Driving during winter
Posted by GetJoelSomeF@reddit | driving | View on Reddit | 22 comments
So yeah it's my first time driving during winter and I'm rather terrified. Literally yesterday I saw a guy that decided to overtake me and another car, he sped up and spun out of control, flipping a couple times and immediately catching on a huge fire.
I have a fwd and got the winter tires. What should I absolutely not do. How do I say get my car to stop sliding if it does in both ice and snow, as the last thing I want to do is hit something or someone.
I usually don't drive larger distances as my job and my gym is usually 5 minutes away with car. I sometimes need to go to another city which is 30 minutes though.
Please any advice?
JerryRiceOfOhio2@reddit
go slower and give more space between you and the car in front of you. give yourself more time to stop also
PandoraClove@reddit
Untreated roads, on bridges and under overpasses are where you're likely to run into slick spots. If it rains or snows during the day and then melts, watch for low temperatures, which can cause all that to refreeze. Fog can freeze as well. That's what causes black ice.
windowschick@reddit
Well, don't drive like that guy for starters.
Remember, just because you can get going with AWD, it doesn't mean you'll be able to stop safely. Where safe = reasonably straight and not sliding, spinning, or crashing into anyone or anything.
Ease off the gas if there's accumulating snow. If you'd normally go 40, see if 35 feels safer. A few miles slower makes a difference. Usually, there is no need to crawl unless things are really bad.
And never, ever, ever pass a snowplow. MUCH safer to stay behind at a good distance.
Suby06@reddit
Find somewhere open area like a big empty parking lot and practice getting a feel for the limits of the car and get it to lose control and save it etc. That's how a lot of us got comfortable in snow while driving as teens
the_Bryan_dude@reddit
Smooth and slow. No hard acceleration or braking. No quick turning. Anticipate your next move. Be aware of the drivers around you.
My last car when I lived in snow was Dodge Magnum RT rwd with all seasons. You'll be fine.
Illustrious_Delay627@reddit
The guy you saw yesterday gave you your first good tip: slow down! This is especially true if it is actively snowing and the roads haven’t yet been cleared. Drive for the condition of the road; a blizzard is not the time to be speeding down the freeway.
Put PLENTY of space between you and other vehicles, not only to give yourself (and them) more time to react, but also to gather clues about what’s coming up ahead. See a car sliding/fishtailing in the distance? There’s probably ice up ahead and you’ll need to reduce your speed.
You did the right thing by investing in snow tires. I’d also recommend “winter” washer fluid. It is designed to better cut through ice and grime, and prevent/reduce the amount of ice that forms on your windshield.
My last tip, and it’s more of a courtesy to the cars behind you: if your car gets snowed on, BRUSH IT OFF OF THE ROOF. You don’t want to be that jerk blowing chunks of snow onto the road and the windshields behind you. It will reduce visibility for those in your wake. Not only that, but as it melts, big chunks of it could fall onto your windshield and obstruct your view. Brush it off as best as you can before you start driving!!
Complex_Solutions_20@reddit
>My last tip, and it’s more of a courtesy to the cars behind you: if your car gets snowed on, BRUSH IT OFF OF THE ROOF.
Also that's actual law in some places - but its more than a courtesy, its a serious safety concern. I've been behind a SUV when it breaks lose and lands on my windshield hard enough to jam my wipers and now I'm driving literally blind attempting to come to a stop with no idea how close I am to the traffic that was in front of me or how far from going into the ditch I might be. I've seen cases where it not only packs on a windshield but can even shatter or cave in a windshield at higher speeds (say the road is clear and dry plowed and treated but the vehicles are traveling from where they collected snow on them).
Illustrious_Delay627@reddit
Oh wow, I never knew it was a law in some places. That’s good, it should be law everywhere!
pm-me-racecars@reddit
Find a big empty parking lot and practice.
Your car will react differently to what you do when you have very little grip and when you have lots of grip.
