Rate yourself (and be honest) as a driver on snow and/or ice

Rate yourself (and be honest) as a driver on snow and/or ice

  • Level I Beginner - I make bitchy sounds at the first loss of traction

    Votes: 1 2.3%

  • Level II - Competent, but nothing speshial

    Votes: 21 48.8%

  • Level III Expert - I'm basically Mario Andretti of snow driving

    Votes: 21 48.8%
  • Total voters
    43
@YellowSnow said:
"The snow was deep and wet in the parkin spaces and first some dumb ass in a VW Tuareg manages to get himself high centered stuck[/i], followed by @1to392831weretaken in his Minvan doing the same thing. Pure comedy. We could barrel though that shit no problem.
Click to expand...

And it's usually not the soccer mom behind the wheel. It's the soccer dad, thinking his AWD vehicle immunizes him from the outside weather.
 
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...followed by @1to392831weretaken in his Minvan doing the same thing. Pure comedy. We could barrel though that shit no problem.
Click to expand...

My badass minivan this tim of year is proudly sporting the steelies with Blizzaks. My brother had a Christmas party, and nobody was going to show because the roads were totally fucked. Said hero minivan made the rounds, saving the day and getting everyone there and home.

Tires make all the difference. If I had the choice between AWD and dedicated winter tires, the latter is the obvious choice (both is best, I guess, but I've never owned an AWD vehicle, as you don't need one here). My car has the same steelies/Blizzak combo, and it's a hoot in the snow. There are no "now days" where I work, so I have at least a thousand miles of experience in the PNW heavy, wet shit, and Whatcom County owns like two plows. This has given me an irrational amount of confidence that bit me in the ass recently. I was driving home from work with my brother shotgun. It was the night where 8" of snow turned into a sheet of ice covered in slush after six hours of freezing rain. Everyone was showing up to work in the morning saying the roads were awful, and I just rolled my eyes and made the air-jerkoff motion and took off like usual. Highway 20 wasn't nearly as bad as people were saying, so I was bombing down, passing pussies left and right. Got to the freeway, and I didn't last a quarter mile. Hit a pile of slush over a sheet of ice, and the Blizzaks said, "Fuck you!" and gave up. Came around a full 90 degrees, dead stick, and the guardrail was coming at us insurance-write-off fast. Was steering out of it, but no response. Turned to my brother and said, "We're going to hit. Hard." No shit, three feet from the rail, the tires dug in and we straightened right out and carried on like nothing had happened. Took it a LOT easier the rest of the way. First winter conditions to ever kick my ass. That stuff was like driving through a foot of pudding. I thought of this thread even as we were spinning.

As for Hondas and rust, get a newer one and you won't have to worry about how long the body lasts, as the engine will have blown up several times long before the road salt has done its job. Fuck Honda right in the ass.

Lastly, what would be the best snow vehicle? No different than what would be the best vehicle for ANY conditions: the best ratio of grip:weight. WRC races winter rallies. They don't switch to trucks or SUVs when the snow starts falling. They stick to their lightweight cars and throw grippy ass tires on them:

If the snow is so high you'd be plowing it in a lightweight car, it is what it is. Otherwise, you want the lightest possible vehicle that'll be over the snow, and you want to put dedicated winter tires on it. My personal favorite snow ride is this:

View attachment 46636

No weight, grip for days, constant laugh. Just stupid fun...
Click to expand...

I would mostly agree. For driving around town here on icy roads or up to the ski hill I'd take a front wheel drive van with Blizzaks over my 4 Runner with Michelin all seasons all day long. We have Blizzaks on our Sequoia and they make a YUGE difference. But there's a few situation where you still need the clearance and locking differential that a off road capable SUV or truck house. I've driven a 3rd gen 4 runner with the real locking differential engages through like 2 feet of snow for 100 yards high up in the Wasatch Mts. @89ute ' s beloved Honda could never get through that level of REAL Utah snow.

I'm sure a Subaru with Blizzaks would kick the shit out of our large SUVs in most situations. But still, those are lesbian cars and my wife says we can never own one.
 
...followed by @1to392831weretaken in his Minvan doing the same thing. Pure comedy. We could barrel though that shit no problem.
Click to expand...

My badass minivan this tim of year is proudly sporting the steelies with Blizzaks. My brother had a Christmas party, and nobody was going to show because the roads were totally fucked. Said hero minivan made the rounds, saving the day and getting everyone there and home.

Tires make all the difference. If I had the choice between AWD and dedicated winter tires, the latter is the obvious choice (both is best, I guess, but I've never owned an AWD vehicle, as you don't need one here). My car has the same steelies/Blizzak combo, and it's a hoot in the snow. There are no "now days" where I work, so I have at least a thousand miles of experience in the PNW heavy, wet shit, and Whatcom County owns like two plows. This has given me an irrational amount of confidence that bit me in the ass recently. I was driving home from work with my brother shotgun. It was the night where 8" of snow turned into a sheet of ice covered in slush after six hours of freezing rain. Everyone was showing up to work in the morning saying the roads were awful, and I just rolled my eyes and made the air-jerkoff motion and took off like usual. Highway 20 wasn't nearly as bad as people were saying, so I was bombing down, passing pussies left and right. Got to the freeway, and I didn't last a quarter mile. Hit a pile of slush over a sheet of ice, and the Blizzaks said, "Fuck you!" and gave up. Came around a full 90 degrees, dead stick, and the guardrail was coming at us insurance-write-off fast. Was steering out of it, but no response. Turned to my brother and said, "We're going to hit. Hard." No shit, three feet from the rail, the tires dug in and we straightened right out and carried on like nothing had happened. Took it a LOT easier the rest of the way. First winter conditions to ever kick my ass. That stuff was like driving through a foot of pudding. I thought of this thread even as we were spinning.

As for Hondas and rust, get a newer one and you won't have to worry about how long the body lasts, as the engine will have blown up several times long before the road salt has done its job. Fuck Honda right in the ass.

Lastly, what would be the best snow vehicle? No different than what would be the best vehicle for ANY conditions: the best ratio of grip:weight. WRC races winter rallies. They don't switch to trucks or SUVs when the snow starts falling. They stick to their lightweight cars and throw grippy ass tires on them:

If the snow is so high you'd be plowing it in a lightweight car, it is what it is. Otherwise, you want the lightest possible vehicle that'll be over the snow, and you want to put dedicated winter tires on it. My personal favorite snow ride is this:

View attachment 46636

No weight, grip for days, constant laugh. Just stupid fun...
Click to expand...

1000 miles experience.

A real expert.
 
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I typically find, doing the exact opposite of what you normally would want to do, is the right decision when dealing with ice. Less brake and more gas is always essential. 90% here probably know this but I’ll say it anyway. Hitting your brakes takes away your steering and traction, while hitting the gas on a slide can actually gain you traction to veer your truck back on track.
 
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This is more a black ice (ISAFNRC) story than snow.

Junior year of high school I picked my friend who didn’t have a car and we come to a T intersection with a 3 way stop and 3-4 cars at each stop sign. My turn to go and I start turning left and hit a patch of ice that put me into a spin. I think I did 1 and a half turns and ended up back end into a driveway barely missing the mail box on the curb. Luckily there were no cars in the driveway.
 
How I learned was on snow/ice you drive with the gearbox and the throttle - don't touch the brakes. Growing up in the 509 when front wheel drive came out we thought we'd never need snow tires again.
 
So my entire life, I've always owned truck or SUVs. I run Bridgestone Blizzaks on 2nd Gen Toyota Sequoia and that thing is a beast in snow, but it also weight 6400 lbs and when the roundabouts here are black ice the ass end still wants to go one way vs the direction one is steering. Finally decided to bite the bullet and a buy a 2nd set of Blizzaks for my wife's Audi mommy wagon. Ho-lee-chit, now we've got the best snow car in the history of the world. Those fancy AWD Eurotrash rides with super sticky rubber winter tires are unstoppable on snow and ice. @pawz get some of these for yer Bimmer.

tilted-tires-blizzak-ws90-shared-bst-web-consumer
 
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Driving with my 1st wife in a week of snow with icy roads, her being from Destin, Fl and myself growing up in Seattle, I made a complete fool of myself as we approached a T intersection 🛑 in North Carolina 1978.
I’m explaining to her the cautions/dangers of driving in snow/potential ice especially at night while giving her the basics and less than 30 seconds later sliding completely through the intersection into someone’s front yard. No traffic thankfully 😅
 
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