Tips for snow driving

peasant

- Treble your distance to other cars

- Slow down rather than break wherever possible ...i.e keep your distance, start slowing down a lot earlier than you normally would and just go off the gas insted of hitting the brakes

- Use your controls lightly. No rash maneuvres, avoid heavy breaking and quick acceleration. Steer lightly

Niall1234

For goodness sake people.

Turn on your dims. The rain/snow is so heavy today it might aswell be night.

In fact, always have your lights on during the winter months. Its just common sense.

C_Breeze

ah come on now ... its not like were driving in the swiss alps.


Snow what snow??? besides the light snow on the roofs of some cars there is no snow at all on the roads ... not even sleet.

Our misty rainy would pose more of a danger to road conditions than this "snow"

all id say is turn on ur low beams

unkel

Thanks peasant for starting this thread. Many people seem to underestimate the dangers judging by the number of small accidents I came upon the last few times we had a (half) inch of snow

zAbbo

There was about 3 inches of snow on my car this morning, and the non main roads I was on were very slippy.

Good advice OP.

is_that_so

Heard someone yesterday suggest on radio that you should try to use higher gears with low revs for added traction. Found it useful myself ,apart a few hair-raising wheel spinning movements. I also found a slalom approach up a hill (one way only) ie allowing car to slide very gently across out of the rut onto fresh snow and back again worked out OK as well.

kluivert

5 seperate car crashes in Dundalk from sliding off the roads reported one Garda this morning. No one hurt.

Best tip for driving in the snow....Dont unless you have too.

Top Gear tips would be something like:

Tea or Coffee
An Extra Blanket
A couple of snow dogs to pull the car out of the snow.
Disposable BBQ, in case road closed.

See the trip to the North Pole programme.

h3000

C_Breeze wrote: »

ah come on now ... its not like were driving in the swiss alps.


Snow what snow??? besides the light snow on the roofs of some cars there is no snow at all on the roads ... not even sleet.

Our misty rainy would pose more of a danger to road conditions than this "snow"

all id say is turn on ur low beams

The roads where quite slippy around the Limerick area.

Another tip is to drive in as high a gear as possible with low revs, it will give better traction.

Mr E

C_Breeze wrote: »

Snow what snow??? besides the light snow on the roofs of some cars there is no snow at all on the roads ... not even sleet.

Aaaah another Dub oblivious towards the rest of the country. :rolleyes:

Most of the snow was on the west coast. It was a few inches on top of a heavy overnight frost, so driving conditions were difficult. I skidded a few times this morning (and I'm a very careful driver)

peasant

When the car does start skidding under acceleration or normal driving, the clutch is your friend. Hit the clutch, avoid rushed maneuvres and just wait for the tyres to find grip again.


With ABS be very, very careful !
If the road is very slippery (i.e snow on top of ice) you will have virtually no brakes at all.

Vegeta

I live a few miles from you Mr.E and I was snowed in this morning. I live in a housing estate and was the first car to drive on the fresh snow over a hard frost last night.

Got 100 yards, came to the fist bend, around ten mile an hour, turn the steering gently and understeer into the neighbours drive. Reverse straight out, park the car and walk the 100 yards back home.

Rain has cleared it all here now

C_Breeze

Wow , my apologies. .... seems other parts of the country are experiencing far heavier snowfall than nort side dublan ... all i got this morning was a thin coating of snow on my roof

kluivert

Here in Monaghan it has covered everything.

Tabnabs

A lot of times you need to start off in second gear, first gear will just make pretty design in the snow underneath

cantdecide

It's not fair:p We haven't had a decent fall of snow in in Cork for years and believe me, throwing rainballs doesn't get the same reaction from the neighbours...

Gregor Samsa

C_Breeze wrote: »

Snow what snow??? besides the light snow on the roofs of some cars there is no snow at all on the roads ... not even sleet.