Get up to a parking lot speed, less than 20km/h, and slam the brakes; see how long it takes you to stop.
Try turning, and see how slow you need to go to stop your car from sliding.
What happens if you hit the brake mid corner? How do you need to drive to stop that from happening?
Now, take those lessons and apply them to your driving on the road.
PraetorianHawke@reddit
From Minnesota here. The biggest thing is to not be rushed and slow down. You saw first hand what being in a hurry can lead to.
Don't let others push you on the road, maintain your lane and drive the speed limit or less. Of someone is going to pass, let them pass.
And slow down. :) did I say that already?
kane_eightee@reddit
Find a huge, empty, snow-covered lot, and start intentionally losing control. Get a little bit of speed, and get into a slide, then learn how to recover from it.
I grew up in the desert, and did a lot of off-roading in my first couple vehicles. Learning how your vehicle reacts in a given situation—and learning how to regain control in said situation—is priceless.
bimmer4WDrift@reddit
FWD will always understeer (front pushes wide) if moving slowly enough within normal traction limits. When that happens let off the gas but don't brake or oversteer. The front will bite and steer. Unless you approach a corner/curve too fast the rear shouldn't step out and swing around. Go practice first snowfall in an empty lot.
WinterEnvironment970@reddit
My best advice is do everything slowly. Accelerate slowly, drive slowly, and come to a stop slowly
MatTheScarecrow@reddit
I have slightly controversial advice that hasn't been brought up yet: consider yielding to faster traffic behind you.
You shouldn't have to. Other drivers should be patient and leave plenty of space.
BUT they often aren't, and they usually don't. There is a great disparity between different drivers, and what they each individually believe is a safe speed.
I find I get tailgated a lot more in winter while, simultaneously, getting held up in a conga line of slow cars more often. The difference of opinion seems to widen every winter.
It might be worth considering pulling over and letting faster traffic go ahead if you can safely do so.
Why? Because letting the faster cars go ahead means they'll crash somewhere else when they do something stupid.
The last thing you want in winter is tailgaters, or some idiot in a Jeep Wrangler deciding to pass you in the un-plowed center lane and losing control of their vehicle 3 feet to your left because they thought you were going too slowly in poor weather.
This advice comes from experience: I used to drive a GPS limited work truck on rural highways (Saskatchewan, Trans-Canada in northern Ontario, etc). I would go the speed limit, and I got passed recklessly a lot. In all weather. It was annoying in the summer and flat-out dangerous in the winter. I got into the habit of pulling over every time I had more than 3 cars behind me, and I've found it to be an effective way to dramatically reduce how many close calls I experience.
People shouldn't be driving recklessly fast, but they do. Letting them go ahead and ruin someone elses day is safer than ignoring them or policing them in my experience.
Tall-Poem-6808@reddit
My advice is always this: drive as if you had Grandma on the passenger seat with a big pot of hot soup on her lap. You don't want to burn Grandma now, do you? (if Grandma was a beatch, then imagine someone else you like)
That means smooth operation, no heavy acceleration, no heavy braking, smooth steering inputs. And leave lots of room in front of you.
What I like to do also WHEN IT'S SAFE (straight line, lower speed, no one behind or around) is to slam on the brakes to have an idea of available traction. Snow is not just snow, ice is not just ice, each day can be different, even different times of the day. That just gives you an indication of what to expect if you do have to slam on the brakes for real.
Complex_Solutions_20@reddit
I thought Grandma was supposed to be in the back seat holding a big filled-to-the-brim crock pot of chili in her best church clothes and you'll get a whipping if you make her spill it?
But yeah, same idea.
And +1 to test conditions when safe. I do that in the neighborhood when I've pulled out of my driveway before I get going. And assume whatever you experience is the best-case and places could be worse.
