According to my Bloemfontein rose, the best way to cope with winter driving is stay inside. If it weren’t for the tail-out action afforded by the slippery stuff, I’d agree. Telecommuting, Stop & Shop Peapod, Netflix, Gamefly, school bus—why tempt fate? Throw another log on the fire (yup, they deliver those too), fire up the Mac and kick back. Still, there are millions of motorists who have to brave the elements to make ends meet. And winter driving can be brutal to the point of Fargo-style human popsicles. You’d kinda hope that anyone who lives the requisite 16 years required for a driver’s license whilst living in a cold climate would have a little common sense in this regard. But never underestimate the power of PR people to underestimate the intelligence of the average human being. This time we have Land Rover telling UK motorists how to survive their recent cold snap. After all, “Land Rover has 60 years of driving experience, with a line-up of supremely capable vehicles which boast permanent four-wheel drive and pioneering technology such as Electronic Traction Control, Hill Descent Control (HDC) and Terrain Response – which includes a snow setting utilising the vehicles’ traction aids.” Ready to be surprised? Then stand down, chill out and feel free to add something a little more . . . useful.
1. Use the highest practical gear, unless descending a hill – this limits the amount of torque and will help to prevent wheel spin
2. Using first gear provides the maximum control when descending hills
3. Clear ice and snow from all windows and lights – even the bonnet and roof – before driving
4. Use all controls (steering, brakes, throttle etc) gently to help prevent loss of traction and control
5. Leave extra distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you – it takes longer to stop in adverse conditions
6. Ensure you have enough fuel to complete your journey
7. If planning a long journey or venturing off-road, ensure you have plenty of warm clothing, food and water in case of emergency
8. Before setting out on a journey in bad conditions, make the following checks:
◦ Anti-freeze
◦ Wipers and windscreen washer fluid
◦ Lights
◦ Hazard lights
◦ Defroster
◦ Oil level
◦ Tyres and tyre pressure
Simply put, to drive safely in the winter, go slow and don’t be a dummy.
When I worked for Land Rover headquarters, and subsequently earned my level 1, offroad certification, the motto was “As slow as possible, As fast as necessary”
Oh, and if driving a 4WD vehicle with transfer case, don’t forget to switch it to “4H”…and some people wonder why their SUVs skid around in the snow.
That said, I must protest against the concept of staying home, and phoning some poor sap who HAS to get in his/her vehicle to deliver pizza or whatnot at home. It’s externalizing hazard, and extremely selfish.
AKM:
As Sam would say, it keeps people employed.
3. Clear ice and snow from all windows and lights – even the bonnet and roof – before driving
I’d add the truckers need to clear ice from the top of their trailers. I cracked a windshield when some sizable (say one or two square feet) chunks came peeling off a truck driving >100km/h.
Two pound chunks of ice flying around at highway speeds is *dangerous* to others
That said, I must protest against the concept of staying home, and phoning some poor sap who HAS to get in his/her vehicle to deliver pizza or whatnot at home. It’s externalizing hazard, and extremely selfish.
Pizza delivery guys are usually very well tipped on bad days, or so my pizza-shop-owning friend tells me. Bad weather, for them, is lucrative.
@rf: According to my Bloemfontein rose, the best way to cope with winter driving is stay inside. Along with enjoying some Rooibos tea and Ouma Rusks. Good stuff.
I’d add good winter tires with steel wheels for the winter and good summer tires for when it’s warm.
You would think that most of these points would be common sense, but I cannot tell you how many people I see driving about with the cars COVERED in snow. All you can see is the windshield, everything else looks like some weird moving fortress the A-Team cooked up.
@ psarhjinian:
No they aren’t. I delivered pizza in college and the tips were usually worse on snowy days because they put everyone in a bad mood.
“…the best way to cope with winter driving is stay inside.”
Along with the Mac, Netflix etc., there are of course other distractions.
My prediction is that there may be a spike of births in the UK and parts of Europe come, say November…..
That picture is nothing..it’s more fun when you can’t even see the road.. or past your windshield
/even more fun when your distributor fails in the middle of it and you know there’s a school bus due any minute.. I’m looking at you Mazda 626…
+1 for semi-trailer-cleaning prior to driving.
