Ever drive in Snow?

[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

[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

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.