Complex_Solutions_20@reddit
Practice some in an empty large parking lot (preferably without light posts to hit). Its fairly easy to do a tight turn and goose the throttle briefly then stop touching pedals and practice steering out of it. When I have to go out, I also test the conditions in my neighborhood as soon as I’m out of my driveway, giving a quick acceleration up to 5-10mph to see how quickly the wheels want to spin, then braking to see how much it wants to slide. Every road may be different but in my area the neighborhoods seem to be the worst case and gives me an idea what to expect in an area where there’s low/no risk of damage if I determine its uncontrollable. We have had some times where its so bad simply pulling up on the driveway and stopping the car starts to slide on the ice after being parked.
Key thing, even if YOU are capable, others will still be stupid. I'm unconcerned with my own abilities but I can't stop an overconfident idiot from slamming into me if I go out somewhere. One of the top things I see when I do go out is people speeding and/or accelerating/braking/turning too hard for conditions and lose control - often people with 4x4 jeeps or pickups. One of the most common cases is I’ll see a red light and begin coasting down to a stop while they get mad and pass me, zoom up to the line of cars, hit their brakes, and slide slamming into the stopped cars ahead.
Drive assuming you may not be able to use brakes and/or steer, plan accordingly in advance to coast to a slow/stop before hazards. Accelerate as gently as possible to avoid spinning a wheel, once you start to have a wheel spin or slide you’ve lost its usefulness in controlling the car.
If you do end up sliding, stop touching the gas or brake (feet off both) and steer to keep the front of the car facing the direction its moving, then once you stop sliding begin to slowly steer in the direction you want to go. That can be difficult if it means steering towards a ditch but you have the maximum chance of regaining control from the slide if you keep the car facing the direction its moving rather than going sideways. Also if you can’t regain control, its safest to crash the front end of the car into whatever you hit for minimizing injuries. So either way, you end up overall better outcome trying to keep the car facing the direction its moving.
Also be mindful of conditions in general. Nothing will help when it’s a solid sheet of untreated ice, if the snow is deep enough it will pile under the car and in front of the bumper and keep you from continuing nomater how good you are, and there are usually other hazards like trees and power lines down across the road that you won’t be able to control in a winter storm. Best option is to avoid going out if its not necessary until conditions improve.
torrentialrainstorms@reddit
Give yourself extra braking distance in winter. It takes longer to stop on snow and ice, and remember that you can’t always see ice on the road. Similarly, stay farther away from other cars, and drive slower.
Also, make sure you brush off the roof of your car too, not just the windshield! Otherwise that snow can slide onto your windshield and block your view. This happened to someone I know, but the snow took her windshield wipers off, so she didn’t have a way to clear it.
CobaltCaterpillar@reddit
If there's snow on the road or low traction conditions:
(1) Increase following distance significantly based upon conditions!
(2) Slow down based upon conditions
(3) Be aware conditions can be COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in different places
Mammoth_Pack_6442@reddit
Slow and steady wins the race. It's a race really, but you get my meaning. Slower speeds as road conditions warrant. Slight adjustments when steering and braking. Think ahead and stay focused on the cars in front of you. FWD cars are easier to drive in icy conditions. If your wheels spin, let off on the gas a bit.
Hydraulis@reddit
The most critical thing is to drive as if your tires have reduced traction. Slow down, keep your distance, don't make sudden control inputs. There's nothing to be scared of, just don't drive like the rest of the morons and be prepared for the stupid crap they're going to pull.
gekco01@reddit
I'm from Canada and have been driving for 7 years. Honestly, don't let winter driving scare you. The reason that truck lost control was because he was not driving to the conditions of the road like an idiot. I can't stress this enough, AWD or 4X4 vehicles do not make a driver invincible.
You're off to a great start with winter tires. Leave more space between the car in front of you to give you more time to react. Typically, with sliding, you'll want to steer into the direction of the slide. Most importantly, do NOT lock up your breaks in a slide. If your tires can't rotate, they can't steer.
video on correcting a slide