About a year ago I was passing on the left and a ~ 6×3′ piece of ice flew off of one of 5 semis clustered together in the 2 rightmost lanes & fractured my front left headlight. $800 for the part ALONE from Subaru!
Also: If people want to learn to drive in the snow, EVEN in the city, they should learn how their car handles in a parking lot with whatever it is equipped with.
In _MOST_ cases you DON’T need an SUV or 4 wheel drive. Winter tires do come in handy however.
The most important thing is to learn the safe limits of your car. Doubly important if the car is making the gear decisions for you.
AKM:
As Sam would say, it keeps people employed.
Aah, yes. But it does too if we take it upon ourselves to decide to drive to 7-11 or pizza hut instead or asking somebody else to risk their lives, not because they’ve chosen to, but because they don’t have much choice in the matter if they want to remain employed.
Since I generally keep my fridge well-stocked, my only reason to drive around is if I can’t telecommute…Not that the CEO is ever around on those days, mind you.
Robstar:
In _MOST_ cases you DON’T need an SUV or 4 wheel drive. Winter tires do come in handy however.
I couldn’t agree more. This winter in Minnesota has been brutal on the roads …. and the Firebird w/summer tires was a real handfull. After three straight days of taking more than 30 minutes to get up the cul-de-sac to the house (with the neighbors laughing their asses off at my trials and tribulations….), I gave in and ordered winter tires/rims from the Tire Rack. Two days later and the car was transformed from a skittish monster to a traction grabbing billy goat. If the Firebird is any indication, 4-Wheel drive is really unnecessary if you have a dedicated set of winter tires.
Don’t leave home without them!!!!
I tip pizza guys extra when the weather is bad.
When the weather is like this, the hot pizza that arrives tastes so much better with the beer you left in the snow drift before you called.
A frozen pizza sux in comparison.
+1 more for the snow clearing on the roof of semi trailers. Here in Canada (Ontario at least) truck drivers do not legally need to do it. It seems that unions have convinced our transportation folks that the safety of overweight truck drivers clearing snow 15 feet up on a slippery roof is more of a concern. Their contention also is that trucks drivers often need to do remote pick ups at night with trailers that have been sitting for days.
I think that they are full of crap. Getting some snow off the roof of a semi is within somebodies control but snow and ice flying off at highway speed is not.
Trucking lobby is strong here.
netrun : Don’t put your beer in the snow. It is wasted heat. Put it in your fridge where the excess heat is transferred to the inside of your house. Some bored engineers apparently have already done the math on this according to my dad. Less CO2 involved.
This is a global warming website right?
Or, instead of ordering pizza, or cooking a frozen pizza, you could quit complaining and just bake one from scratch. :P Its just way more fun to play with floury pizza dough before you roll it out!
@GSP
I couldn’t agree more. It’s terrifying when you see that huge slab of ice come off a trailer at 120kph. All you can do is hope that it misses you. It usually nails the poor sucker next to you delivering pizza.
But never underestimate the power of PR people to underestimate the intelligence of the average human being.
A little educational advice is not a bad idea for an ad, and it encourages those that are looking for advice to read it. A lot of people don’t follow cars, think about car care, or how to drive other then inserting the key. Like some women, no offense to our better half.
As far as having an SUV, it is great for winter commuting no doubt! During my last snow storm, I pulled my Jeep out of the garage and drove my wife and I to work. It was actually kind of fun. :)
You can mock me if you feel like it, but with our one car being leased, I managed to get away without buying $850 worth of dedicated snow tires and wheels for it in the winter of 2007-2008, but when I bought the Farmer’s Almanac and had a good read last autumn, I realized we were going to be really screwed – so I sent to Tire Rack and managed to get some nice General tires (actually made in Germany) which are phenomenal, for the Sonata. They’re so good, that when our son was having trouble with his 3-season tires, he ordered some for HIS car and it transformed it.
All wheel drive is not necessary.