It must have been pretty exhausting for you to have driven every road in the country this morning for you to have formed this opinion :rolleyes:

DublinDilbert

C_Breeze wrote: »

ah come on now ... its not like were driving in the swiss alps.

Actually i've always seen more accidents in ireland when there's only a little bit of snow, than i've ever seen in the few winters i was in canada...

The big problem in Ireland seems to be our relatively mild weather, when we do get snow the temperature is usually hovering around zero.... Hence the snow melts a little during the day time, then that night the temperature will drop again and now you have ICE! This can be very dangerous, then throw on a little sprinkling of snow ( say 2 or 3 inches ) which looks like nothing really but it will completely cover up the ice underneath.

In harsh climates you get layer upon layer of snow which never melts / re-freezes... i'd much rather be braking no snow than ice :rolleyes:

itarumaa

If you would had tyres like above, driving in the snow would be much nicer:)

Seriously the biggest problem is that no-one uses proper winter tyres, so if any snow stays in the ground or even worse, changes to ice, it´s really hard to stay in the road, it does not actually matter so much what you do or do not when driving. Specially braking is really tricky if the tyres does not have any grip.

I really hope that snow melts away, no fun without proper tyres.

Robbo

Scandanavian flick FTW.

bazz26

Still amazed at the amount of muppets overtaking and/or speeding this morning despite the terrible weather conditions. It really does defy belief, you would swear they drove on snow/ice all their lives.

IncredibleHulk

you would swear they drove on snow/ice all their lives

They do, it is the only white matter between their ears

Andrewf20

Coming back from the Dunboyne direction, I got onto the N3, heading for Dunshauglin last night at 20:30, the road went from being okay at 50mph at the fairyhouse road exit on my right to being a 10mph road 200m later. On the dead straight 1km stretch heading up towards the Vortex, 4 cars were off the road in the ditch & hedges on my left (a Clio, a Polo, an Almera and 1 other I cant remember). There was also a guy on a bike stopped in the hardshoulder who couldnt seem to get any traction. It was lethal. I turned back at the Vortex. A 40 footer was stuck in Ratoath blocking up the centre of the village apparently as it couldnt get up the hill at Tescos.

Another tip I do is to use the non compacted snow in the hardshoulder if available. No one seemed to be doing this. Grip was vastly improved. If you cant get grip, try dropping tire pressures. Also spraying a nice dose of antifreeze on tires can actually help get moving.

SouperComputer

Robbo wrote: »

Scandanavian flick FTW.

HAHA thats one way of curing the understeer.

Peasant has some good points, ill try to add/elaborate on some.


Keeping your distance not only reduces you chances of an accident, but also means that you may not have to stop at certain junctions, reducing the worry of getting stuck.

If you cant get grip, try dropping tire pressures.

Actually lowering them is a big mistake. It would make sense on a surface that offers a reasonable coefficient of friction/traction but snow/ice are very different.

Gaining traction on ice/snow is all about putting as much pressure on the contact patch as possible. Take a cursory glance at rally snow tyres, or tyres on ice racing cars. Narrow tyre, ensuring pressure on the contact patch effectivly pushing/digging the thread into the surface of the road as much as possible. Yes they have beads, but they probably be even narrower if they didnt!

Pumping your tyres up to around 50psi (assuming 28-32 is normal for you) will make a dramatic difference in the traction in the snow. Of course you dont want to drive on a dry/wet road for long periods of time like this as you will have pretty uneven wear on your tyres.

Over here where we get snow if Ft rather than inches the raise in tyre pressure is crucial.

