Any tips for driving in Winter?

TequilaMockingBird

I haven't driven during Winter before, and the combination of darkness, ice and heavy rain is a bit scary. I have already had a flat battery because I left my lights on by mistake (Jump leads are now on my Christmas wish list).

Any experienced drivers that can give some tips? Things that you think might be obvious - I find the glare at night off the windscreen when it's not spotlessly clean hard now, whereas in the summer I didn't notice it at all. Hence new windscreen wipes and a special cloth to polish it off.

It would be much appreciated and might help a few other n00bs.

bitemybanger

Not alot to say as Ireland's winters are not really that harsh.
just make sure you're tyres are good and you have the correct pressure in them and some anti-freeze screen wash.
other than that, just drive within you're means and how you feel comfortable.

dudara

It might not sound like much, but the best tip I can give is to drive according to the conditions and your comfort level.

Try not to drive during twilight hours, if you can. They're especially discomforting.

Oh, and always make sure to have something in the car that you can use to scrape off ice (for years, I used an old CD, I now have a proper ice-scraper).

Don't ever use hot water to defrost your car window - tepid water or even slightly warm tap water will suffice. If you use water that's too hot, then you run the risk of cracking your windscreen.

CiniO

Winters in Ireland don't differ too much from Summers, Springs and Autumns rotfl

Driving in darkness during rain is always more demending then in sunny day.
But it can happen the same during summer as during winter.

What I can advise particular for winter.

1. Have some plastic or rubber scrubber for your windscreen in case you need to drive off in the morining and your windscreen is completly frozen.

2. If it gets cold (lower than 3 degrees) and road surface is wet, be very carefull, because there might be some black-ice on it.
You cannot really see black-ice, but it can be very slippery (lowering your car breaking distance even 10x).
What I always do, is when I suspect there might be some black-ice, I just sometimes step on the brakes strongly for a moment to see if cars starts to skid. (you always need to make sure there's noone behind you). As doing it can be bit dangerous for beginners (cars might skid to the side and crash) it can gratly help to realise what surface you are on.
Best first try it on some safe place, and then start doing it on the road.

3. Driving on snow (which happen very rarely in Ireland) it much easier, than most people thing.
It's just a matter of practice.
When you see snow on the road, slow down, and drive with speed that makes you fully control your car. The more experienced with driving on snow you are, the faster you'll be able to do it.

Good thing is to find some rural place like big empty parking lot covered with snow and do some training even for few hours. Let the car skid few times and try to recover.
After good training session, you will be much safer driver on normal roads.
Just remember to never train on the public roads where you meet other cars.

TequilaMockingBird

Thanks so much.

You all think you have nothing to add - but have given me great advice. I don't have another driver to sort of grill about these things, so this is great for me, and others I'm sure.



Added to shopping list:

Scraper
Screen wash with anti-freeze


Added to to do list:

Find vacant car-park in v bad weather.
Ignore other drivers getting annoyed at me driving at my comfort level.


Thanks Dudara, I would have assumed it was boiling water, as it always looks like that when you see others chucking kettles of water over windscreens.

Overature

dont let your from windscreen fog up, that can be a pain in the ass while driving at night and very dangerous, your better to make sure you have your lights on good and early, just remember to turn them off, and some front mirrer have clasps that you can flick when there is some fag of a driver behind you that has his full beems on. on remember the increased braking distance with all this rain

TequilaMockingBird

Thanks for that. Yes, I have an old car and I can't hear myself think with the noise of the "blower" to clear the windscreen inside, but I seem to need to have it on all the time. Is cold air or hot air better?

thebiglad

De Icer is best thing for the outside.

You use the hot air blower - a demisting cloth (like a sponge wrapped in a chamois cloth) is very good to have for the inside.

Don't wipe the windscreen with your bare hand etc - let the blower or demister cloth do it's job.

If your windscreen is iced up/misted wait to clear it before pulling off and make sure is clear behind too of reversing from parked with misted back window.

