Winter Driving

Microcosm

Microcosm

Active member
I'm from New Jersey, so.. I must suck at winter driving, right? Well, Educate Me!

In all seriousness though, this could be a useful spot for tips and stupid shit people should avoid doing.
 
if there is snow on the roads, stay where other people have traveled, I hit a pole wedsday, because i was drving where no one else had, slow down around corners, dont tailgate, stay far away from other cars, so you have extra room to stop, give plows plenty of room
 
If you start sliding in the snow, turn into your turn and accelerate (not too much). What you want to do is gain control of your car again. Two main things to consider. 1. Don't panic, and 2. Don't hit your brakes. Accelerating allows you to transfer the weight from the front to the rear wheels, which lets you steer in the direction of your skid, helping straighten your car back out.
 
keep your distance. Unless you keep a good distance behind anything in front of you, no other tips will help as much.
 
basically the first post sums it up. but you should try to go to a parking lot and drift around, yes it will be fun, but it also can help you not to panic if you start sliding on the road...however, since your on the road and not in a parking lot you want to avoid sliding at all hahah. also, practice controlling your slides and see how hitting the brakes isnt always the best thing to do, etc.
 
all good info so far, thanks. I should try going to a parking lot some time to play around, but as said also learn. I realized on my drive home from school yesterday that I really haven't driven in the snow a whole lot. I've been with my dad driving in the snow for years and years, and I'd consider him pretty damn good. But, I also realize that's not me and I'll need to learn a whole lot.
 
if you drive a stick shift utilize engine braking as much as you can as to avoid breaking. like others have said, if you skid turn the wheel in the opposite direction of the skid to correct it. drive slowly and dont wait until you're scared to put your chains on.
all that being said, if you have a subaru you should be fine
 
we have a '95 legacy! I drive an automatic rav4 primarily though. I should learn to not suck at driving a stick and take out the subaru. that being said, I can put the rav4 into 3rd or 2nd gear, which worked out pretty well coming down the large and untracked hill by my house.

so basically, take it slow, avoid breaking, and remember how to deal with skids. also, not being afraid because you know how to deal with the situation seems key.
 
Yeah learn the stick, it makes driving in snow easier for sure gives you alot more control, for me driving in snow i think the most important thing is to NEVER do anything sudden, as said earlier don't panic and if you lose control regain it slowly and calmly rather than throwing the steering wheel back and forth real fast. So no sudden braking or turning, take it slow and keep good spacing between cars. Also, if your coming up to a hill please don't be one of those jackasses that goes in mad slow. You need to carry speed into hills if your car doesn't have the greatest traction, or even if it does. I could always make it up my steep ass hill with a suby at home if there was alota snow because i would bring speed in, however every other time i would try to go up my hill i would have to stop and go all the way back down because some jackass in a truck would be stuck part way up the hill spinning out cuz they don't bring in speed. So those are my tips.
 
Best tip out there: PRACTICE!

It's fun and there is no better way to get good at it. I just spent an hour in both the truck and the car playing Tokyo Drift in the local school bus parking lot.
 
so, when you guys say steer into your skid...

say youre going around a right hand corner, and your back end slides out. You turn the wheel to the left correct? And basically point the front wheels where you wanna go?
 
Just don't be a retard. If you can't stop well then drive slower. Also, don't be that guy who drives like a pussy when there is 1cm of snow on the ground.
 
yes practice can be extremely fun haha, but seriously just drive slow like a really old person and you probably arent going to hit anything
 
also, if you need to slow down at a slow speed, pull your hand brake as it doesnt lock your steering up. if you have a rwd, counter steering is a blast, um, yeah
 
word to that

it all depends what traction you have, drive a FWD a little more cautiosly than on dry roads

, a RWD is really sketch and scary , you can lose control a lot easier but if you learn to drive like that in the winter ull never have a problem driving anything. finally AWD , it makes you feel like its nothing, control all the way and when it skids its really easy to bring back.

 
if u go and screw around yes its fun but it actually does help i slid out two summers ago on a dirt road going way to fast and was so comfortabel not panicking just practice if you do slide out go slow etc just what everyone else says it really helps tho
 
it seems as though everyone in burlington has forgotten how to drive on snow covered roads and become a shit driver.
 
What everyone else said and be easy on the gas especially in RWD. I'm not saying that you should be a pussy with the gas, but don't be sudden or jerky with it. Be nice and smooth with it, it's a feel thing. The more you drive the more you'll be able to feel how much traction the feels have and how much gas you can give them. If you gun it, the wheels will break loose and then you will be in real trouble. Also if you're in a 4WD or AWD remember that all that four wheel drive does is help you start moving, you'll have just the same braking ability as a RWD or FWD car.
 
Yes, but don't underestimate the power of 1cm of snow either. I have seen some shitty wrecks at low speed with that much.
 
your an idiot, your steering locks up because the wheels stop spinning, pulling the hand brake well just make your rear whells lock up leaving you with almost no braking. so pump the brakes if you dont have ABS, if you do then brake normally, and if you start to skid the ABS shouldl go off, dont panic it is normal to feels an odd vibration in the pedal.
 
no jerky movements. i.e, slamming brakes, sharp turns, etc. i smashed my front bumper on a snowbank a few years ago when i was going like 15mph in a residential area. i nearly missed a turn onto a buddies street and i sort of yanked the wheel over to make the corner and ended up skidding off the road and into this pile of snow/ice. and that was going slow as shit too. dont assume that because you're going slow, that nothing can happen. it was pretty fucked up. come to think of it, how the hell did i end up sliding so far when i was barely even moving to begin with. boggles my mind..
 
i dont know if this was mentioned, but tires do make a pretty big difference.

