Jesda wrote:FULL THROTTLE ALL THE TIME LIKE A RALLY STAGE

This is what I do, and yes im not kidding.
Also another tip would be to keep your high beams off because it make each snow flake more visible and harder to see whats in front of you, thats at least what I noticed when I drive in the snow

PoorManQ45 wrote:My advice:

To clear the snow/ice from your windshield boil a pot of water and throw on the windshield as quickly as possible!!!

Makes cool sounds too!




Best tool for winter driving: Ears

Listen to your tires to know which wheels have traction and what type of surface you're moving on.

IBCoupe wrote:Move to SOUTHERN Arizona?

FTFY

numbnuts240 wrote:still snows in northern arizona.

It snows a LOT. The road that goes to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is closed to the public 6 months out of the year because of the snow and freezing conditions. Last March, we went to the Canyon and there was still a big pile of snow on the ground at the Southern entrance. It's all about elevation. The GC is over 7,000 feet, here in Surprise, we are at just over 1,300 feet.


Thanks for all the tips everyone. Keep the ideas coming, I'm gonna write up the article tomorrow night, I'll post a link when I'm finished.

rub a thin coat of shampoo on the inside of your windscreen to keep it from fogging up, because its horrible when your sweeting inside the car and now youhave to blast the heater to keep the windsheild from fogging.

And Ive never tryed this because I never got stuck but if you hit the brakes and gas lightly you have a better chance of getting out because of torque multiplication or something

It has to do with even power distribution.In the 4 wheeling work that's called the poor man's locker.

and for snow driving it's easy.I drive 4wd's buy rarely engage it unless i'm out to have some fun.It's all about the throttle control/brake control.My jeep has tons of power to spin the tires,no abs,and a short wheelbase.Those few things combined make it extremely extremely hard to drive in the snow,combine those with a 15" wide tire and it's a v8 powered snow blower.

I've found try to lug the motor a little,easy on the throttle/brake/steering inputs.Keep double the distance of what you think you need,and always just drive how your comfortable with driving.I'm comfortable with doing 70-80 on the highway with snow on it and have done it for quite a while and never felt uncomfortable but most people aren't.Now before that 70-80 part gets taken out of context i mean when i have the ability too.I'm not doing 80 with a car coming up in my lane,i let out of the throttle slow down to whatever speed their doing and wait until they move over.

troskinatior wrote:rub a thin coat of shampoo on the inside of your windscreen to keep it from fogging up, because its horrible when your sweeting inside the car and now youhave to blast the heater to keep the windsheild from fogging.

You're doing it wrong.

HEAT does not defog a windshield. Dry air does. You can defog a windshield with sub-freezing air. The heat is for deFROST, which is separate. If your windshield is fogging up, turn on your A/C. A/C dries the air and will defog your windows in a hurry. Most cars with automatic climate control actually automatically enable A/C when defrost mode is enabled. The air is still being heated, so it isn't cold, but it is being dried.

If your windshield is iced over on the outside, cranking the heat will help. Otherwise, leave the heat where it's comfortable and just make sure your A/C is on.

^ This.

I just explained it today to my girlfriend, too. She said, "Isn't the A/C only for when it's hot out?" I replied, "No, it's for when it's wet in."

Well the car I had last winter had the heater stuck on all the time so I guess thats why i never used the defroster

For sure, for window fog turn the AC on even if the heat is still full blast... It also helps immensely to clear the snow from the vent intakes under the wipers so that its not sucking in snow infested air...

Theres 2 things that I didn't see mentioned that I would like to touch on..

FWD is NOT better in the winter.. Many people think it is, however I think its downright SCARY.. In a RWD car, if you go into a corner a bit too fast, you can give it a little more gas and at least the back will come around a little.. In a FWD car, if you go into a corner too fast the natural reaction is to turn the wheel MORE, which makes things worse, or hit the brakes, which also makes things worse... 2 winters ago, I had a E28 BMW.. I had blizzak snow tires on it, and that thing was truly unstoppable. No ABS, 180HP, open diff, and I could go anywhere as long as the snow wasnt up to the bumper.

Secondly I would also like to mention the importance of keeping the car clean. On my Q, after a week of driving in snow my windows are pretty well caked with salt. This can be dangerous especially when the sun is setting, it can make it very difficult to see out the windows. Spend the $5 for a basic automatic wash..

I also like to "test" the road surface if I am unsure about how slick it is. if I am moving an no one is around, I will usually press the brakes to see how much engagement it takes before the ABS comes on.. Sometimes it can look like its miserable but its not too bad, other times it can look not too bad and be ultra slippery.

Make a section for Florida drivers. Make that section only one page and put in big bold letters:


"DODGE THE STUPID CANADIANS."

FlatBlackIan wrote:5. Practice. This goes along with 3. Find a parking lot, have some fun, it will make everyone safer.