We live in Northwestern Michigan and just to make you feel better about where you live, it was 7 degrees F. this morning on the drive in; Michigan is bankrupt (for all intents an purposes) and so the cleaning of the roads totally sucks this year; the road condition on the major US31 highway on which we travel has deteriorated so badly that it is well near undriveable (and yes, it was supposed to have been redone 7-8 years ago – still isn’t); and I’m essentially surrounded by imbeciles who apparently have long term AND short term memory loss, because they apparently not only cannot remember how to drive in winter after doing so LAST year, they don’t seem to be able to recall how to do it one damn day to the next… tailgating, flying up on your tail when (if they look) all there is in front of you is a line of tail lights as far as the eye can see, passing on the right, weaving, not stopping at side roads…. little wonder Michigan has the highest auto insurance rates in the entire nation…
Phew I feel better, now.
Oh, and if driving a 4WD vehicle with transfer case, don’t forget to switch it to “4H”…and some people wonder why their SUVs skid around in the snow.
You shouldn’t need to switch to 4-high unless you had first switched to 4-low.
I live in Calgary Canada and we get one of the northern USA stations here. From Idaho I think. I absolutly love it when it snows down there. They get a little snow and all hell breaks loose! Schools are closed, reporters are pleading with people to stay inside, the police issue “do not drive” notices.
Meanwhile, in Calgary, is 15 degrees celcius colder, we have more snow and one of the schools just outside the city that does not get their roads plowed by the city is opening, just at 9:00 instead of 8:00. Everything else is buisness as usual and there were no fatalities on the roads.
My girlfiend’s sister just moved back from California and she is most adament in her opinion that Americans simply cannot drive in snow. She thought it was funny that, in California, snow chains are required by LAW if you want to drive on the mountain roads if there is even a centimeter of snow.
In Calgary you can get a fine if you have chains on…
As for pizza, just go to the boxed bakery goods section of your food stores and look for a little red box “Appian Way Pizza”, buy one per pizza desired, get some mozzeralla cheese and some parmeson cheese, and some pepperoni and whatever else you favor, pick up a cookie/pizze baking sheet or two or three, then simply follow the easy instructions. Inside of 35 minutes from start to “beep”, you’ve got some of the tastiest thin crust pizza going. If you like 1″ thick bread dough for a base, just put two pizza packets into one and plop it on the pizza pan.
Cost? less than a frozen pizza and certainly less than bought pizzas. Fun? Youbetcha.
That tangy sauce will keep you coming back, too.
What is really worth the risk of a serious accident or even a fender-bender that jacks up your insurance rates?
The best advice is, if you don’t have a really good reason for going out on slippery roads, stay home.
Dedicated snow tires are a great help, especially if they are replacing dedicated summer performance tires. I found that my 1995 USA BMW M3 (no traction control) worked just fine as long as the snow was less than 5 inches deep. Anything more than 5 inches and I was afraid the snowplow front air dam would break off. By the way, rear wheel drive can be very useful if you are trying to start up when facing up a steep hill.
Here is another tip: if it is snowing, turn your lights on. don’t tell me you have automatic lights or DTRLs, turn them on. now. all the way on. chances are, if you have auto lights or DTRLs that only your headlights are on (not your tail lights) or worse, only your parking lights are on. also, don’t use your 4 ways. and never, ever, EVER stop! i don’t care how much you cant see, drive slow but keep moving.
Hey I agree with kixstart and thats a first.Let me just add a bit.IF you are scared/nervous and doubt you winter driving ability,PARK the CAR!
Take a cab,bus it call in sick just don’t drive!
Here in southern Ontario with lots of snow ice
and freezing temps the nervous driver is the most dangerous driver on the road period.
I used to deliver pizzas in high school. I loved it when it snowed. Never had a problem driving in it, but the tips were great, and I needed the money, so… Please order out, just tip the delivery guy well.
I think they forgot the most important thing when going on a long trip in the snow (beside snow tires, duh). Bring a couple blankets. If your car breaks down in a desolate area it will be the difference between life and death.
Californians need snow chains for the mountains because their all-season tires are not the same as what is sold up north. The soft rubber does not grab in the snow. As a Canadian I laughed at this in Yosemite one year and hated being forced to spend the $42 for the rental car chains. When later that afternoon it snowed six inches in just a few hours I was glad I had the chains.
I still have those damn chains from ten years ago. Can’t bring myself to throw them away.
+1 on the truck cleaning. Cost me a sunroof.
