First time driving during snow season

Are you talking about State College or somewhere else? Because in my college, I get tailgated if I drive at the speed limit.

Nah, I'm about 3-4 hours NNE of State College.... the home of NBC's "The Office" to be precise. Mostly populated by old people and Mexicans the bad ones usually stay off the road when it snows.

Matter of fact it's snowing right now:

http://img515.imageshack.**/img515/8766/img032nj7.jpg

http://img144.imageshack.**/img144/2927/img033kh5.jpg

Calling for 5-10", God I love snow.
 
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I'm already starting to get annoyed removing/scraping snow off my car almost everyday. Do you guys think a car cover is a good idea?
 
I'm already starting to get annoyed removing/scraping snow off my car almost everyday. Do you guys think a car cover is a good idea?

I found windscreen covers work fairly well, all-car covers on a wet car often end up with it being frozen to various bits of the car and just as much of a pita as scraping.

If you have to park it outside and got money to spare, nothing works as well as an remote-controlled/timed auxiliary heating system.
 
If you have to park it outside and got money to spare, nothing works as well as an remote-controlled/timed auxiliary heating system.
Or a tarp :p. I found one in my garage that's just big enough to cover all the windows of my car. Stick it under the wipers front and rear and, ta-da, no more scraping windows! But if you don't want to look like a cheapskate, a car cover should work great.
 
If anyone is going to an empty parking lot to have a little fun, watch out for police. My friend and I had a close brush with an officer just now.
 
just go slow. be very cautious. keep your tire pressure at the rated PSI. keep plenty of room between you and the car in front because if they go to stop and its bad out. you could slide right into the back of him. as for weight in the car your car is front wheel drive so their isnt alot you can do on that front. just drive defensively


and zeoniks is right. you can have fun in a big empty parking lot. i know know i certain do ;) my car may be a boat but it is really fun in the snow. but ive had my close calls with cops too. just keep an eye out and dont go to overboard
If anyone is going to an empty parking lot to have a little fun, watch out for police. My friend and I had a close brush with an officer just now.
 
^ I forgot to mention that. I usually open each window about a quarter of an inch or so no matter how cold it is. This helps me hear what each tire is doing before I can feel it; it's a trick I learned from my dad and it helps.

That is genuinly a good tip, one of the hardest things about winter driving is that most cars are very hard to tell how much traction you have at any given time, very unprogressive and very little feel or feedback like you'll get in most cars in high-traction conditions. Anything that makes the limit of traction more obvious is a really good thing.


The Cruiser's 3 ton curb weight helps with traction too.

thats so-so information, what you really need is pressure per square inch on each tire, i.e. skinny tires, especially on a (light weight) car. If your car still has 225 width tires theirs probably no amount of sandbags that will improve the traction ,especially as more weight=more inertia. The best thing is to buy skinny snow rated tires.


Important Note: DO NOT only change the front tires for the snow (even on a FWD) the acceleration and braking will improve 3 fold or more, but when you turn you'll go right into over-steer much much easier then you'd otherwise expect. May sound like fun but its no good with traffic around you.


I just got back from driving in thin slippery snow and i'd like to reemphasize the importance of learning how to drive under control, in particular regards to driving right at the limit of adhesion. Sure its good to practice skid control, but if you don't know where your cars traction runs out then you'll probably be forced to use your skid control skills much sooner then you would like, i know i was forced to do so just a few moments ago getting onto a on-ramp on the way home.
 
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I'll have to take some photos of my work route when I go up on monday. It's pretty rediculous right now. Fog and snow and blizzarding conditions.... it's brutal.
 
I'll have to take some photos of my work route when I go up on monday. It's pretty rediculous right now. Fog and snow and blizzarding conditions.... it's brutal.

Yeesh. We just got done with that down here, hope you don't get it so bad. Ice and sleet last weekend, more ice and snow through the week, and now there's 4-6 inches of snow in my yard. And my street (or any side street in this podunk town) hasn't been touched. My power went out Monday, came back on Wednesday night, but I still don't have 220v to my house. Afaik about 1/3 of the town still doesn't have power. But at least I can go erm ... practice car control in the now empty university parking lots :p.
 
Well, It's not that the weather down here is bad... Typical rainy Vancouver. But I work up a mountain, where typical rainy vancouver turns into Blizzerding Foggy Snow heaven/hell.
 
The thing I have found living in both Colorado and Upstate New York is that its all about small, smooth movement with the wheel, brakes and accelerator. You can cruise along at a pretty good clip with this attitude. Just focus on being very light with the touch, especially with the brakes.

