Topic: Winter Driving Tips : Collection

[Rupert]

Knowledge is in the eye of the beholder.

[normancw]

Well if you can't read there is no point asking you to drive to miss. Is there.
Sure if you have lots of time to do these things on a prepared pad. Mostly stuff happens in a hurry and there is probably not enough time to do gearing down or out. I think that any one would be proud of my driving record tuppeny apeny.

I'm quite certain there are a lot more skilled drivers than you that would disagree with you.

[Fobroader]

Well if you can't read there is no point asking you to drive to miss. Is there.
Sure if you have lots of time to do these things on a prepared pad. Mostly stuff happens in a hurry and there is probably not enough time to do gearing down or out. I think that any one would be proud of my driving record tuppeny apeny.

So what youre saying is in traffic whatever happens, happens and you should just let the car do whatever it wants to do.........wow, thats kind of scary!! So do you consider yourself a driver or a unwitting passenger?? Not saying that everyone should be Tommi Makinen but you should have some semblance of car control.

[Rupert]

What do you know about my skill as a driver and how it ranks with others such? I don't doubt your ability but many will be getting by with their own. Including me. I have had pretty decent results though.

[normancw]

What do you know about my skill as a driver and how it ranks with others such? I don't doubt your ability but many will be getting by with their own. Including me. I have had pretty decent results though.
I would have thought that Jack Brabham would have been a better quote for you.

I know nothing about your driving skill.  I only said "I'm quite certain there are a lot more skilled drivers than you that would disagree with you".

[tenpenny]

Knowledge is in the eye of the beholder.

That sounds like the motto of a new sort of educational system.  As long as you believe you know something, it's not important whether you know it or not.  Don't bother learning, just convince yourself that you have learned.

[Fobroader]

Knowledge is in the eye of the beholder.

That sounds like the motto of a new sort of educational system.  As long as you believe you know something, it's not important whether you know it or not.  Don't bother learning, just convince yourself that you have learned.

 

[dr_spock]

Here in Ottawa, a local driving school did a spot on TV where they said that you must absolutely put the car in neutral when you feel the car slipping on a corner.  I know that that piece of advice has been around since practically the advent of the automobile, but is this still good advice given modern electronic nannys like traction control, ABS, Electronic Stability Program (ESP), torque-vectoring, etc....?  I think better advice would be to ease your foot off the gas and continue to gently steer as required and wait while the car corrects itself.

That's assuming all the nanny stuff works as designed.  I prefer manual.  Stomp on the clutch for instant neutral.  You're not taking your hand off the steering wheel to whack the shifter.   

[X-Traction]

Driving downhill in a front wheel drive vehicle while off the gas can put engine braking force on the front wheels. Would putting it in neutral help if you started to lose control? Out here on the left coast we are usually close to zero when it snows and this seems more slippery than snow in colder temperatures.

I'm not sure because the intervention of the transmission complicates things.  Obviously there is engine braking when you pull off the throttle suddenly, and this will cause engine braking on the front wheels, which will tend to make the back end "loose".  If it's really slippery, there is even a risk of the front wheels breaking traction.

Beyond that it should depend on the engine rpms relative to what gear it's in.

This worries me coming down steep slippery hills with the Escape Hybrid.  Presumably the slip&grip awd system isn't smart enough to spread the engine/regenerative braking to all four wheels.  Compared to the Grand Vitara with permanent awd AND a low range the Escape is nerve-wracking to get down such hills.  It's something we do all the time, going through the zero degree transition on snow/ice as we travel the winter coastal mountain logging roads.

If it's a really slippery steep hill, the best thing to do is put the vehicle in neutral, partially apply the parking brake, and apply/release the main brakes as needed.  Be ready to disengage the parking brake at any time.  The reason here for putting it in neutral is that at very low speeds, the engine is pushing the drive wheels to turn against the brakes, making the non-driven braked wheels more likely to lock up and slide first.  The main brakes are heavily biased toward the front wheels, and applying them on very slippery surfaces commonly causes the fronts to lock first, which means loss of steering.  Using some parking brake balances those forces while not contributing to locking the front wheels.  Of course all this was before abs, so it may be different now.

