Ever drive in Snow?

[HotelUser]

I have next to no experience driving in the winters and as you can figure out yourself places in Canada has intense snowfalls. I went to class today and came out to over a foot of snow ontop of and around my car. Some other guys fortunately pushed me out (it will be a madhouse in about an hour when the final classes finish at the main parking area). There was so much snow on the roads, and two city buses were completely sideways in the middle of two different roads because of the weather.

[Martin]

Last winter we had quite a bad one in terms of snow/ice etc and driving conditions were horrid at times. The gritters simply couldn't keep up and some of the roads were leathal. One morning on my way to work last year I was going up a hill covered in snow where I came to a standstill with the engine revving and no hope of getting up, was sliding all over the place. My handbrake wouldn't hold the car still so I was stuck on this hill with my foot on the footbrake to hold myself in place whilst I phoned in work to tell them I would be late haha.

In all honesty it scared me a bit some of the late nights coming home from work. You lose a lot of the control and I had a few narrow misses with some hedges. It can really shake you up and make things take so much longer.

I have considered getting snow tires this year simply due to the fact that I have to get to work somehow and I really don't want to feel as scared as I did last year again. :P

[Mathew]

I only started lessons in September so I've not driven in the snow yet. It does seem to be an absolute nightmare though.

We have a BMW which are notorious for being pretty useless in the bad weather, largely due to the rear-wheel drive aspect I assume. It doesn't help that we live on a slope either, so it's not uncommon to see everyone on the street, out of their houses, at 8am when it snows - pushing each other up!

My Mum has said that she isn't touching the car when it snows because last year it slid down the street. She was going to the garage to put some things away and a couple of minutes later, the car was rolling downwards. She had to get in it whilst it was moving and control it. The same happened to her cousin last year too.

Stay safe!

[Aidenn]

Driven in the snow last year, fun aside i was ******** bricks the first time but after that i wasnt exactly bothered.

If its a short distance im travelling (up to 8 miles) id rather skate there tho rather then walk/drive

[Robbie]

Not yet - this winter will be my first time.

[GommeInc]

I love it :P It's easy to drive in the snow. If you have a manual, you put it in higher gears sooner (4th gear at 25-30mph, 5th at 30mph) and it gives you the challenge of not using your brakes. You use the gears to slow down. I'm more affraid of aqua planing, where it's a little bit harder to predict what to do with a car, especially as aqua planing is usually unplanned.

What's the advice for automatic cars and icy conditions? I assume you use the "3rd" gear, rather than D, or maybe even L/Low.

[HotelUser]

I love it :P It's easy to drive in the snow. If you have a manual, you put it in higher gears sooner (4th gear at 25-30mph, 5th at 30mph) and it gives you the challenge of not using your brakes. You use the gears to slow down. I'm more affraid of aqua planing, where it's a little bit harder to predict what to do with a car, especially as aqua planing is usually unplanned.

What's the advice for automatic cars and icy conditions? I assume you use the "3rd" gear, rather than D, or maybe even L/Low.

I'm more inclined to speculate that it would all depend on how much snowfall there was though. When there's a great deal of snow on the roads it nothing but sucks :P

[GommeInc]

I'm more inclined to speculate that it would all depend on how much snowfall there was though. When there's a great deal of snow on the roads it nothing but sucks :P
I had to go through a foot of snow to take my car to have a service :P You realise the front grill becomes a useful snow plough in quiet country lanes :P When it's fresh it's easy to drive though, when it turns to black ice you have to worry. I can't iamgine driving in Canada though, make sure you drive carefully - I'd hate to hear the #1 RIM critic is in hospital. I'll be sure to send you a get well soon BlackBerry :P

[Oleh]

Nope, but as I am still doing driving lessons, I should have a few in the snow :D

[Metric1]

I had the same snow storm as you today. I had a night class tonight (7-9:30) and it was absolutely miserable when I left at 7 but I have winters on my car and it's AWD, left it parked in the parking lot and it got BURIEDin the 2.5 hours I was in class. I went and got in it and the snow was over the bottoms of the doors. I had to use my hand to clean the car off and I was freezing figured I was stuck.. I put the car in drive, got hung up on some snow and then I remembered I could raise the car, rasied it up all the way and I was cruising.. Snow tires are KEY in this weather!!