I would say 90 percent of the accidents I have seen were cause by someone mis using their brakes, which causes them to slide out of control, at which time they try to over correct with the steering. Always have an eye well beyond where you currently are looking for patches of ice and snow drifts or whatever else might be ahead of you.

As for tires, especially for a place like upstate NY, I would highly recommend a set of at least studless snow tires. For some reason they don't seem to get used very much up there, with most people favoring All Season. In my experience though, All Season suck for all seasons for the sake of working sufficiently for them. Any All season worth a damn in either winter or summer won't be any good for the other. So I have my Summer and Winter setup (Ultra performance Summers and Blizzak studless snows for the winter).

The last thing I notice with winter driving is, that in a bad snow storm at night, the less lights you have the better. As much as I love feeling like I am in Star Wars driving through Hyperspace, its really really disorienting and sucks it big time. I have been in a couple situations where having no lights on at all was the highest visibility option. Its a bit unsafe if there are other cars on the road, so I often opt for just fog lights. That way you still see the road but you don't have lights pointing up into the driving snow.

I agree that having some fun in a parking lot is a good way to figure stuff out, but just doing donuts isn't going to help. Try starting a spin and getting out of it or keeping the car as straight as possible. See how long you can hold a drift. See what it takes the car to lose grip.

Lastly, I believe that unless the conditions are absolutely horrible, that at least trying to go the speed limit is advisable (keeping the soft touch in mind). Cars that go 5-15 mph will only cause frustration for other drivers, and if you are going to have a wreck at 25-30, you'll probably have it at slower speeds too. If you don't feel comfortable driving at normal road speeds, then you probably should have just stayed home and called in sick. Someone driving at slow speeds is just going to cause accidents, as people will want to pass or they'll come upon them and panic.

Ok, enough rant.....have fun in the winter. There are lots of fun roads to go play on and figure yourself out up in NY.

JH
 
Alright, I took about six pictures, but it was so dark and foggy that only one of them turned out at all decently. This is a picture of the Parkinglot. My car (actually my mum's merc, because my dad has beeen using the Jeep, becasue his porsche is not so great in the snow) and my boss's car have been parked for about an hour at this point. There is about an inche or more of snow on each of them. The road up had about a foot of snow, it wasn't plowed at this point, it was snowing and foggy the whole way up.
;
snowroad004.jpg
 
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^ Out here in the mountains we call that a "dusting" of snow. 8)

I'm kidding, I know the North East has been hammered recently. Stay safe, stay warm, and enjoy your 12 inches of Global Warming.
 
Driving in winter is one of life's great adventures: every journey can turn into a Top Gear challenge.

More snow = more fun!

My personnal tip: beware other drivers!
 
Sorry to bump this thread.
Last night it snowed at least 6 inches and I had to drive back from a friend's house while the streets were still unplowed (around 2:30 in the morning). I almost got stuck just getting out of my friend's driveway and subdivision (had to conquer a big, long hill). But my other friend who was also leaving was driving his Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 so I just drove in his tracks until I got on the main road. People were out driving so I continued to drive in other people's tracks.
The biggest pain in the ass was our subdivision though; I managed to make my way to our driveway where I ended up getting stuck for a few minutes. I had to drive forward and then reverse and then go back forward over and over to just inch through. Now this is my driveway, if necessary I could have just shoveled a path to the garage.

But what would happen if I was in this situation on the road? Is there a strategy for carving your way through an unplowed road? The main road wasn't a big problem because people were out and there were tracks, but would I be screwed if the tracks ended and I had to make my own way?

I was driving our Volvo (FWD) with all season tires. My parents aren't going to drop money on winter tires. Usually if it is snowing that much, they don't leave the house and the roads are plowed most of the time anyway. This was the second or third winter that I've driven in and it was the worst I've been in so far.
 
But what would happen if I was in this situation on the road? Is there a strategy for carving your way through an unplowed road? The main road wasn't a big problem because people were out and there were tracks, but would I be screwed if the tracks ended and I had to make my own way?

I was driving our Volvo (FWD) with all season tires. My parents aren't going to drop money on winter tires. Usually if it is snowing that much, they don't leave the house and the roads are plowed most of the time anyway. This was the second or third winter that I've driven in and it was the worst I've been in so far.
  1. Tires, proper snow tires.
  2. Ground clearance, obviously.
  3. AWD or 4X4 but that alone won't help much without the other two.