I learned to drive in Chicago snow (not nearly as bad as what we got up here) in a crappy Volvo 5 speed (worst clutch feel ever). Even if the snow isn't that thick- find an open parking lot and force your car beyond the limits (watch for light poles). Nothing will teach you better.
Also, my Acura Legend had a winter wiper positioning feature. The wipers would stay a bit higher on the glass, which makes it a bit easier to defrost/dig them out. I ghetto the same thing by tapping my wiper stalk until the blades are in the vicinity of where the defrost blows.
Lately, I've seen lots of people that pull their wipers to the "change wiper blade" position (away from the windshield- don't know what to call it), in order to keep them from sticking to the windshield. I'm not sure if this is a good idea- what if the wiper gets frozen like that? Could the spring be conditioned to not snap to the windshield like that?

elwesso wrote:FWD is NOT better in the winter.. Many people think it is, however I think its downright SCARY.. In a RWD car, if you go into a corner a bit too fast, you can give it a little more gas and at least the back will come around a little.. In a FWD car, if you go into a corner too fast the natural reaction is to turn the wheel MORE, which makes things worse, or hit the brakes, which also makes things worse... 2 winters ago, I had a E28 BMW.. I had blizzak snow tires on it, and that thing was truly unstoppable. No ABS, 180HP, open diff, and I could go anywhere as long as the snow wasnt up to the bumper.

I definitely agree.

FWD vs RWD kinda depends on the car. If you've got no wieght in the back of a RWD car anyway, it can be a bit trickier than your standard FWD car- purely based on weight distribution. Don't get me wrong- I'd prefer a RWD car with winter tires, but I've had no difficulty with my little protege.

My recent experience-we can go further back, but that'll give away my age.

RWD '84 Mustang with all seasons, can hardly get any traction without weights in the hatch area. I mostly did donuts in parking lot.

RWD J30t with premium all seasons, got stuck in about 3cm of snow in a level parking lot. I had to use the kitty litter to get traction.
RWD J30t with Blizzaks, full tank of gas and weights in the back. A little more poised, but travelling at 80km/h, on snow and ice covered roads, the car threatened to swap ends.
Jeep 4x4 in RWD mode only on premium all seasons, did donuts in the parking lot. With 4x4 engaged actually swapped ends. Back end broke loose. Immediatly got a set of winters which made a huge diference.

FWD '90 Honda Civic CX Hatch with 14"inch all seasons, drove from Montreal to Toronto during a January snowstorm. I was one of the few vehicles that had no problems getting traction
FWD '04 Acura with/without winter tires, always had traction.
FWD Saab 9-5 wagon with winters-literally tracks like a tank. No issues getting to ski hills.
FWD Mercedes B200 with winters-absolutly unstoppable. On my way home from work (with it snowing again!), I passed a Nissan Xterra a** end up in a ditch, BMW X3 which had swapped ends and hit a gaurdrail, and Subaru WRX, on its side off an exit ramp.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:

elwesso wrote:FWD is NOT better in the winter.. Many people think it is, however I think its downright SCARY.. In a RWD car, if you go into a corner a bit too fast, you can give it a little more gas and at least the back will come around a little.. In a FWD car, if you go into a corner too fast the natural reaction is to turn the wheel MORE, which makes things worse, or hit the brakes, which also makes things worse... 2 winters ago, I had a E28 BMW.. I had blizzak snow tires on it, and that thing was truly unstoppable. No ABS, 180HP, open diff, and I could go anywhere as long as the snow wasnt up to the bumper.

I definitely agree.

I'm on board with this too. I was playing some Halo:Reach with frapjap the other night and snow driving was one of the subjects while we were mowing down some covies and he had a great quote,"RWD is more forgiving, when you make a move in a FWD you're committed." Just like driving a 911 (or any other RR car) the same goes for a FF, with all that weight over the drive wheels once it's lost - it's lost.

The drivetrain layout though will never compensate for driver skills, be it (seemingly) simple decision making or just the ingrained mechanics of being easy with control inputs. After that, proper tires...I say proper tires and not winter tires because not everyone needs to be rolling on Blizzaks, all seasons are a must though once the temps drop below 40 if you want to maintain any kind of grip on the road. You try running summers when it gets cold you might was well use those solid plastic tires from your first tricycle.

driverdriver wrote:My recent experience-we can go further back, but that'll give away my age.

RWD '84 Mustang with all seasons, can hardly get any traction without weights in the hatch area. I mostly did donuts in parking lot.

RWD J30t with premium all seasons, got stuck in about 3cm of snow in a level parking lot. I had to use the kitty litter to get traction.
RWD J30t with Blizzaks, full tank of gas and weights in the back. A little more poised, but travelling at 80km/h, on snow and ice covered roads, the car threatened to swap ends.
Jeep 4x4 in RWD mode only on premium all seasons, did donuts in the parking lot. With 4x4 engaged actually swapped ends. Back end broke loose. Immediatly got a set of winters which made a huge diference.

FWD '90 Honda Civic CX Hatch with 14"inch all seasons, drove from Montreal to Toronto during a January snowstorm. I was one of the few vehicles that had no problems getting traction
FWD '04 Acura with/without winter tires, always had traction.
FWD Saab 9-5 wagon with winters-literally tracks like a tank. No issues getting to ski hills.
FWD Mercedes B200 with winters-absolutly unstoppable. On my way home from work (with it snowing again!), I passed a Nissan Xterra a** end up in a ditch, BMW X3 which had swapped ends and hit a gaurdrail, and Subaru WRX, on its side off an exit ramp.