Depends on where you leave the car but usually better to park backed in, that way easier to set off in AM also I have found where I park that early sun gets one side of car first - therefore if possible leave car so that the early sun melts the ice on car - this is trial and error (and also depends on how sheltered your parking spot is).

If car has been serviced you will be fine on this but if not then make sure you radiator has anti-freeze in it (winter service will deal with that).

Finally, regularly clean the lens of your lights with a tissue or rag and keep the water washer bottle stocked up - in winter driving you need this.

az2wp0sye65487

CiniO wrote: »

Winters in Ireland don't differ too much from Summers, Springs and Autumns rotfl

Driving in darkness during rain is always more demending then in sunny day.
But it can happen the same during summer as during winter.

What I can advise particular for winter.

1. Have some plastic or rubber scrubber for your windscreen in case you need to drive off in the morining and your windscreen is completly frozen.

2. If it gets cold (lower than 3 degrees) and road surface is wet, be very carefull, because there might be some black-ice on it.
You cannot really see black-ice, but it can be very slippery (lowering your car breaking distance even 10x).
What I always do, is when I suspect there might be some black-ice, I just sometimes step on the brakes strongly for a moment to see if cars starts to skid. (you always need to make sure there's noone behind you). As doing it can be bit dangerous for beginners (cars might skid to the side and crash) it can gratly help to realise what surface you are on.
Best first try it on some safe place, and then start doing it on the road.

3. Driving on snow (which happen very rarely in Ireland) it much easier, than most people thing.
It's just a matter of practice.
When you see snow on the road, slow down, and drive with speed that makes you fully control your car. The more experienced with driving on snow you are, the faster you'll be able to do it.

Good thing is to find some rural place like big empty parking lot covered with snow and do some training even for few hours. Let the car skid few times and try to recover.
After good training session, you will be much safer driver on normal roads.
Just remember to never train on the public roads where you meet other cars.

:rolleyes::eek::eek::eek::eek:

az2wp0sye65487

Best advice I can give is... slow down. Especially with winter conditions.

Also, Put a spare fleece / coat, a hat & gloves in the boot. You never know where & when you'll break down or end up with a flat battery... and if this happens in the winter you'll be freezing even if you've to sit in the car while waiting for help!

Mary-Ellen

If you don't have an ice scrapper a credit card style card will do.
Just use one without an information strip you need, (ie not a bank card or a credit card) the government issued prsi card is ideal

Also when there's ice, the worst places are always the ones not drived on.
A perfectly fine drive to work can be followed with an ice rink of a carpark.

HydeRoad

Remember the bicycles and motorbikes, they will be lost in a mirror covered in raindrops. Use the mirrors frequently, and take an extra good look on a wet night.

And remember the pedestrians, and don't be lashing into puddles of water and drowning them, slow up a bit. Even a small puddle, or a shore lid, can throw up enough water to soak legs.

TequilaMockingBird

Driving home tonight, I met both a pedestrian and then a cyclist dressed totally in black on the road. Scary.

Many thanks for all the advice.

EDIT: As a long time pedestrian, I am very careful to not soak anyone - some seemed to relish doing it.

**Timbuk2**

Is it advised to drive in a higher gear than usual in icy conditions?

Alanstrainor

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Is it advised to drive in a higher gear than usual in icy conditions?

Yes, keep the revs down as much as possible, low gears + high revs will generally make the tires spin in icy conditions.

Wishbone Ash

CiniO wrote: »

Driving on snow (which happen very rarely in Ireland) it much easier, than most people thing

Driving in snow/frost is relatively straight forward in a front wheel drive vehicle but it much more 'interesting' in a rear wheel drive! :eek:

TequilaMockingBird

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Yes, keep the revs down as much as possible, low gears + high revs will generally make the tires spin in icy conditions.

Oh Holy God.

TequilaMockingBird

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Driving in snow/frost is relatively straight forward in a front wheel drive vehicle but it much more 'interesting' in a rear wheel drive! :eek:

Alright, another stupid question - how do I know if I have a rear or front wheel drive? They all move at the same time..



Oh the shame of it...