[HotelUser]

[@]@Metric1[/@] thankfully I had mine installed the other week when I was in for maintenance, otherwise I would of had to leave my car where it was overnight until today before I could have gotten to it.

[@]@GommeInc[/@] Driving carefully is obviously the biggest factor yes but I think some of it had to do with luck too. A lot of people didn't think we were getting snow, but rain. When we got so much snow I think it threw a lot of people off guard, and caught a lot of people in really bad scenarios in terms of having to navigate home in.

[Technologic]

Stick it in the highest gear possible and go slow but steady....

I had a fair few lessons in the snow last year as my instructor wanted me to get the experience

[buttons]

i wont even drive in rain lol

[Recursion]

When it snowed really heavily in the UK just before last Christmas I still had my driving lesson, the instructor said it was a good opportunity to get some practice driving in snow!!

Was fantastic, passing all the BMW etc getting stuck haha. Learnt a lot from doing it though, glad he didn't cancel the lesson now.

[tdi]

This will be my fourth winter I can drive, last year was definitely the worst. Didn't bother raising my car so it ended up as a snowplough and got stuck on the subframe everywhere once it turned to ice.

This year I'm using the E30, which no doubt will be terrible.

[Metric1]

There was no way I was even going near my E90 with bald tires in the snow yesterday.. safe to say it's parked for the winter.. RWD in that weather would have been a joke!

UPDATE, this morning I wasn't so lucky.. my brothers had to push my car out

[Camy]

I did some driving in the snow 2 winters ago when I was learning. It was pretty fun actually, just need to be extra careful. It was interesting trying to practice reversing around corners, when I couldn't even see the curb.

[dirrty]

nope. but i'm seriously dreading it SO SO much. the roads around my uni house are all narrow, congested with cars because it's all terraced houses. so i'm gonna hate parking (i don't reverse park cuz i can't and only go into big & easy spaces) and paranoid someone will hit my car and at home last yr the car couldn't get up the road where i live (home not uni house) because it was so icy/snowy **** and cars literally just went into other cars. so i'm gonna crash, gonna have to pay £500 excess and sell an organ to make up the money :l

[tdi]

If you can't park a car I think the snow should be the least of your worries.

[:odey:]

I drove in the snow for the first time last year,

Never, EVER, again.

I swear I nearly died about 6 times. I was driving down a crazy icy/snowy road, right next to a river, like, less than a metre away, I was swerving all over the place. I was absolutely terrified.

STAY INSIDE BABY.

My friend's dad was also driving on an icy road, and swerved down a congested road, and scraped like, 4 cars.. Horrific experience.

[jam666]

What's the advice for automatic cars and icy conditions? I assume you use the "3rd" gear, rather than D, or maybe even L/Low.

Quite a few automatics have a "snow" button that does something (I have no idea what) and the car seems more driveable :P, used it last year and it was rather effective :). My car has a CVT gearbox and will allow me to change gears manually :P (push up to change up a gear and push down to change down), so you can easily keep it in a specific gear.

[GommeInc]

Quite a few automatics have a "snow" button that does something (I have no idea what) and the car seems more driveable :P, used it last year and it was rather effective :). My car has a CVT gearbox and will allow me to change gears manually :P (push up to change up a gear and push down to change down), so you can easily keep it in a specific gear.
Hmm, could be an interesting mix of traction control and makes the vehicle change gear sooner rather than later, but that's a guess :P CVT gearboxes are very odd, my mum had a Corsa with one and I can't imagine driving one. I quite like using a clutch, even though today I slipped off mine when pulling out of a junction - thankfully I was planning on moving anyway :P

Not heard of a snow button though, but I haven't seen an automatic gearbox that was made within the last nine years so they might have changed a lot :P

[GoldenMerc]

Don't think il be driving in the snow this time, sort of bit nervous after last year

[GommeInc]

Don't think il be driving in the snow this time, sort of bit nervous after last year
What happened last year? Birmingham was hit hard, if I remember correctly.

