Learn to Drive in the Snow!!!

You know someone from Alaska will read that and laugh at what a pansy you are. "It's been snowing here since August!"

 

We see the same thing here in Minnesota. I remember going to school with 17inchs of new snow and it was still coming down or waiting for the bus at 6:30 in morning when it was 28 below 0. Now they cancel school. Wimps!

 

lol

that's totally true

 

...after being pulled from the icy grip of hypothermia inducing waters they shudder - "Sent said it was a good idea".

 

Try driving in a boarder state, Mig. Maryland (I actually live in PA but work in MD) is the state where rain starts turning into snow during the winter and sticking. Man, Maryland gets half an inch of snow and totally forgets how to drive.
"Turn signal!? WHAT'S THAT?!?!"
"What?! You mean I can't accelerate quickly or make sharper turns in this white stuff!?"
"I have a Civic, why can't i speed through this!?"

 

Snow isn't too bad, but when you have a rear wheel drive, 400+ horsepower car with performance tires designed for dry/wet (rain) conditions only it can get kinda tricky driving in the snow.

Which is why I have vowed that if it snows, regardless of what my college decides, I'm staying home

 

You need some junk in the trunk for extra weight on your drive wheels.

Any vehicle will work reasonably well in the snow and ice as long as you know how it handles and how to operate it safely. The main thing that will improve performance is improving the ratio of vehicle weight to surface area of tire contact with the road on the drive wheels. If you will be driving in deep snow due to unplowed roads, ground clearance and tread can factor in to a lesser degree.

Hands down, the best vehicle to have in the snow is a front-wheel-drive with narrow tires and a low center of gravity. The weight of the engine helps keep the drive wheels from slipping and the low center of gravity helps keep the weight constant to prevent tires from spinning out. A compact car is good, but a minivan with higher ground clearance is great. A minivan with snow tires, or even better, snow chains, can't be beat in the snow.

What bugs me, is (I think) the same thing that bugs you, Mig. People think, "Oh, I have a 4x4, it's better in the snow than a car!", drive too fast, and promptly end up in the snowbank. 4x4s aren't designed for the snow, they're designed for hauling, to go off-road, or sometimes just to look a certain way. They typically have wider tires, which reduce the amount of weight per square inch. The primary drive wheels are almost always in the rear, which is necessary for hauling a lot of weight, but can be dangerous in the snow, as the vehicle is typically very light in the rear. Solid axles, useful for greater durability off-road, apply drive power unevenly, increasing the chance of a spinout in the snow. 4-wheel drive also increases chance of a spinout, as drive is applied to wheels which don't have weight distributed very evenly to them. The higher center of gravity means that weight will shift more as well.

This isn't to say that a 4x4 is completely impractical in the snow, of course. With a little extra weight in the rear and driven carefully (which you should do in the snow anyway, regardless of vehicle) it will be fine.

 

We lived next to a high school for a couple winters. Nothing like sitting in the living room at around 9 at night and hear some new gear head out in the parking lot doing donuts and slides.

Everyone would call out a number and then the count down would happen.

"2 minutes"
"3 minutes"
SKEEEEE BAM BAM BAM.
"Who had 3 minutes?"

Then we would go out and see the results. The 1980 Camero lovingly restored by someone other than the driver was my favorite.

Caved in the entire passenger door (but not the passenger). Plus high centered the car on a planter.

That was a great one. Cop said mom and dad were out of town. Driver was 15. The car WAS his 16th birthday present.

While talking to the cop, at the far end of the lot some other idiot comes flying into the lot thinking they were going to do a power slide.

The cop says, "There goes another physics major." without missing a beat.

This time one of those little Civics that sound like a Lawnboy on it's last legs plows into a dumpster. By plow I mean he went UNDER the dumpster.

The driver is in a total panic and trying to get out from under the dumpster because now she has seen the cop.

Ah good times.

 

Man, it's crazy here in Washington, it snows, then the sun comes up so the snow starts melting, then it starts snowing again, and it become one giant layer of ice. My roommate and I were drifting around corners at 5 miles an hour.

 

Up here in Canada its just beautiful weather, t-shirt and shorts weather.

 

thats crazy talk...they don't wear shirts in canada...

 

This is why we moved from Phoenix.

Theres' actual weather, rather than sun in the summer, and more sun in the winter.