CiniO

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

Alright, another stupid question - how do I know if I have a rear or front wheel drive? They all move at the same time..



Oh the shame of it...

It depands on the car. Most modern cars are Front wheel drive - which means engine is connected through gearbox to front wheels.

So if you get stock on ice with your rear wheels in FWD car, there will be no problem. But if your front wheels are in the snow, while back wheel on dry tarmac, you might have problems to move.

CiniO

Mark Unimportant Jug wrote: »

Best advice I can give is... slow down. Especially with winter conditions.

Also, Put a spare fleece / coat, a hat & gloves in the boot. You never know where & when you'll break down or end up with a flat battery... and if this happens in the winter you'll be freezing even if you've to sit in the car while waiting for help!

Advice with hot clothes is very good. It might be very usefull.

But saying that best advice is slow down in winter conditions, doesn't explain anything. Even if he'll slow down he can skid and crash.
Much better would be to learn how to recover from skid. And what the grip is on different surfaces.
Then he'll know himself how to drive safely and how much to slow down in what conditions.

Lets say, he would listen to your advice, and where normally he would drive 80km/h he would slow down to 40km/h on black-ice. Most likely he'll crash, because even 20km/h might be too much.

Best is just to learn what you can expect from surface and how to react in emergency.

I've seen you we laughing with my earlier advice. But look. Lets say in Sweden people drive very often over 100km/h on snow and there is no problem with it. It's just a matter of driving technique.

Wishbone Ash

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

Alright, another stupid question - how do I know if I have a rear or front wheel drive? They all move at the same time..



Oh the shame of it...

Most cars are FWD except for Mercs and BMW's and some very luxurious brands.

Front wheel drive cars will pull forward in snow/frost and generally keep relatively straight. RWD cars are totally different and under very mild acceleration, the back end tends to 'kick out' driving the car from side to side.

TequilaMockingBird

Recovering control in a skid is something I shudder thinking about. I imagine this is mainly a problem with black-ice, as I would be crawling along in visible ice.

I imagine I would automatically just slam on the breaks which I believe is the wrong thing to do.

These are the things you are not taught in lessons. Many thanks.

CiniO

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

Recovering control in a skid is something I shudder thinking about. I imagine this is mainly a problem with black-ice, as I would be crawling along in visible ice.

I imagine I would automatically just slam on the breaks which I believe is the wrong thing to do.

These are the things you are not taught in lessons. Many thanks.

It can help on black-ice definitly. But pretty much it's usefull on any surface, as you never can be 100% sure what you can expect.
Even on sunny summer day you can drive into oil leak and skid.

Most drivers would crash. But if you know what to do, you're most likely to recover.

Slamming on the breaks is very bad idea.

I didn't say it's easy. But i think most people can learn it.

F.E. as far as i know in Finland, recovering from the skid is the part of driving licence test.

LadyMayBelle

Just hijacking this but it is related to winter driving...Im a newbie driver and find that the back windscreen inside fogs up and I'm not sure whether to blow hot air or cold air to clear it along with the demist button. Had a scary drive to work the other morning when it was wet inside and it wouldn't shift so could barely see out the back window and couldn't pull over to wipe it...cold or hot air??

CiniO

LadyPennyworth wrote: »

Just hijacking this but it is related to winter driving...Im a newbie driver and find that the back windscreen inside fogs up and I'm not sure whether to blow hot air or cold air to clear it along with the demist button. Had a scary drive to work the other morning when it was wet inside and it wouldn't shift so could barely see out the back window and couldn't pull over to wipe it...cold or hot air??

AFAIK most cars don't have any demister for back windscreen.
Only what there is, is electric heating on the back windscreen (little wires which you can see). Because it's electric, it doesn't matter if you choose hot or cold air, because air doesn't go to back windscreen at all.

For front windscreen it's usually faster to demist it with hot air, but remember that until engine heats up, there is no really any hot air at all, however you set the controls. Just always put the blower to the maximum posiotion, and open blower to the windscreen (not cabin or legs).

For back windscreen just use the electric heating (usually turned on with button), but remember not to leave it on for too long, because it uses very big current, so your battery might run flat fast, espesially if you use it while engine is turned off.

Also good thing is to turn of your air condition for few minutes (if you car is equipeed with one). It makes all screens demist pretty fast, because air conditions dry the air.

TequilaMockingBird

LadyPennyworth wrote: »

Just hijacking this but it is related to winter driving...Im a newbie driver and find that the back windscreen inside fogs up and I'm not sure whether to blow hot air or cold air to clear it along with the demist button. Had a scary drive to work the other morning when it was wet inside and it wouldn't shift so could barely see out the back window and couldn't pull over to wipe it...cold or hot air??

It's not hijacking - the more questions and answers the better.

With my old banger I could be sitting for 20 minutes waiting for the blower to circulate the air through the car and finally clear the rear windscreen. I've a hatchback so I just lift it and wipe the window down before setting off. If it starts to mist up again I use the heater thing. I didn't know it was hard on the battery - another thing learned.

dudara

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

It's not hijacking - the more questions and answers the better.

With my old banger I could be sitting for 20 minutes waiting for the blower to circulate the air through the car and finally clear the rear windscreen. I've a hatchback so I just lift it and wipe the window down before setting off. If it starts to mist up again I use the heater thing. I didn't know it was hard on the battery - another thing learned.

As long as the engine is turning over, the alternator will be charging the battery. If your battery and alternator are in good working order, then there are no issues.

HydeRoad

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

Recovering control in a skid is something I shudder thinking about. I imagine this is mainly a problem with black-ice, as I would be crawling along in visible ice.

I imagine I would automatically just slam on the breaks which I believe is the wrong thing to do.

These are the things you are not taught in lessons. Many thanks.

This is why you should master good car control in fine summer weather, and not wait until you find yourself in trouble on a freezing winter's morning. That means smooth, seamless gearchanges and clutch control, and smooth progressive braking and accelerating. You shouldn't be stamping on any of the pedals. If you have little kangaroo jumps, even mild ones, when pulling away, or when changing from third down to second, for example, then these are the things that will prompt skidding on icy roads.

So iron out the little jumps and jerks while the weather is fine. Drive so your passenger cannot even feel a gearchange at all, and match your gears to your speed. Aim to keep the revs low generally, for better fuel economy, without labouring (engine running too slow and spluttering). Practice smooth, progressive driving on dry roads, and don't wait till the icy morning in January.

leahyl

HydeRoad wrote: »

This is why you should master good car control in fine summer weather, and not wait until you find yourself in trouble on a freezing winter's morning. That means smooth, seamless gearchanges and clutch control, and smooth progressive braking and accelerating. You shouldn't be stamping on any of the pedals. If you have little kangaroo jumps, even mild ones, when pulling away, or when changing from third down to second, for example, then these are the things that will prompt skidding on icy roads.

So iron out the little jumps and jerks while the weather is fine. Drive so your passenger cannot even feel a gearchange at all, and match your gears to your speed. Aim to keep the revs low generally, for better fuel economy, without labouring (engine running too slow and spluttering). Practice smooth, progressive driving on dry roads, and don't wait till the icy morning in January.

Great advice:)

TequilaMockingBird

HydeRoad wrote: »

This is why you should master good car control in fine summer weather, and not wait until you find yourself in trouble on a freezing winter's morning. That means smooth, seamless gearchanges and clutch control, and smooth progressive braking and accelerating. You shouldn't be stamping on any of the pedals. If you have little kangaroo jumps, even mild ones, when pulling away, or when changing from third down to second, for example, then these are the things that will prompt skidding on icy roads.

So iron out the little jumps and jerks while the weather is fine. Drive so your passenger cannot even feel a gearchange at all, and match your gears to your speed. Aim to keep the revs low generally, for better fuel economy, without labouring (engine running too slow and spluttering). Practice smooth, progressive driving on dry roads, and don't wait till the icy morning in January.

Thank you for the advice.

