Seeing that you lads would be in countries that have large amounts of ice/snow.
Any advice for driving in icy conditions?
Were having pretty bad ice over here (Irish wise) We dont get this level of ice or ever // we have 0 experience of ice driving
The advice is:
Don't drive.
We don't get much in the way of ice here either, but when we would, it shuts the whole city down. The only advice I can REALLY give, is drive as little as possible. Go slow, and give PLENTY of space between cars. If you do hit a slick spot, don't panic. Just lightly pump your brakes until you get traction. Slamming brakes is bad. You'll end up sliding more or fish tailing or something. Expect bridges to be your biggest problem spots. The biggest thing is to try and anticipate what other drivers are going to do and stay out of the idiots way.
If you get stuck on ice and can't drive, kitty litter is the cheapest easiest way to get some traction, unless you want to carry around a big pile of salt.
I've driven in ridiculously awful conditions, and here's my advice.
If you live anywhere near Sen, or other people who never see snow, stay away, stay far away. Other people will hit you because they are morons when it comes to snow.
If you're visiting someplace where they actually know how to drive, here's some simple tips:
-If you have no tire tread do yourself a favor and never come to a complete stop, always slowly creep forward, that way you don't get stuck.
-Never over counter-steer. If you're fish tailing just turn a bit in the other direction and pump the gas, pumping the gas will give you better traction than just spinning.
-If you have ABS don't be afraid of holding down the breaks when you're sliding, they'll take care of you.
-If the road you are on is tilted side ways, or is very steep, don't slow down too much. Your speed can hold you on the road and up whatever hill you're on, so just keep with it and NEVER stop on an incline if the road is covered in snow.
-Bridges always freeze because air can go under them, so don't make any turns on bridges, just go as straight as possible.
-I'll repeat this one, pumping the gas is your friend. If you are already slipping (the car is moving in a seemingly impossible direction) just lightly pump the gas and things should sort out. Do not, and I repeat, do not hit the breaks when you start slipping unless you MUST stop. Stopping is not your friend on a bad road, stopping can make your car turn backward, slide off the road, or get you stuck. Only stop to prevent damage/injury.
I can emphasize the dont ever come to a stop bit.
I'd advise keeping a bag of cat litter in the trunks of your car. It's great stuff to toss under the tires incase you do get stuck.
Everything else's been covered really.
You can always use your clutch and gears to slow yoourself down. i used that on a hill last night quite handy.
Yeah so it isn't just Scotland that has had the strangest amount of snow in the likes of 10 years, we never usually have snow till later... much later.
I got snowed on while I was in Texas visiting family. It never snows there.
Global warming my ass...
No, that's just MSJ warming it...
If you have some money, a very good investment would be some winter tires. Just got mine a few days ago.
(29-12-2009 05:10 PM)rojerton Wrote: [ -> ]...
-Never over counter-steer. If you're fish tailing just turn a bit in the other direction and pump the gas, pumping the gas will give you better traction than just spinning.
...
-I'll repeat this one, pumping the gas is your friend. If you are already slipping (the car is moving in a seemingly impossible direction) just lightly pump the gas and things should sort out.
...
I have a good deal of experience driving in snow AND teaching people to do the same - I
don't suggest pumping the gas if you are sliding - what you should do is remove your foot from the gas AND the break - you --as an inexperienced snow driver will be MUCH safer if you can allow the vehical to grip the road--and slow down at the same time. Often times when inexperienced snow drivers pump the gas they can loose traction
If you have no traction, the way you get it back is by pumping the gas. Short and light, always works for me.
Plus, if you take your foot off the gas and break you have a higher chance of coming to a stop, which is not what you want to do.
Sure, an inexperienced driver would probably be better off just coming to a complete stop. If you're in the middle of nowhere and need to make it another hour on the road of some place that's never seen a snow plow, you better be at least half-experienced, in which case, using the pump technique is good. Pumping the gas will shake packed on snow from tires, and give you traction when you have completely lost it. Plus, if you're turning, and loosing traction, you don't want to just coast, because you'll coast right off the road.