTIME. My mates in Senelager say they're in 3ft of snow! :cuckoo:

 

Was approaching some traffic lights today, behind another car, and when they suddenly turned red the car in front of my went for it, but I bottled it and managed to stop a car's length past the traffic lights :norty:

 

ABS makes a weird crunching noise, but I'm grateful of it! Handbrake keeps freezing on too, so I'm just leaving it off whenever I park it.

 

Despite the car having ABS is it a good idea to 'cadence' (sp??) brake, or is that only for cars without ABS?

 

I'm told the car has some kind of traction control below 30mph...well, I don't think its working! :shock: Its proper fun on the runway. Might venture out to the skid pan later. Woop! Woop!

[Roger Blassberg 0]

I had to drive 20 miles over hilly country a few years ago in one of our infamous sudden late-afternoon snowfalls (you remember, the one when hundreds spent the night on M11 ?) and I got home in the VR6 in one piece. The problem is usually caused by other immobile vehicles rather than total loss of your own traction.

 

The trick is to do exactly the opposite of normal practice - pull away in as high a gear as possible, maybe 3rd, slipping the clutch with minimum revs., then once you are moving, down to 2nd just to trickle along on a very low throttle. If you have to brake, and avoid it unless absolutely essential, keep the clutch fully engaged in gear to keep the front wheels turning.

 

Keep your eyes peeled for buses and lorries and anything powerful with rear wheel drive - heaven knows what will happen if I get caught out in my Jaguar S-Type R, automatic, 530Nm, no LSD - these are the potential blockages. Stop well behind them if you have to on an upward slope, they will slide back if they try to get going.

 

Sorry if this is obvious or sounds patronising; just my 2 shillings' worth.

 

Best wishes

 

RB

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Fat tyres are as useful as a chocolate teapot on snow and ice unless you are a one in a million driver.

 

Best car in snow I had was Citroen Dyane. - You are not so paranoid about bending it either.

 

Absolutely! The good old snow shoe versus ice skate analogy :D

 

Although on compacted snow and / or ice, you're stuffed no matter what car you drive, 4x4 included. Very slow speed is critical on icey snow because the car's momentum is almost impossible to stop once it starts sliding. Most gearboxes won't let you go into reverse if the road wheels are turning forwards, so you can't even hold the slide with the engine. Seen buses hold steady on an icey hill in reverse though..... they must have special gearboxes!

 

Dont show the Germans you are in a flap about the snow - they will think we Brits are all precious wooses!

 

We are though :D

[craigowl 0]

Agree with Roger - what a gent he is!

 

I remember lots of deep snow and sheet ice situations, but I can never say I was a skid pan expert or anything like it. Never even been on one.

 

Have survived 36 years driving in Scotland, not by being "good", but by being a coward, really. I do pride myself on putting a lot of thought into the highly technical experience of driving a motor car. Forget about the wing I crushed on a concrete pillar when reversing too quickly out of a car park in our town, and the two other prangs I had in 14 years of commuting in the Edinburgh rush hour. Insurance found other drivers at fault. In any case the big Tarmac Cement MIxer lorry driver called me a "f....in' weasel" when I called his bluff and refused to move the Polo :lol: over as he barged in. We held up the Gogar Roundabout traffic in the Edinburgh rush hour for quite a while. Happy days!

 

I spent most of my time driving on ice and snow as if walking on eggshells, being sensitive to the mechanics of the engine, drive and steering, and trying to interpret what they are telling me.

 

Trying to stay as far away as possible from other vehicles is one of my first instincts, too. Common sense, really. Unavoidable in the rush hour though - try and go early - or late! I once got into work in Edinburgh during a gritters strike at 11 am. Was then told to go home at 3pm.

It was so slippery the stopped lorry in front of me slid gently sideways into the kerb (no forward motion at all) due to the slight camber of the road and the skating rink surface.

 

If you have a front wheel drive car and cannot get up a hill, if safe to do so, go up backwards. Amazing difference as c of g and weight of engine over driving wheels (now at rear).

 

Oh, and I have said it before and make no excuse for repeating it.

Read the weather and road conditions before you get in your car.

 

In our town, in December 1995, two of my kids' friends (20-year old girls) leapt into their car excitedly to go on a shopping trip 10 miles away and 2 days before Christmas.

The roads appeared merely wet. They undertook a bus which had moved into the right hand lane to turn right, lost control of the car on black ice and hit a bigger car coming the other way. One girl was killed right away and the driver - a local builder's daughter - has been in a wheelchair ever since with no speech or useful movement. I was a witness in the case where she was pursuing the council for £6m for lifetime care and which only ended after appeal this year (13 years later!) with the judge(s) finding the council not culpable.

 

You can often detect black ice, firstly as light steering (cue for my legs to turn to jelly!) and then seeing the big Rover straddling the hedge and another car on its roof about a hundred metres away in the field and a dopey looking guy in a suit standing at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. :lol:

Sometimes, on going onto black ice you may hear a strange "zizzing" noise from the tyre treads - I have, but do not know any others who have.

 

Anyway, safe driving, all. :wave: