Driving in the snow/ice

Sofiztikated

Made it home!

Engine breaking, slowly slowly, and clever use of newspaper and bits of wood got me down and up the hill.

congo_90

I'd only be repeating what most have said here but one key piece of advice another poster pointed out was to try pracitice drive in a quiet area.

My estate is luckily large and quiet at night so its grant for practising braking, cornering etc and learning the limitations of your car on ice. Found it handy especially as I'm young so not that experienced.

If driving a manual keep high gears. No sudden accelaration. Avoid braking especially if you do happen to skid. Just point wheels in direction and clutch it.

If you are inevitably gonna hit something try not to tense up. Doing so worsens impact injuries.

Happy motoring to all boardsies

Voodoomelon

Had to have a go at a bit of intentional sliding on the way home tonight, not a sinner about and glistening white roads so took hit the traction control button.
Apart from being tremendous fun, it also thought me a thing or two about correcting a skid, its not easy changing the direction of a 2 ton saloon.

I couldn't get over the amount of people flying about earlier today as if it was the middle of summer. Some people don't seem slow down for any kind of weather...

cormie

Would definitely like to take the banger out for a spin and practise how to deal with skidding. If anyone can recommend a South Dub/North Wicklow wide open area that will be slidey (no lakes please :P) I'd appreciate it!

macplaxton

cormie wrote: »

What are you suggesting I do with the jute sacks by the way?

If you park up somewhere and get stuck and need to get out. Dig out snow in front of all tyres, sack/matting can be put in front of driving wheels to help grip and get going.

Alanstrainor

Take it handy out there lads, it's icy out there!

Caoimhín

Senna wrote: »

But i wonder should i have floored it (not literally) in third at the beginning and hopped to keep the speed up till the top?

Put it into 4th and floor it.

Although my only experience of driving in real snow, -15 icy conditions in the Scottish highlands. It was mostly on private forest roads so I was able to try out different methods and maneuvers.
To get up a hill, start in a low gear to get some momentum, then as you start to climb, move up the gears while keeping the accelerator down hard. If you go above 2500revs or begin to slide move up another gear and keep the traction.

I scared the bejaysus out of a friend on Sunday morning when I demonstrated my drifting and anti-steer skills on an empty carpark. She got out of the car crying. Maybe I should buy her something nice for xmas.

ChowChow

This reminds me of a fairly steep hill I had to climb last year that was completely iced over. I managed to build some momentum in 4th gear to get three quarters the way up before the traction control started to cut power to the driven wheels. The car absolutely inched the rest of the way up the hill with the foot to the floor in second gear :eek: Never again - if you are faced with an icy hill turn back!

teednab-el wrote: »

I wouldnt agree with that. You need to get up to the highest gear possible with min revs before you get to hill and use enough momentum to carry you up. Otherwise if you were to do the approach you suggested, your wheels would start spinning half ways up the hill and then you are in trouble.

roosterman71

I drove from Mountrath to Tullamore (via Ballyfin, all back roads) yesterday morning. I was surprised as to how unslippy the road was. In fact, it made me sad.

Last night then in Athlone, I went for a spin around Garrycastle IDA park to practice driving in the slippy conditions. High gear and low revs is the way to go. It more or less rules out the engine being able to spin the wheels. I also tried low gears and high revs for a bit of messing practicing and research. I noticed that when the car started to veer off to one side, by hitting the clutch the car would move back into line. Braking hard is a no no for definate. Although, turning and then pulling the handbrake while flooring it after letting go is great fun going around corners. I also did a bit of playing in the carpark at work too this morning when it was quiet.

I reckon more people should go out and get a bit of practice in when its icy. Find a big car park, and just see how the car reacts when you do different things. Helps reduce the shock-factor then when really driving in these conditions

cormie

That's exactly what I want to do

Just need a good suggestion of where would be good to go south Dub/north Wicklow.

craichoe

samih wrote: »

Need to use low gears and high revs going up hills with icy patches and gain momentum during the grippier bits. !.

samih

ChowChow wrote: »

This reminds me of a fairly steep hill I had to climb last year that was completely iced over. I managed to build some momentum in 4th gear to get three quarters the way up before the traction control started to cut power to the driven wheels. The car absolutely inched the rest of the way up the hill with the foot to the floor in second gear :eek: Never again - if you are faced with an icy hill turn back!

Yeah, some TCS are quite hopeless when it gets icy, e.g. the one in MK2 Focus is no good as it cuts all the power when you really need like when trying to join busy main road or going up a hill. My old man has a Mitsu Lancer and it allows fair bit of wheelspin and which helps to keep the car moving. You can literally floor it whatever the conditions are and it just keeps on going with a bit of wheelspin on the way.

Yeah, teednab-el, I should have stated, if I didn't, that the highish revs and wheelspin (some) mainly applies if you got some initial speed up going the hill already. That way you can take advantage of the grippier bits between the slippy bits. If not then the best bet is to try to avoid wheelspin although on snow at least the wheelspin will help you to cut through the snow and find hopefully tarmac underneath.

BlackWizard

Is using the TCS (ESP on my car) bad for the car? It makes some strange clicking noises and just doesn't feel right. Any chance of it doing damage if used for a while in these bad conditions?

samih

Noises are nothing to worry about. The ESP operates brakes independently on all four wheels and some extra noise is expected. The only negative side effect should be increased brake pad wear.

ShadowHearth

Caoimhín wrote: »

Put it into 4th and floor it.

Although my only experience of driving in real snow, -15 icy conditions in the Scottish highlands. It was mostly on private forest roads so I was able to try out different methods and maneuvers.
To get up a hill, start in a low gear to get some momentum, then as you start to climb, move up the gears while keeping the accelerator down hard. If you go above 2500revs or begin to slide move up another gear and keep the traction.

I scared the bejaysus out of a friend on Sunday morning when I demonstrated my drifting and anti-steer skills on an empty carpark. She got out of the car crying. Maybe I should buy her something nice for xmas.

Lolol bud, when mine misses was doing donuts in mine car in empty car park,she wa bursting with joy,but when yesterday I got a tiny slid coming from car park, she went all emo on me! Was so funny!

Redpunto

Quick question, have to turn 90 degress coming out of my estate and its not getting a chance to defrost so its gonna be a fecker when i try to go in tonight - i've skidded twice already today trying to get into the estate and that was when the sun was up. I braked gently before turning, turned in 3rd gear but still slid. anything else i should be doing??

guil

Redpunto wrote: »

Quick question, have to turn 90 degress coming out of my estate and its not getting a chance to defrost so its gonna be a fecker when i try to go in tonight - i've skidded twice already today trying to get into the estate and that was when the sun was up. I braked gently before turning, turned in 3rd gear but still slid. anything else i should be doing??

go slower

Seweryn

Redpunto wrote: »

Quick question, have to turn 90 degress coming out of my estate and its not getting a chance to defrost so its gonna be a fecker when i try to go in tonight - i've skidded twice already today trying to get into the estate and that was when the sun was up. I braked gently before turning, turned in 3rd gear but still slid. anything else i should be doing??

I would say reduce your speed. You were driving too fast for the road conditions...

peasant

Redpunto wrote: »

Quick question, have to turn 90 degress coming out of my estate and its not getting a chance to defrost so its gonna be a fecker when i try to go in tonight - i've skidded twice already today trying to get into the estate and that was when the sun was up. I braked gently before turning, turned in 3rd gear but still slid. anything else i should be doing??

As icy as it currently is, walking pace is where it's at for iffy corners.
Worst case scenario ..you're not going anywhere ...but at least you're not hitting anyone/anything else either.

Redpunto

guil wrote: »

go slower

Seweryn wrote: »

I would say reduce your speed. You were driving too fast for the road conditions...

peasant wrote: »

As icy as it currently is, walking pace is where it's at for iffy corners.
Worst case scenario ..you're not going anywhere ...but at least you're not hitting anyone/anything else either.

thanks

BigEejit

You could always go out and throw some salt on one or both of the wheel tracks .... give it 5 minutes and the ice will be crunchy and you can quite easily go around slowly

stevenmu

Also, if you've very good visibility and it's quiet enough that you can ignore lane discipline, start the corner from as far out wide as possible, aim for the apex and let it run wide again on the way out.

But only do this if you've very good visibility, if it's a slippy corner and you're cutting across lanes, other cars won't be able to stop before hitting you. And also do it slowly because if you slide when you're out wide you're going to hit whatever's at the side of the road.

BeardyGit

Craichoe ridiculing SamiH, a Finn, over their winter driving advice: