Car for commute + snow.

Few weeks of continous snow/icy weather here, and people are getting wacky in traffic.......ow boy.
Everyone seems frustrated and anxious behind the wheel, got the worktruck stuck on a rahter steep Icy incline (after some idiot forced me to stop on it) and had to roll it back a little to get going again on a less icy spot, this wasen't to the liking of Jhonny hatchback behind me who failed to understand that the only way I was able to go at that point was backwards, so he refused to roll back.
And he clearly couldent go around either, wich did not stop him from trying.......general hilarity ensued :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I realy need a new camera.....
 
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Additionally Bornholm is a rather small island in the southern Baltic Sea. Typically the sea should provide a warm(ish) cushion to absorb these cold shocks.


Also, I'd love to have a go at driving these toys diggers in this lovely playground horrible situation. Flooring it into a wall of snow FTMFW.
 
narf said:
Additionally Bornholm is a rather small island in the southern Baltic Sea. Typically the sea should provide a warm(ish) cushion to absorb these cold shocks.


Also, I'd love to have a go at driving these toys diggers in this lovely playground horrible situation. Flooring it into a wall of snow FTMFW.
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I rode along with my dad in his 1988 Chevy Blazer plowtruck a few years ago. It's basically systematic crashing into snowbanks. I'm amazed at how tough a truck has to be to put up with it.

Unfortunately, the entire bodywork of that truck succumbed to rust....
 
I'd either pick a U4/5000 (DUH!) or one of those articulated Volvo diggers, depending on whether its a lot of snow or OMGWHEREDIDTHEWORLDGO snow.
 
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It's highly mobile, has spiky things at the front, rubber things at the bottom, and is not fun to get hit by. Yup, rubber goat.
 
Hmm, snow ...

2woezkj.jpg


Okay, so I've been surprised: this thing has been my friend the last two weeks through all the blizzards. It grips like a mutherfooker.

4000 pounds + AWD + Michelin X-Ices = Glued to the Ground.
 
Kiki said:
Hmm, snow ...

2woezkj.jpg


Okay, so I've been surprised: this thing has been my friend the last two weeks through all the blizzards. It grips like a mutherfooker.

4000 pounds + AWD + Michelin X-Ices = Glued to the Ground.
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Haha, and I've been cursing the X-Ice's lack of grip in winter conditions with AWD Legacy. They are a bit slippery on hard snow and ice compared to my 406 which is FWD with only ABS, but is running Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 studded tires. So it's sometimes a bit scary in the Subie to find out the braking distance after accelerating like hell on slippery road :D

But I must say when driving normally the X-Ices are totally good enough even on bad winter conditions and on dry tarmac they are excellent by winter tire standards, so they're a very good compromise.
 
narf said:
Proper snow tyres FTMFgrip.
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Seriously!

TomCat said:
New car? Sweet. The cuteness of the Bug wear off finally?
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Thanks - yes, actually, the Bug was on its last dredges of its life in the mountains so it went back to LA to retire as my semi-retired mum's occasional grocery getter. ;)

Lastsoul said:
Haha, and I've been cursing the X-Ice's lack of grip in winter conditions with AWD Legacy. They are a bit slippery on hard snow and ice compared to my 406 which is FWD with only ABS, but is running Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 studded tires. So it's sometimes a bit scary in the Subie to find out the braking distance after accelerating like hell on slippery road :D

But I must say when driving normally the X-Ices are totally good enough even on bad winter conditions and on dry tarmac they are excellent by winter tire standards, so they're a very good compromise.
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Ah, that's interesting - I've been trying my best to slide the damn Taurus on hard pack, and even with the traction control off, it hasn't slipped at all. I guess that's a good thing... <_< :lol:

It must be the weight of the car, but then again, I've never driven with studded tires before. However I've been trying to find studded tires for the bike though.
 
If you can't get slip on snow with TC off then I'd say you're running on half your cylinders :lol:
 
narf said:
If you can't get slip on snow with TC off then I'd say you're running on half your cylinders :lol:
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Or perhaps the car's AWD, weight and tires are doing their job.
 
Blind_Io said:
Or perhaps the car's AWD, weight and tires are doing their job.
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If the road really is slippery, you can still break traction easily even with AWD and really good snow tires. I don't know how much power AWD Taurus has, but it's not hard to have all four wheels spinning in third or fourth gear at 100km/h if the road is properly slippery, so covered in smooth ice or fresh powder snow. I'd guess around 200hp is enought to do that. And in first or second gear anything more powerful than old non-turbo diesel should easily break traction even with studded tyres.

So I guess the Taurus has ESP that still keeps working even if it's turned of?
 
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Lastsoul said:
If the road really is slippery, you can still break traction easily even with AWD and really good snow tires. I don't know how much power AWD Taurus has, but it's not hard to have all four wheels spinning in third or fourth gear at 100km/h if the road is properly slippery, so covered in smooth ice or fresh powder snow. I'd guess around 200hp is enought to do that. And in first or second gear anything more powerful than old non-turbo diesel should easily break traction even with studded tyres.

So I guess the Taurus has ESP that still keeps working even if it's turned of?
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Doesn't have to be slippery, doesn't have to be winter, don't have to have TC on. I can get my tail out with some weight transfer easily enough going 40+ around a corner with AWD and TC on. It doesn't maintain a slide and recovers very quickly but it's not really that hard. If you can't get the tail out in the snow even with snow tires you are not trying.
 
In a straight line I can practically stand on the throttle and it won't slip.
But if I crank the wheel a bit, just a slight dab of the gas will bring the car around, which coincidentally is how I park the car.

EDIT: Oh I see I missed that Kiki is using studded tires, I've never driven on those.
 
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Lastsoul said:
If the road really is slippery, you can still break traction easily even with AWD and really good snow tires. I don't know how much power AWD Taurus has, but it's not hard to have all four wheels spinning in third or fourth gear at 100km/h if the road is properly slippery, so covered in smooth ice or fresh powder snow. I'd guess around 200hp is enought to do that. And in first or second gear anything more powerful than old non-turbo diesel should easily break traction even with studded tyres.

So I guess the Taurus has ESP that still keeps working even if it's turned of?
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245 bhp.
 
ESPNSTI said:
In a straight line I can practically stand on the throttle and it won't slip.
But if I crank the wheel a bit, just a slight dab of the gas will bring the car around, which coincidentally is how I park the car.

EDIT: Oh I see I missed that Kiki is using studded tires, I've never driven on those.
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Michelin X-Ice is studdless at least here, and there's a version called X-Ice North with studs. Anyway, on ice 245hp should easily break AWD + winter tyre traction, even without any use of weight transfer, but as prizrak said it does help a lot. Or then the ice in Finland is totally different :D
 
Around here we don't use that many studded tires. Studs are great if you are driving on snow pack the entire time, but when you get on wet or dry pavement the studs decrease traction. Since we are a desert we get a few massive storms with periods of dry, even warm weather. Salt Lake swaps back and forth between above and below freezing more than any city in North America. The result is dry or wet roads for much of the winter with snowpacked road during or immediately following storms.
 
Studded tires have generally better grip on dry and wet tarmac than the most extreme studless winter tires like Michelin X-Ice Xi2 or Continental ExtremeWinterContact.
The studless tires have softer compound to gain the maximum grip on snow and ice which make them worse on tarmac. Studded tires have harder compound which makes the studs work better and help for the grip on wet and dry tarmac.
 
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