_Kaiser_

I was on the M1 the other night during the worst of it and the amount of idiots speeding in the much worse overtaking lane, despite near zero visibility in one or two places was unbelievable - including Mr NI reg white van driver who I then came across 2 miles further up the road in the middle of the dividing hedge. After a quick glance to see him on his mobile (presumably calling for help), I have to admit.. I laughed - served him right! :rolleyes:

BlackWizard

If you do wheel spins while going around corners it gives you more grip. Melts away any snow or ice under the tyres. :cool:

The road and path in my estate was a bit slippy the other morning. But other than that, most of the Dublin roads Ive been trying to drive on, have been fine. But the visibility in the morning or late evening was more of a concern for me.

peasant

BlackWizard wrote: »

If you do wheel spins while going around corners it gives you more grip. Melts away any snow or ice under the tyres. :cool:

Only on very thin slush ...snow over ca. 1 inch will be compressed into ice ,making it worse. Wheelspin never is a good idea on snow, particularly not in corners, as the spinning wheels will simply keep going straight ahead.

kluivert

SouperComputer wrote: »

Pumping your tyres up to around 50psi (assuming 28-32 is normal for you) will make a dramatic difference in the traction in the snow.

Thats very high tyre pressure which can cause the car to oversteer in a control and lose control quiet quickly.

nytraveller

kluivert wrote: »

Thats very high tyre pressure which can cause the car to oversteer in a control and lose control quiet quickly.

SouperComputer is actually correct.
Decreasing the tyre pressure increases the footprint of the tyres to give more support and increased traction only on sand and other soft, dry soils
Generally speaking, thinner tyres are recommended for most snow conditions. Thinner tyres are better able to bite down through the snow and reach the pavement for traction. That would argue for higher tyre pressure, which creates a thinner tread patch.

SouperComputer

kluivert wrote: »

Thats very high tyre pressure which can cause the car to oversteer in a control and lose control quiet quickly.

I'm very curious to know how you came to the conclusion that an all-round TP increase appreciably changes the balance of a road-going car, and more so why it would move the balance towards oversteer?

FWIW, I just covered 600miles running 50psi with "freeway" driving encountering snow and dry conditions on my way. The car understeered like a pig, when pushed on the off-ramps, just like it always does! No apreciable instabilty in either conditions which follows my understanding or motor vehicle physics.

In the dry the grip is acceptable, not ideal, but acceptable. The difference in the snow was the difference between staying on the road while maintinaing reasonable pace (remember its SUV-ville here!), or ending off the road like the approx 30 other vehicles that I passed on the way.

peasant

Seenashow there's widespread snow forecast for Friday/Saturday (and the guys on the weather forum are all excited) I thought it might be a good idea to bump this thread in time before it happens.

blackbox

Been stuck a few times myself, but it's always been due to some guy in front - often a van that has slewed across the road. No amount of traction will get you past that.

I keep a hi-vis waterproof coat, boots, hat & gloves in the boot and try to keep the tank at least half full. Also keep a torch in the car. At least I'm prepared to either sit it out or walk out.

promethius

Heard someone yesterday suggest on radio that you should try to use higher gears with low revs for added traction.

Was driving in heavy snow (outside ireland) at the weekend and had heard this before and tried it out, great tip the additional traction is amazing. No hard braking of course too.

It BeeMee

is_that_so wrote: »

Heard someone yesterday suggest on radio that you should try to use higher gears with low revs for added traction.

The added traction is one benefit.
The other benefit is if you floor the throttle when in a high gear, there is less chance of wheelspin and losing control - unless you're in a high powered car that will put the power down no matter whar gear you're using.

peasant

Also when starting off from standstill on snow at traffic lights or crossroads, do so in 2nd gear rather than first ...and don't try to squeeze into a normal size gap ...leave more room for everyone.

galwaytt

peasant wrote: »

Also when starting off from standstill on snow at traffic lights or crossroads, do so in 2nd gear rather than first ...and don't try to squeeze into a normal size gap ...leave more room for everyone.

...or, you could lock the diffs, give it loads and use left foot braking to dial out the understeer..........

Biro

galwaytt wrote: »

...or, you could lock the diffs, give it loads and use left foot braking to dial out the understeer..........

Indeed you could, then you could get out and call a tow truck to pull you out of the tree when you realise that you didn't have 4 wheel drive!