I did actually read this when you posted it, but must have forgotten to thank you . I have been working on the "passenger can't feel the gear-change" advice. Almost there I think.

I had a small skid when I was turning at a junction in the rain. Won't be doing that again. This weather is a challenge

Son Of A Vidic

I hope this advice helps you,

1) Stay well back from the car in front especially in very wet and icy conditions.

2) Use the 4 second rule, use a landmark to count the car in front distance to your own car. if it passes a pole, gate etc, you should be able to count a least 4 seconds between you and it especially in dangerous conditions.

3) Never, never, steer away from a skid - it's human nature I know, but this the problem. Steer into the skid and the car will correct itself, if you over correct and it skids the other direction steer into it again. The car will straighten itself out.

4) If traveling uphill on an icy road take it easy, sense the tires grip on the road. Don't over accelerate because you will lose grip you'll be skidding backwards down a hill.

5) Watch hidden pools of water, if you aquaplane at speed you could be in trouble. Always keep both hands on the wheel because if you unexpectedly aquaplane with one hand on the wheel you could quickly lose control of your car. Once clear and safe gently brake to dry out your brake pads.

I hope these tips are a help to you, remember if you always anticipate when driving you should stay safe.

TequilaMockingBird

I see you're in Sligo too? I drive up and down Gallows Hill everyday, with ice I think I'll park up and slide down on my bum.

Thanks for the tips. Noted.

Son Of A Vidic

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

I see you're in Sligo too? I drive up and down Gallows Hill everyday, with ice I think I'll park up and slide down on my bum.

Thanks for the tips. Noted.

If you survive Gallows hill, you'll survive anything - so you're doing alright. I personally would carry the car up gallows hill rather than drive it. Unless you reverse up it - then you're facing the right way if things go pear shaped. Seriously though - be safe.

MyaP

Just want to say thanks for this thread. The information is really useful and really it is something we should learn for our test. I have just passed it and am so unprepared for the winter roads!!

I heard before that to check if a road is icy just tap your breaks lightly a few times, is that correct?

Rondolfus

MyaP wrote: »

I heard before that to check if a road is icy just tap your breaks lightly a few times, is that correct?

Ive never felt the need to "check" if the road is icy. You should know before you get into the car if it is.

If in doubt , assume the road is icy and drive accordingly i.e drive at a slower speed and don't break sharply.

daveharnett

If you are lucky enough to live close to a large, flat, obstacle-free car park that's empty and unlocked at night (not many of these left because of the doughnut brigade, I know), I would seriously recommend taking the car skating on the next really icy night.

You might feel like a tool for the first few minutes, but it is really worthwhile. At VERY low speed (like 10mph), and with LOTS of room in all directions, try to make the car slide under braking, then under steering. Once you can reliably get the car sliding, practice bringing it back under control. The key is persuasion rather than force - start by letting the car go where it wants to go, then gradually and smoothly coax it in the direction you want it to go.

The goal is to be able to sense the slide coming, and be able to correct it almost immediately. Get to this point and it will make you a much safer driver out in the real world.

Varyn

I'm only a learner but due to the weather recently and the country roads i live by I've learnt at a lot about driving through water in the last few weeks! Just want to make sure I've got it right as I've a feeling it's going to be a wet winter!

Obviously first judge the depth of the water. Use a low gear and go through slowly and smoothly, try not to accelerate much or brake because if you stop and it's deep you're stuck! Once you're clear press the brakes lightly to dry your brakes and to make sure they are still in working order! Is that right??

My dad just told me not to panic and keep smooth. He got a fright the other night driving down our road. He went over the little humpback bridge down the road and all of a sudden was in water, flowing across the road from the drain and river overflowing. He just said he got down to 2nd held the steering wheel tight and kept going, nothing else he could do but he got such a fright and hes been driving for over 20 years! He brought me down to have a look at it too and have to say I would have completely paniced had I found myself in that position! (*Note: The road was technically closed because of it and they put notices at either end of our road and didnt bother to tell the houses in between, typical :rolleyes:)