Also, when releasing the gas on some RWD, the rear end loves to kick out on you.

The article is finished!

Check it out here. http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/winter ... -tips.html

Thank you so much to everyone that contributed to this article. Hopefully this will help some n00bs stay safe on the road this season. I sure wouldn't want to be trying to navigate any of the roads on the East Coast right now.

Nicely done, folks. While it's not the end-all, be-all of winter driving guides, hopefully it'll help some rookies stay out of trouble (and remind you other guys to be extra-careful - and prepared - out there).

It gets my thumbs up. Great job Bex.

Thanks! How bad is it up your way?

This is more of a basic driving technique:

Always look as far up the road as you can. That hood ornament on your benz isn't for staring at while you're driving. The farther you look out the more time you have to react to an issue.

If more people would do this there would be a lot less congestion on the highways. How often has everyone here been stuck in stop and go traffic? Being in a manual car brings some insight onto this. It's much easier to roll slowly with traffic modulating you speed and distance than mashing the throttle just to slam on the brakes in 2 secs when the car in front of you does the same thing.

nissangirl74 wrote:Thanks! How bad is it up your way?

If by bad, you mean good, then its freakin awesome.

I love snow, the more the better. I will just say this. The city of St Paul has been driving around with giant snowblowers knocking down snowbanks at intersections. Even after they hit it once, I still can see to get out of the parking lot at work. Even in my pickup, Im blind as a bat, because the bank is 6' high.

Im loving it.

I'd love it if it wasn't so freaking cold. I know that's stupid but it's true. I love playing in the snow and it is beautiful, I just can't stand the cold.

nissangirl74 wrote:I'd love it if it wasn't so freaking cold. I know that's stupid but it's true. I love playing in the snow and it is beautiful, I just can't stand the cold.

My wife is the same way. I keep the thermostat between 65 and 68 during the winter, and I sleep with a fan blowing at me. She thinks I am broken.

You can take the heat we had in Omaha and keep it, yuck.

FlatBlackIan wrote:

nissangirl74 wrote:I'd love it if it wasn't so freaking cold. I know that's stupid but it's true. I love playing in the snow and it is beautiful, I just can't stand the cold.

My wife is the same way. I keep the thermostat between 65 and 68 during the winter, and I sleep with a fan blowing at me. She thinks I am broken.

You can take the heat we had in Omaha and keep it, yuck.

It's not that freaking hot in AZ. In July. That humidity was horrible. No freaking thank you.

FlatBlackIan wrote:
My wife is the same way. I keep the thermostat between 65 and 68 during the winter, and I sleep with a fan blowing at me. She thinks I am broken.

You can take the heat we had in Omaha and keep it, yuck.

what in the hell is wrong with you?! lol

all i remember from omaha was how COLD the damn room was because of you!

He's part Eskimo.

PEZi720 wrote:what in the hell is wrong with you?! lol

all i remember from omaha was how COLD the damn room was because of you!

ROFLCOPTER, I forgot about that.

nissangirl74 wrote:He's all Lumberjack.

FTFY

I might have missed it, but you might want to touch upon skinny tires. I saw the snow tire part, though.

Skinny tires are BETTER in the snow. It increases the force(weight) per area (force per area, otherwise known as pressure), which helps to "cut" through the snow to the asphalt underneath... so run the skinniest tire recommended for your wheels.

Also, I was thinking about it, and that whole "nothing will help you stop better in the snow" argument miiiight be false. I have yet to see any concrete tests that prove this, but I would imagine FWD might have the best stopping characteristics for the reasons listed above. The front wheels do most of the stopping, and that's where all the weight is in the FWD car, allowing the front wheels to cut through the snow a little more.

And Wes- regarding your understeering scenario. Instead of blipping the throttle like you would in a RWD car, you can just lift the handbrake lightly and quickly to induce oversteer. Just don't rip it up and leave it on. That's bad news.

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:And Wes- regarding your understeering scenario. Instead of blipping the throttle like you would in a RWD car, you can just lift the handbrake lightly and quickly to induce oversteer. Just don't rip it up and leave it on. That's bad news.

E-brake steering treats the symptom, not the problem, and still doesn't offer as fine a degree of control as a rear-drive car would. But even that is beside the point. The real point in the understeer scenario is that you're understeering AT ALL. You're understeering because all your eggs are in the same basket, and that basket IS going to fall.

Speaking of this stuff, though, I read a terrible article on driving in the snow recently. It actually recommends immediately (their word) letting off the gas in panic maneuvers in the snow. Most idiotic suggestion ever. Letting off the gas is as bad as (WORSE THAN without ABS) slamming the brake pedal as hard as you can. The thing you absolutely NEVER want to do if you can help it is make abrupt tire-speed changes. Apparently the author has never heard of throttle-lift oversteer.