Bad Winter Drivers --- An Open Letter

I'm excited to be picking up a set of 4 studded snow tires today on Civic wheels that'll bolt right up to my Escort!

Yeehaw! I probably won't get much use out of them until next winter, but it will feel good to have them on hand.

Clem

Streetwiseguy wrote:

ClemSparks wrote: I'm tired...REALLY tired of folks thinking that 4wd vehicles can stop better than any other 4 wheeled vehicle. 4wd (and yes, AWD) is great for getting you out of a stuck situation, or help you get going when it's slick. I don't think I really need to extol the virtues of more driving wheels. It WILL NOT, howevery do you any good for stopping. ALL cars have 4 wheel brakes. And I dare say that stopping, or failure to, is the cause of the vast majority of weather and/or traction related accidents. I'd love to see a side-by side comparison of 4WD/AWD vehicles and their non AWD counterparts with identical tires tested under braking in adverse conditions. I think the results would be identical. Clem

A four wheel drive vehicle, which does not have a center diff, but probably has poorly balanced brakes, as was the case with most older trucks, will certainly stop STRAIGHTER with the front wheels locked to the rears, since the rear brakes can't lock up. An all wheel drive vehicle, which has a center diff, and likely has better balanced brakes, will not benefit.

meh..."probably" has poorly balanced brakes would "probably" be masked by typical margin of error, in my opinion. But it is just that, my opinion.

Man, would it be really neat to see a real comparison.

Several vehicles that come in AWD/4WD and non-AWD/4WD, tested with identical brand new tires on identical surfaces. Then we could throw in Snow tires and all-seasons just to make the test time worthwhile ;)

Clem

In reply to ClemSparks:

that was mainly referring to older, non-abs pickups that have a tendency to lock the rears before the fronts due to the brakes being setup for optimum balance when carrying payload. multiply this by slick roads and locking the fronts and rears together helps keep the cart behind the horse. one could still lock up one front and one rear, but the truck is still less likely to swap ends that way.

Rusted_Busted_Spit wrote: I look at this way, a set of wheels and snows off of Craigs list are way cheaper than my insurance deductable.

This is what I did 3 years ago, wow what an improvement

gamby wrote: My wife's job (at a college) shuts down with even minor snowfall and I STILL insisted on getting a winter wheel/tire combo for her car in case she's at school and has to drive home in the snow. It drives me nuts when people call out of work at the sight of a few snowflakes.

the plant where I work has, as of this year, started implementing an inclement weather policy... i.e. if there is a prediction of "bad" weather then no 1st shift employe is allowed on the property (other than maintenance ) .... you'll be written up if you fail to adhere to this policy..... so the parking lot can be scraped ... doesn't matter if no snow in evidence come morning...

the last 3 times this policy has been in force there hasn't been a flake to be found.... the prediction for tonight is rain mixed with some snow.... no/little accumulation is anticipated ... if any it is predicted to be < 1 in.... but don't you dare show up early

I drove through two hours of rain and then an hour and a half of snow as I trekked back to school last night. As I rose in elevation the snow got thicker so I slowed down to keep safe like any sane person would do. My problem was that people in the oncoming direction thought it was necessary to use their high beams at night, in a snow storm. If anything it was only disorienting to drive while staring at the sun.

When I had no traffic around I tried just the running lights and fog lights and my vision improved a bunch, and at lower speeds I wasn't out driving my lights. Worked better than I expected.

WilberM3 wrote:

Not many people can stick the landing.

I tried to find the picures but I must have deleated them.

The storm after christmas i got to a hill where about five of our buses were stuck on a hill, along with a jacknifed tractor trailer. Some genius in a fairly new coach bus with a tour group from somewhere down south pulled up to where we were stuck, offered his opinion on our sexual preferences, and procedded to show us how to "drive in a bit of snow". He got himself stuck against the stuck truck, and then while trying to either free it or spin the rubber off the wheels, something in the engine caught fire. Luckily the truckdriver was able to roll back onto the sidewalk so that the could open the bus door before the fire spread so our skilled driver and his people could get out. The fire reduced the rear 15 ft of bus to bare metal. .