try to get some good winter tires. and dont get TOO wide a tires because you dont want too much surface area. if you hit snow with wide tires then you float or "hydroplane" on the snow and possibly lose control.

get some "studded" or some soft rubber tires
 
he lives in new jersey. im pretty sure NJ isnt going to be hit too hard with snow alot, so honestly, its not worth getting snow tires. especially studded snows.

and theres a ton of good info in here. definitely try sliding around in a parking lot first. it gives you a real feel of what its like to slide around. when youre sliding try different shit to stop your slide. everyone here is saying dont do jerky shit, slam on your brakes, ect. their right, but go try what their saying not to do. it'll snow you how bad it is/what actually happens.

another thing- dont trust other drivers. youre probably going to be nervous, and feel that you dont know what youre doing, but remember, tonss of other people out there are in the exact same situation. just stuff like going right on red or something like that, dont expect other people to be able to stop/turn if they have a turn signal on.

in response to what snwbrdmilf was saying with turn the wheels the way you want to go and hit the gas- a classic noob mistake is over correcting. turn the wheel, but make sure youre not just cranking it as much as possible. that will send you out the other way. and when she said hit the gas lightly, definitely do it lightly. if you hit it too had, the wheels spin, and its no better than just locking up on the brakes.

as for braking, if youre going pretty fast, and coming to an intersection or something. brake early. i try to slow down to 5 or so MPH about 25-50 feet before where im trying to stop. that way if i do slide, i have room for the slide to stop. seeing as you live in NJ, im not sure how populated the area youre driving is, so im not sure how doable that will be if youre doing city driving, but then you should just be going slow in general.
 
Yes, thanks for pointing that out. "Hit the gas" is a bad idea. The trick is to steer while giving your wheels some "oompf" if you will, to align the car (even if you're still horizontal on the road). Then you steer the car in the direction of the road. A slow movement...you don't want to start a fishtail.
 
want me to rephrase it???? if you apply the emergency brake at low speed, it will help slow you without hampering your steering.
 
and so does braking normally, and if your on ice, pump your brake, read any drivers ed book none of them well say pull the e-brake.
 
There seem to be a lot of them where I live lately, nothing pisses me off more. I was passing everyone on the freeway this morning, and I was only going 60 (5 over). The road was completely dry where everyone had driven, but we bot 8 inches of snow the day before so people decided that they were going to go 40 just because it was the day after a big snowfall, even though the roads were plowed, sanded, and not slippery at all.

But, on topic, the most important thing is to look out for shitty drivers. They're everywhere and they are the ones that will most likely get you into an accident. Also, if you don't have four wheel drive, try not to stop when going uphill. Roll through stop signs and try to time it so you don't have to stop at lights, otherwise there is a good chance that you might get stuck.
 
not entirely true. palm it into neutral and steer to where you want to go. dont touch the brakes. once ou come out of the slide, put it in drive and acellerate slowly.
 
if your going with an auto car, instead of using drive, use one of the lower gears. my camery has L, 2, 3, 4, and Drive. I set it in 2 until I start getting decent acceleration and can continue accelerating without spinning the tired and then set it to 4. when stopping, as already stated, shift down to a lower gear, engine breaking.
 
me and my friend took out my sisters car tonight and did some donuts it was kinda fun

then the cops drove by wtih their sirens on and i got really scared sincei dont have my license yet / story
 
Yeah dude, a great tip to remember when driving in snow is that if you begin to slide or drift in a certain direction, ALWAYS turn your tires in the direction of the slide in order to help take yourself out of it... hope that helps!
 
word, i see someone up near the top said to brake through the corner. never do that. general driving rule slow into corner accelerate through the corner.

your car only has x amount of friction. if you are using some of that friction braking then there is less friction available for steering.

more tips, don't be heavy on the brakes or accelerator, either can send you into a slide. don't use the handbrake, just don't. unless you're pissing round haha. chains are all good and well, but you don't really need them unless there is heeps of snow, or if the driver in front of you doesn't know what they're doing. if you can keep a constant slow speed up without stopping you can get through most things.

don't drive too fast for the conditions is another biggie. even if you have 4wd its not going to help you out when all wheels loose traction because you simply got big headed and drove too fast
 
if your sliding just shift down to 1, then 2, then 3 if you have one and you'll eventually stop
 
there should be a winter driving school or something. honestly that would be dope if there was a program like that offered and in turn for passing the course you got an insurance deduction. but seriously driving in the snow is not that difficult and the past few days here have proved how incompetent how many drivers around me are. I was driving up a hill and there were 2 lanes on our side of the road all the sudden everyone starts to stop and I look ahead there was a benz sl just spinning its rear tires and sliding backwards, THEN there was an AWD volvo s60 spinning all 4 tires. I was dumbfounded, the hill wasn't even steep nor was it that snowy. Then a little later down that road a lady had spun out and hit a tree. I get out of my car ask if she is OK then we looked at her car saw that it was drivable and I was helping her negotiate getting out of the woods when all of the sudden some cunt pulls up puts down her window and asks "do you even know what you are doing?" I politely responded by telling her to fuck off if she wasn't going to do anything productive, then lady I was helping smiled and we all got on with our days. Seriously driving in the snow isn't difficult take it slow use low gears going down hills instead of your brakes ect. if you are that worried ask your dad to take you out driving in the snow and teach you.
 
not really. we got a foot here and I was able to make it up and down the steepest hills with my bald ass tires while all the volvos and benz with there brand new snow tires were sliding all over the place. I'd say if you have 4wd/awd and you are a capable driver you shouldn't worry to much, but yes a nice set of snow tires is helpful.
 
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