[selzini]

Since I'm leaving Friday morning, and there's about two inches of snow on the roads right now, I thought I would ask advice from those veterans who are used to this stuff(I may live in Chattanooga, but I'm really a Florida guy). As I head west from here, the conditions will improve, but I doubt the snow is going to melt before I leave - it won't get above freezing until Thursday afternoon. I know AWD won't mean much if there's ice on the road, but I ran across the following today, which goes against what I thought I knew:

Avoid spinout: If your front end is sliding, steer in the opposite direction of the skid; if the back end is sliding, steer in the same direction.

I thought you ALWAYS turned in the direction of the skid, but this says otherwise. "Veterans," what say you?

 

[boone]

I've never seen it worded this way either. I guess they are really getting down to correcting oversteer or understeer. So, if your car is sliding to the left as a result of understeer that was caused by the road conditions, it seems logical to steer to the right in order to bring the vehicle back in line. If we're talking about oversteer where the rear end is trying to get to the front, you'll want to steer left in order to counter a rear end oversteer to the left.

BTW: AWD cars are prone to understeer and RWD cars are prone to oversteer.

 

[equetefue]

It does work that way. When I lived in Kansas I was taught do so and to my believe it does work. Keep in mind that once the front bites it will slightly jerk the car in the direction u want to go. Very important to keep in mind when driving through patches of ice

 

[Vancity808]

isnt that simply counter steering a slide/drift?

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[mattreading22]

I would just tell you to keep traction control and vdc on and if it gets icy, throw it into snow mode. You should be fine as long as you aren't punching it when acceleration. If you do begin to slide, equetefue gave you the correct advice. I would say just take your time and keep more space between you and the car in front of you than you think you need and you should be fine.

 

[Sinecure]

Your car isn't likely to understeer.

Here's what you want to know:

When it is icy/snowy/slippery, do everything more gradually. Accelerate gradually, slow down gradually. Go slower through turns. Leave more room between you and the car in front. Assume you'll slide until proven otherwise.

Also, the snow that's piled up on the side of the road will give you more traction than the packed, shiny stuff in the middle. Put two wheels on that if you need a little extra traction.

Toss a bag of kitty litter or sand in your trunk. If you get stuck, it makes for great traction. In fact, if you can find two sandbags, put one over each rear wheel. They'll provide a little extra weight for traction and you can use them if you get stuck.

 

[boone]

isnt that simply counter steering a slide/drift?

Sure is in the case of oversteer. Just a different way of saying it.

 

[Vancity808]

you pretty much listed all there is to snow driving. also remeber to engine brake as much as possible vs using the pedal

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[selzini]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Hopefully, the roads will be fairly clear by the time I leave Friday. I'm sure glad that the crap came today, instead of Thursday.

 

[cvipgo]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Hopefully, the roads will be fairly clear by the time I leave Friday. I'm sure glad that the crap came today, instead of Thursday.

take a snow board also it might come handy