I've seen a line of cars creeping down the snow-covered Cypress Bowl road, every one of them slewing the front end sideways because their front wheels were locking up from braking, with someone on foot running up the line telling every driver to put their transmission in neutral.

And if you should happen to have a Subaru Loyale/GL, beware that for reasons known only to Martians the parking brake is on the front wheels.

[Fobroader]

^^^It amazes me the amount of people who have no idea what the 3, 2, 1 means on the shifter. Coming back from skiing I saw it many a times cars taking off way too fast and then the owner getting into a tank slapper.

[wing]

I find when things become sketchy things always slow down!  I did a full 360 a few years ago coming down a hill in Carp.  Hit the brakes and it was sheer ice, in slow-mo I corrected one way then the other then did  a twirl and kept going straight LOL.

Anytime I've spun on track etc as well.  But that only comes with practice practice practice.  That's why we offer the winter driving school and you spend 7 hours doing the same thing over and over and over again.

[tenpenny]

I find when things become sketchy things always slow down! 

But, see, that requires doing two things at once, and apparently it's a rare person who can do such a thing.  Or so I've been told, LOL.

[dr_spock]

Interesting to see how a pile up forms on a US highway.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b4_1386649076

[tenpenny]

I watch that, and it's fascinating.  I gather that nobody looks ahead on the road any more?  You only pay attention to what's immediately in front of you, never look at what's further up the road?  And never alter your speed to match what the traffic ahead is doing?

[mrthompson]

^It's like watching lemmings go over a cliff. 

[tortoise]

Remind me to never get out of my car in the event of pileup.

Those morons at the 1:00 mark were really lucky. 

So yeah, add that to the winter driving tips.  If you're in a pileup STAY IN YOU CAR.

[tenpenny]

Remind me to never get out of my car in the event of pileup.

Those morons at the 1:00 mark were really lucky. 

So yeah, add that to the winter driving tips.  If you're in a pileup STAY IN YOU CAR.

Or get back out of the way, and keep your eyes on the oncoming traffic.  I think I'd get out of the car once there was a break in traffic, but I'd be standing up on the side hill, away from the pinball machine.

[Angry Chicken]

Like you have the presence of mind to do the gear things when in difficulty...yeah right. I think I would keep my mind on where I was going and not look at what I was aiming to miss..as a last resort...look at where to go to miss it. Again hard to remember.

When the traffic is coming to a stop, leave extra room behind the car ahead when stopped...plenty of it. Give yourself time to look in the rear view mirror and check if the guy behind is having difficulty in stopping behind you...if this is the case you can at least move up into the space you have left to give him more distance. When all is sanguine behind you can slowly move up.

Yeah...don't go out...keep a winter supply of frozen food, including milk and bread in a chest freezer in your house. Good to buy in store specials and save anyway.

Sent from my computer room in my pyjamas.

FWIW, I agree with most of what you say.  It's hard to remember procedures when in extremis, but then again, anticipating the emergency beforehand and practicing maneuvers against the eventuality means that you don't have to remember at all.  You just "do" and think, "OMG, did I just do that!?" when you have a chance to breathe/think later.

I also agree that preventative measures like leaving lots of room ahead of you and actually using your rear view mirror so you can increase the distance to the person in front of you if the car behind is following too closely makes sense, too.

Not sure why people jumped all over your bones, but it pays to have a thick skin around here. 

[Fobroader]

Interesting to see how a pile up forms on a US highway.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b4_1386649076

First things first, get you and the car out of the facking way if you can, yeah, you crashed, now get off the highway. If the car wont move, hustle and with purpose get out of the impact zone and to an area that higher, or behind trees, somewhere you cant get hit.......or you can throw your hazards on when traffic all of a sudden slows down so people behind you have an idea what they are heading into. Those chuckleheads at the minute mark are lucky they are not eating through a tube or dead.....man that was stupid.

[dr_spock]

First things first, get you and the car out of the facking way if you can, yeah, you crashed, now get off the highway. If the car wont move, hustle and with purpose get out of the impact zone and to an area that higher, or behind trees, somewhere you cant get hit.......or you can throw your hazards on when traffic all of a sudden slows down so people behind you have an idea what they are heading into. Those chuckleheads at the minute mark are lucky they are not eating through a tube or dead.....man that was stupid.

Definitely don't stand around like these guys. 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0b7_1386868680