I wouldn't like the feeling of being somewhat trapped anytime it snows some but your parents have the right strategy for people who don't want to get good winter tires: stay at home, sleep over, whatever but stay off the roads if you are not equipped to cope with the situation and are going to be a danger to yourself or others.



This guy knows what he's talking about:
The thing I have found living in both Colorado and Upstate New York is that its all about small, smooth movement with the wheel, brakes and accelerator. You can cruise along at a pretty good clip with this attitude. Just focus on being very light with the touch, especially with the brakes.

I would say 90 percent of the accidents I have seen were cause by someone mis using their brakes, which causes them to slide out of control, at which time they try to over correct with the steering. Always have an eye well beyond where you currently are looking for patches of ice and snow drifts or whatever else might be ahead of you.

As for tires, especially for a place like upstate NY, I would highly recommend a set of at least studless snow tires. For some reason they don't seem to get used very much up there, with most people favoring All Season. In my experience though, All Season suck for all seasons for the sake of working sufficiently for them. Any All season worth a damn in either winter or summer won't be any good for the other. So I have my Summer and Winter setup (Ultra performance Summers and Blizzak studless snows for the winter).

The last thing I notice with winter driving is, that in a bad snow storm at night, the less lights you have the better. As much as I love feeling like I am in Star Wars driving through Hyperspace, its really really disorienting and sucks it big time. I have been in a couple situations where having no lights on at all was the highest visibility option. Its a bit unsafe if there are other cars on the road, so I often opt for just fog lights. That way you still see the road but you don't have lights pointing up into the driving snow.

I agree that having some fun in a parking lot is a good way to figure stuff out, but just doing donuts isn't going to help. Try starting a spin and getting out of it or keeping the car as straight as possible. See how long you can hold a drift. See what it takes the car to lose grip.

Lastly, I believe that unless the conditions are absolutely horrible, that at least trying to go the speed limit is advisable (keeping the soft touch in mind). Cars that go 5-15 mph will only cause frustration for other drivers, and if you are going to have a wreck at 25-30, you'll probably have it at slower speeds too. If you don't feel comfortable driving at normal road speeds, then you probably should have just stayed home and called in sick. Someone driving at slow speeds is just going to cause accidents, as people will want to pass or they'll come upon them and panic.

Ok, enough rant.....have fun in the winter. There are lots of fun roads to go play on and figure yourself out up in NY.

JH
Quoted for truth. :thumbsup:
 
bartboy9891 said:
But what would happen if I was in this situation on the road? Is there a strategy for carving your way through an unplowed road?
I've found, in those situations, momentum is key. Electric-Mayhem made some good points above about keeping up your speed while keeping your inputs smooth and precise. If you know you've got a hill to climb ahead (yes, there are hills in Kansas, I have experience :D), start slowly picking up speed. Crack your windows so you can hear the instant you start losing traction (thanks for that one Blind). If you get stuck, try sawing the wheel back and forth while on the gas, or just backing out. And practice, practice, practice.
 
A quick word on studded tires.

Unless you live in an area with show packed roads the majority of the season, studded tires can be more of a hazard than a benefit. The studs don't get traction on wet or dry pavement and actually force some of the rubber around the stud up away from the road, you end up with less rubber on the pavement but quite a bit of slick metal studs that offer no increase in traction on hard surfaces.
 
A quick word on studded tires.

Unless you live in an area with show packed roads the majority of the season, studded tires can be more of a hazard than a benefit. The studs don't get traction on wet or dry pavement and actually force some of the rubber around the stud up away from the road, you end up with less rubber on the pavement but quite a bit of slick metal studs that offer no increase in traction on hard surfaces.

They also beat up roads like no tomorrow. There are a few places that have laws against using them unless the weather has gotten bad enough.
 
A quick word on studded tires.

Unless you live in an area with show packed roads the majority of the season, studded tires can be more of a hazard than a benefit. The studs don't get traction on wet or dry pavement and actually force some of the rubber around the stud up away from the road, you end up with less rubber on the pavement but quite a bit of slick metal studs that offer no increase in traction on hard surfaces.
True. If you are going for studded tires, get the good stuff an minimize those side effects. Nokian Ecostud are less damaging to roads and offer decent grip on pavement all the while offering excellent grip on icy surfaces.

http://www.nokiantyres.com/tyre?id=10360787&group=1.01&name=Nokian+Hakkapeliitta+5
Click "Eco Stud System" for details.

Used them several years with much satisfaction. :)
 
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