Driving in snow

Lopéz said:
The main roads round here are fine but country and side lanes are just pure unbroken snow. Most of the lower layers are frozen and fresh snow has fallen on top, so downhill sections are VERY tricky because touching the brake has you locking up and even engine braking using 1st means the car is going too fast to be controllable.
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Ironically, I slid past your house at about 3mph sideways this morning! :(

Crawling up the hill in sheet ice, touched the brake about about 5mph, slowed down, down down and oops, car spun straight out to the side so slowly with no grip at all and slid sideways down the hill, fortunately without touching anything! (aside from almost touching some cloth!)
 
Had to love this month's "Troy Tests" on Sniffpetrol - a guy who usually reviews FWD Eurotin in a parody of so many overtly eloquent supercar reviews:

Crisp crystalline snow swaddles the somnambulant scene like a talcum powder duvet, smothering and smoothing all detail into one icy entropy. All is calm, all is white, yet amidst this monochrome magnificence two yellow pools make their presence felt, like flickering floods of mid-air dog ****. But these are not the ammonium outpourings of an electric spaniel; these are piercing puddles of light, emanating for the four square stare of quad headlamps.

The beast to which they are attached squats motionless aside the road, its straight six shooter a-rumble with palpable potency as its fluids eventually achieve the warm embrace of their optimum operating temperatures. Let’s do this thing.

Slot shifter through the knuckly nub of the gate into first, let the clutch begin its connecting clasp. All at once I plant the power pedal and feel the swirling surge of whiteout wheelspin. The back steps out and straight away I catch it with a dab of oppo.

Then it swings the other way and we slide into a ditch. ****.

My sister’s old BMW 325i E30 Touring was a *****. And I crashed it. Sorry Claire.
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Oh?

Happened to me a number of times on iced smaller roads but DSC caught it, I pretended to act like a driving god!
 
First time I've been back in work since the snow started (just been working from home instead)

I can see a ~8 degree hill from my window, it's rarely used and only one side is snow free

I've seen 3 people going about 30mph swerving all over the place on it with no control at all! I'm sure if they have the heating on inside the car, they forget about the road conditions.. The sensible people are going about 5mph
 
TimBrad said:
Ironically, I slid past your house at about 3mph sideways this morning! :(

Crawling up the hill in sheet ice, touched the brake about about 5mph, slowed down, down down and oops, car spun straight out to the side so slowly with no grip at all and slid sideways down the hill, fortunately without touching anything! (aside from almost touching some cloth!)
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Slippery wasn't it? :D

All slush now :(
 
Just a tad, yeah, and Grange Road has been closed for an accident, dunno if it still is, guess I'll have to go Coalville way tomorrow morning incase! :(
 
TimBrad said:
Just a tad, yeah, and Grange Road has been closed for an accident, dunno if it still is, guess I'll have to go Coalville way tomorrow morning incase! :(
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The signs are still up down by the traffic lights so it appears it's still shut at the moment.
It's very quiet outside for a change!

No idea where the crash was, on that tight corner at a guess.
 
Needed to bump this to vent my frustration.

So here I am driving to work at my usual ridiculous time of the day (whilst most of you are still asleep :p). And we've had fresh snow - it's lovely, but again you get the morons that can't drive on it spinning off or hitting pavements.

Anyway, that is a side issue. It's pedestrians this time. I understand the pavements are tricky to walk on. However the way they are walking on the road is madness! They cross in front of cars as if it were dry and the car would be able to stop in time and not lock up, they wear black so you cant' see them, they dart in front or past you. I did have a couple of "******* hell" moments - and that's odd as I'm a very observant person, but these lemmings came out of nowhere! No close calls, I wasn't driving fast enough for anything to be an issue, but it's still bloody reckless of these lemmings to walk around cars or assume that you'll be able to stop or take evasive action as per normal.

