Snow, Roads & You

[maskedmelonpai]

When you are infrequently blessed with this wonderful white stuff, you might find you are uncertain whether or not it is more prudent to uphold your duty to your employer by braving the conditions or staying home. Below I have assembled a short list to help.

1. If you are sure you gonna end up in a ditch, take refuge in your inadequacy and stay home. You would probably end up in a ditch.

2. If you are sure there is no way you would end up in a ditch, stay home and mock others' lack of automotive prowess on social media. You would either end up in a ditch or put someone else in a ditch.

3. If you are concerned you might end up in a ditch, but resolve to travel no faster than half the posted speed limits as a safeguard against the unknown, stay home, clean the lint trap in your drier and read a good book, knowing you made a good decision. You would probably have put someone else in a ditch.

4. If you are exceedingly fashionable, intelligent, attractive, experienced and smell good you may choose to traverse the roads, but you should probably stay home too because even if your superior traits enable to you navigate the retards who ignored the well placed advice above, you will arrive at your workplace to a mostly empty parking lot just as the notice goes out that business will be closed for the day.

[Muggens]

Gotta use winter tires(studded)

[Ahldagor]

So you went to work, but it was closed?

[bigjerry]

thread warms the heart like a wood stove on a snowy day

[xKoopa]

Lol @ people who dont know how to drive

[Lojik]

Even if you know how to drive in snow, there's a very good chance the other people on the road don't know what the fuck they're doing, particularly if you live somewhere that only gets snow infrequently (I live near DC.)

The worst is ice, cause you get morons in SUV's who think that they'll be fine, even though driving on ice is unsuitable for pretty much any kind of vehicle allowed on roads.

[Danth]

Originally Posted by Lojik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The worst is ice, cause you get morons in SUV's who think that they'll be fine, even though driving on ice is unsuitable for pretty much any kind of vehicle allowed on roads.

I grew up in the lake-effect snowbelt here in OH....get a fair share of winter driving. Over the years I've knocked over some street signs here and there and ended up in a ditch exactly once because I was young and dumb.

4x4's are the worst. They seem to give folks an inflated sense of security....as though their drivers forget that all cars are 4 wheel drive for braking. When I worked for the PD we had more calls from those getting stuck in winter than any other type of vehicle. Front drive passenger cars are usually okay. All the weight's up front so even when they lose traction they tend to keep going straight anyway (understeer). Don't mash the brakes, wait for the car to regain grip, and most the time you'll be fine. Rear drive cars are trickier...with (usually) more even weight balance and the power going to the back they tend to want to kick the rear out every time you hit the gas (oversteer). Careful throttle control and awareness of your momentum is even more critical than usual for such vehicles. It's kind of like driving a sprint car. Not for newbies.

If you're concerned you'll end up in a ditch, driving the posted speed limit is probably too fast for conditions. I've seen (heh) folks get speeding tickets for driving the speed limit in sufficiently bad conditions. Gentle control inputs, gentle throttle inputs, and brake as little as possible when it's slushy out. Number one reason folks end up off the road is because they're a little scared and mash the brakes as soon as they feel the car slide a little, kick the rear end out, over-correct into a spin and it's all over. Again--gentle control inputs rule the day in bad conditions, especially with the brakes. Treat the brake as your enemy--because it is--and try not to get fast enough to really need to use it. Speed is your other enemy. The one time I ever ended up in a ditch it was because I was 19 and fearless (ie, dumb) and plowing through ~3 foot deep snowdrifts at perhaps seventy miles an hour. Eventually the inevitable happened--and I planted myself off the road so firmly that the heavy truck that came to pull me out, instead wound up dragging itself backwards along the ground via its winch. Took some doing (and some digging) to get the car un-stuck. Car didn't have a scratch, good old yank tank....don't try that with modern plastic cars! Don't try it at all actually, it was flippin' dumb.

Most annoying thing about winter driving is there's precious little opportunity to practice it until you have to do it for real. First big snow any given year I usually like to find a deserted parking lot and brush up on skid and spin control and recovery....you folks down south don't even get to do that for the most part.

Danth

[Xaanka]

Originally Posted by Danth [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

4x4's are the worst. They seem to give folks an inflated sense of security....as though their drivers forget that all cars are 4 wheel drive for braking.

this is a very incredibly true statement, AWD/4WD doesn't make jack or shit of a difference in most winter driving conditions when you have shitty all season touring tires. on all seasons, it only really helps with digging yourself out of snow in parking lots.

a mr2 (LOL) with snow tires will handle better than a 4x4 with all seasons. add on top of this that most modern commuter type cars marketed as AWD are 90:10 max FWD slip-and-grip systems, sometimes with brake vectoring if you're lucky, with no LSD's because of course not. if they're driving a truck or something with a proper 4 wheel drive system, they probably have the wrong tires on.

your average joe retard who isn't a car enthusiast is going to buy the 4wd vehicle because marketing told him it's good in the snow, and he's going to feel invincible in the snow. but average joe retard doesn't know HOW to drive in the snow, handle a vehicle on the edge of control, and you can bet your virginity that average joe retard isn't keeping a set of steelies and snow tires in the garage.

there was a massive pileup a few winters ago in battleground, wa that i happened to drive through, where cars were flying off the road headed northbound on i5, through the median down a hill and into the southbound i5 traffic. i was headed southbound i5 and i was the second car to make it through without being part of the pileup. most of the wrecked vehicles were trucks 4x4's and suv's. i casually cruised through at 20mph in a lowered impreza on bald and stretched summer tires because my retard friends didn't check the weather reports and didn't know how to drive in the snow.

basically fuck car marketing and also fuck tire manufacturers for calling all season tires "all season"
driving in the snow is scary because other people on the road are retards especially in the PNW

[Ivah]

Originally Posted by Xaanka [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

basically fuck car marketing and also fuck tire manufacturers for calling all season tires "all season"

If your dumb enough to fall for shit like this you deserve to wreck your vehicle. Though it sucks for other people on the road for other's improper preparing.

I love seeing all the "Does my Subaru need snow tires?" and "I just bought a brand new WRX/STI and wrecked it" threads across the internet. Shit makes me giggle.

[Ahldagor]

High school physics class should've made anyone immune to winter marketing for tires since the whole operation is based on a friction coefficient. Let that sink in.