[GoldenMerc]

What happened last year? Birmingham was hit hard, if I remember correctly.
I crashed into a bollard, i braked and it skid from one side of the road to the other ruined everything under the car pretty much lol

[twinart]

Nope. There's no snow here :'(

[Andy]

stick to a low gear, dont drive fast, allow loads of extra time for breaking and you'll be fine..

[GoldenMerc]

stick to a low gear, dont drive fast, allow loads of extra time for breaking and you'll be fine..
Thought it was stick to a high gear?

[Andy]

Thought it was stick to a high gear?

to get to a higher gear you need high revs, thus needing speed.. endangering yourself and others?

[GoldenMerc]

i guess thats why i crashed then...

[Metric1]

low gear for going down hills... my car has a "snow mode" and it locks out the first gear to reduce wheel spin.

[GoldenMerc]

Going to be all over the road if it snows this year, may buy a run around 306 TD or something, seen a cheap reliable one for 550.

[GommeInc]

to get to a higher gear you need high revs, thus needing speed.. endangering yourself and others?
But to stay in a low gear is also endangering, because you use higher revs to control the car which means more chance of wheel spin. It's best to be in 5th gear when doing 30 mph, which you can achieve anyway because at 3rd gear a 1.4/1.6 litre car can reach 2,500 rpm which is a lot of revs which can make it easier to change to 5th gear and reduce this to 1,500 rpm, which is a lot safer as you put less strain on the engine (less chance of wheel spin when the car loses traction). If driving in thick snow, it's safer to do 10-20mph, so you want to do this in 2nd and 3rd gear (2nd = 10mph, 3rd = 20mph). A low gear is only useful when slowing down, because braking removes all tractions and creates a drift.

They teach all this in Pass Plus and if you've driven in wintery conditions. It's dangerous to be in a high gear when driving steady :P

[Andy]

But to stay in a low gear is also endangering, because you use higher revs to control the car which means more chance of wheel spin. It's best to be in 5th gear when doing 30 mph, which you can achieve anyway because at 3rd gear a 1.4/1.6 litre car can reach 2,500 rpm which is a lot of revs which can make it easier to change to 5th gear and reduce this to 1,500 rpm, which is a lot safer as you put less strain on the engine (less chance of wheel spin when the car loses traction). If driving in thick snow, it's safer to do 10-20mph, so you want to do this in 2nd and 3rd gear (2nd = 10mph, 3rd = 20mph). A low gear is only useful when slowing down, because braking removes all tractions and creates a drift.

They teach all this in Pass Plus and if you've driven in wintery conditions. It's dangerous to be in a high gear when driving steady :P

i always drive in a low gear and keep my speed down, never had one accident :) i spose its down to the driver ..

[MrMonkeyDeamon]

nop i live in AUSTRALIA but i been to the snow in the hills

but i wasn't driving

[Shox]

I haven't yet, we hardly get snow here, but when we do the roads aren't maintained so your basically snowed in your house.

[Metric1]

i always drive in a low gear and keep my speed down, never had one accident :) i spose its down to the driver ..

your fuel economy must be horrible

[GoldenMerc]

high revs everywere, bad fuel, bad tyres. not goood

[Andy]

your fuel economy must be horrible

when your company supplies you with a fuel card, i dont mind

[Grig]

Yes, and never again.

The car skidded for a fair few metres and it ended up plopping itself into a barrier, luckily no major damage or injuries. And no changing the revs wouldn't have helped, this was Russia and the road was just so iced up- cars were all over the place on the freeway.

[awelsh]

Did last year and would happily do it again this year :) just need to go slower than usual and not turn as sharply, amazing how many crashes I saw last winter from idiots who couldnt understand that snow loses so much grip. Also became fun when the open carpark was covered in snow meaning room for some snow drifting later on in the night :P