Grrrrrrr.
 
bledd. said:
First time I've been back in work since the snow started (just been working from home instead)

I can see a ~8 degree hill from my window, it's rarely used and only one side is snow free

I've seen 3 people going about 30mph swerving all over the place on it with no control at all! I'm sure if they have the heating on inside the car, they forget about the road conditions.. The sensible people are going about 5mph
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I've only managed to get out Thursday and Friday last week, couldn't get out of my road yesterday, took me 20 minutes of swearing, shovelling and messing about to even get off the drive. This morning I can't get off the drive at all, I've seen a lot of people that did get out come back this morning, apparently it's chaos out there today.

Also I hear some guys built an Igloo a few miles from where I live, and spent the night in it, was on the BBC news too :D

Suffice to say this is getting on my nerves now, there is only so much I can do from home really, my boss is understanding enough as he has had all manner of cars that don't work in the snow himself. I imagine there is a limit though, I know my patience is wearing very thin now, I feel almost totally stranded.
 
Moeks said:
Suffice to say this is getting on my nerves now, there is only so much I can do from home really, my boss is understanding enough as he has had all manner of cars that don't work in the snow himself. I imagine there is a limit though, I know my patience is wearing very thin now, I feel almost totally stranded.
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You can get winter tyres, chains, socks, take affirmative action and stop being a victim.

For a FWD car you just need one pair of socks - the cheaper multigrip ones are only £34, is that so much? If your worried it won't snow again by the time you get some, so what - save them for next year or the year after.
 
Freefaller said:
Needed to bump this to vent my frustration.

So here I am driving to work at my usual ridiculous time of the day (whilst most of you are still asleep :p). And we've had fresh snow - it's lovely, but again you get the morons that can't drive on it spinning off or hitting pavements.

Anyway, that is a side issue. It's pedestrians this time. I understand the pavements are tricky to walk on. However the way they are walking on the road is madness! They cross in front of cars as if it were dry and the car would be able to stop in time and not lock up, they wear black so you cant' see them, they dart in front or past you. I did have a couple of "******* hell" moments - and that's odd as I'm a very observant person, but these lemmings came out of nowhere! No close calls, I wasn't driving fast enough for anything to be an issue, but it's still bloody reckless of these lemmings to walk around cars or assume that you'll be able to stop or take evasive action as per normal.

Grrrrrrr.
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Kill them

300px-ErnstStavroBlofeld.jpg
 
My mum is dreadful, she revs the car to get out at junctions when she should be easing her foot on the peddle, slowly creating revs, not an instant rev that creates a wheelspin which would end up with you being a twit.
 
Telescopi said:
You can get winter tyres, chains, socks, take affirmative action and stop being a victim.

For a FWD car you just need one pair of socks - the cheaper multigrip ones are only £34, is that so much? If your worried it won't snow again by the time you get some, so what - save them for next year or the year after.
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Only on OcUk.
Comedy Gold. :p:p:p
 
Telescopi said:
You can get winter tyres, chains, socks, take affirmative action and stop being a victim.

For a FWD car you just need one pair of socks - the cheaper multigrip ones are only £34, is that so much? If your worried it won't snow again by the time you get some, so what - save them for next year or the year after.
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I ordered a pair of snow chains last Tuesday, they still haven't arrived, I have tried to take said action. And my car is rear wheel drive anyway, I'd have been able to get out and about if it was fwd.
 
Yea I'm just south West of Brum, just in North Worcestershire. We really did get a good dose last night. Even the seemingly unstoppable fwd Rovers that plague this area are starting to struggle now :p ...so that makes me feel a little better anyway.

Been about 600ft above sea level here it gets a bit colder than out towards the city though, the hills rise to the highest point on this particular line of latitude between here and the Mongolian steppes doncha know. I went for a walk yesterday up the Waseley Hills just by me, the wind chill up there about 3pm yesterday was around -12c I reckon. Glad I took my big Russian hat with me.
 
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