Obviously, the best winter drivers are pizza delivery folks. Here in Prov, they seem to be generally driving Hondas.
I wonder what that means.
A frozen pizza sux in comparison.
I make my own pizza, dear sir. And they rock :-)
You shouldn’t need to switch to 4-high unless you had first switched to 4-low.
Ouch – Guess I deserved that one!
As for tires, I usually go by fairly well in a light FWD car using M/S tires, as long as they’re not too old, obviously.
@gsp
Sell them on eBay?
@RF: “my Bloemfontein rose”
Can you explain why you are living in a pesthole like Rhode Island?
9. Just because you are driving a 4WD vehicle does not mean you can stop or turn any better or faster than someone driving a RWD sedan. 4WD is not an exemption from the laws of physics.
As for not going out “at all” in the winter weather, well, what are we folks from Michigan/Ontario/Montana/Minnesota/Wisconsin/Alberta/Vermont/Quebec supposed to do for 4 or 5 frickin’ months of the year? Sit at home?
OK wait. If I can get 90% of my paycheck and pension? I’ve got HDTV and I’d go ahead and plump for the major channel package….
Ok where’s my winter time “bail out”? Dammit!
I always keep one of my mountaineering shovels in my Subie during winter. It can be used to dig the car out; and if things get really bad, it can be used to make a snow cave.
In heavy winter driving, HVAC systems sometimes fog windshields with oil from the rubber components.
A good, auto-rated window cleaner (the kind that removes outgas and road films) will work far better than Windex.
Also, a good set of well insulated gloves is critical when you have to brush snow/ice off, or deal with traction devices.
6. Ensure you have enough fuel to complete your journey
I would change this to say always have at least half a tank of fuel. That way, if you’re stranded in a snow storm, you have enough fuel to run the engine and stay warm for several hours, until the storm stops/tow truck arrives. Of course, if said event happens, keep a window open a bit to prevent any buildup of dangerous gases in the car.
And I’ll jump on the winter tires are good bandwagon. I got a set last fall – what a difference they make. All-seasons are okay, but the extra grip and control winter tires provide is definitely worth the cost.
@menno :”Ok where’s my winter time “bail out”? Dammit!”
Move to Newfoundland and go on the pogie.
It’s too cold for salt here in Saskatchewan, so our roads are always somewhat slippery for 5 months of the year. I love driving when it’s really snowy or icy with my studded winter tires. You get to confidently drive at the limits of the car without even going fast. No stability control or traction control to interfere with how I want to have fun! I sure wish I had a LSD though.
My advice is to get out there, have fun, and take full responsibility if you f— up. But I live in Canada.
Nary a mention, yet, of the potential treacherousness of wet autumn leaves upon the roadway.
Those critters can be mighty slippery.
Step 1: Buy snow tires. Yes, I mean you with the 4WD/AWD vehicle too. No traction is no traction, regardless of how may wheels recieve power, and affects steering and braking too.
Step 2: Find an empty parking lot and experement.
Step 3: If you didn’t get step 1, go back and buy snow tires.
Winter driving is fun.
Could not agree more when it comes to proper winter tyres. They are an investment at the start but then again, when you are using winter tyres, you’re not using your summer tyres, so in the end there is very little difference financially (beyond buying that first set). They are not only better in snowy / icy conditions but in all conditions once the temperature drops below 7-8 degrees Centigrade. The compound will make them grip better than summer / all season tyres even on dry or wet roads, not only on snow.
Practice is another aspect. Learn how your car will react to inputs, how to keep sufficient progress going, not stopping unless absolutely necessary. In RWD cars some weight in the boot is helpful – does not need to be much – 50kg will make a lot of difference. In FWD cars beware of understeer on snow. A handbrake can help but learn how to use it properly if you want to go down that route. RWD is usually better for getting uphill, if you’ve got a FWD car (and it’s not a major road we’re talking about) reversing works much better, since most of the weight will be on the driven wheels.
In terms of equipment a collapsible shovel, a snow clearing device with a handle long enough to reach across the car, some blankets, gloves should all be considered a necessity.
And finally, if you intend to use chains, check out which wheels are driven on the car – even in countries with regular and ample snowfall, such as Switzerland, one can have hours of fun observing people fitting chains to the undriven axle ;)