PSA: If you are afraid to drive in the snow

[dank69]

Oh good, you're back. Now you can make the fuckin NFL thread.

 

[skimple]

:thumbsup: And it's usually some douche in a 4wd truck or SUV who thinks the laws of physics don't apply to him.

Yeah - I hear this same story every year - like an urban legend.

Its always the story of the racing SUV or 4WD that blasts past everyone and then goes off the road.

When you actually start keeping track of how many cars are off the road, and what percentage of them are little crap box roller skates, you discover that most of the cars in the ditch are the front wheel drive sedans.

But when one SUV goes in a ditch, every news crew in a hundred miles comes out to take pictures.

 

[zinfamous]

Is this why you aren't making our football thread, Rudeguy?

 

[JulesMaximus]

Yeah - I hear this same story every year - like an urban legend.

Its always the story of the racing SUV or 4WD that blasts past everyone and then goes off the road.

When you actually start keeping track of how many cars are off the road, and what percentage of them are little crap box roller skates, you discover that most of the cars in the ditch are the front wheel drive sedans.

But when one SUV goes in a ditch, every news crew in a hundred miles comes out to take pictures.

I drove a SAAB through many winters in upstate NY. Never went into a ditch with that car. Those cars were made for snow.

 

[T9D]

There isn't a speed limit when the road has snow. There is only one speed for snowy roads and it's about all the same no matter what road you are on. This is why you see these morons on the news and spun all over around the neighborhood. They end up hitting cars and tree's like a pinball game.

I watch and listen to people sliding all over from my house every day. The kids are the stupidest of them all. Flying around like mad. Saw a kid fish tail all through the neighborhood and get inches from slamming a truck.

The thing is, sure you think you can drive fine and faster. And you can but the second you need to make a correction or there is some small ice or snow so compacted that its exceptionally slick then you're all over the place instantly.

No joke I was going slow on the freeway merge ramp, and all was fine, then I literally slid 4 lanes over to the far lane. Imagine if I was going faster or that was in a small residential street. Would have been bad. It happens instantly. It's not the 99 percent of the other time you're driving it's that 1 percent when you need to make a course change and the car totally doesn't do what you thought it should because of the snow or ice.

Seriously slow down.

 

[JulesMaximus]

There isn't a speed limit when the road has snow. There is only one speed for snowy roads and it's about all the same no matter what road you are on. This is why you see these morons on the news and spun all over around the neighborhood. They end up hitting cars and tree's like a pinball game.

I watch and listen to people sliding all over from my house every day. The kids are the stupidest of them all. Flying around like mad. Saw a kid fish tail all through the neighborhood and get inches from slamming a truck.

The thing is, sure you think you can drive fine and faster. And you can but the second you need to make a correction or there is some small ice or snow so compacted that its exceptionally slick then you're all over the place instantly.

No joke I was going slow on the freeway merge ramp, and all was fine, then I literally slid 4 lanes over to the far lane. Imagine if I was going faster or that was in a small residential street. Would have been bad. It happens instantly. It's not the 99 percent of the other time you're driving it's that 1 percent when you need to make a course change and the car totally doesn't do what you thought it should because of the snow or ice.

Seriously slow down.

I drove from Buffalo to Rochester during a heavy snowstorm once in a 1989 Ford F-150 single cab short bed pickup truck (it was a company truck). I had a couple bags of sand in the bed to help give the rear wheels some traction. That was a fun ride home. I don't think I went over 40mph the entire trip and I was on the NYS Thruway for most of it.

Slow and steady wins the race. Fast and raging puts you in a ditch.

 

[slightlyhuman]

so you're an expert at driving in the snow? :hmm:

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

don't be the guy that doesn't clean the roof of your car or leaves only a tiny window to see out of.

 

[JulesMaximus]

so you're an expert at driving in the snow? :hmm:

He's a legend in his own mind.

 

[BoomerD]

I grew up in the snow, so I always knew how to drive in it...or so I thought. Then, in the 80's, the company where I worked sent me to a customized version of this:

http://winterdrive.com/

We had a week driving a variety of vehicles (including some company trucks and a crane) is some fucked up conditions...WOO-HOO!

I came away a much better winter driver...and yes, I SLOW DOWN when driving on snow/ice...if you don't like it, go around. (about 2 years later, I moved to CA and didn't had to drive in snow again until we moved back to Washington.)

 

[T9D]

Lol I just right now saw some lamer almost slide totally sideways while still moving at like 30 mph down the road. Was looking out my bedroom window. Scary they could have slammed into someone. Or hit the kids that play all over or walk home from the school up the road. Good thing there was no oncoming traffic.

 

[rudeguy]

don't be the guy that doesn't clean the roof of your car or leaves only a tiny window to see out of.

don't follow so close that snow from the top of my car can hit you.

Its a very good way to deter tailgaters

 

[dank69]

don't follow so close that snow from the top of my car can hit you.

Its a very good way to deter tailgaters

 

[skimple]

I drove a SAAB through many winters in upstate NY. Never went into a ditch with that car. Those cars were made for snow.

Yup. I will agree with that. SAAB makes good cars for the snow.

 

[JulesMaximus]

don't follow so close that snow from the top of my car can hit you.

Its a very good way to deter tailgaters

I never bothered to clean snow off my roof. It blows off on its own and the shit is everywhere anyway. Besides, when it is cold out the last thing I want to do is spend more time out there cleaning my car off.

I don't miss snow at all.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I never bothered to clean snow off my roof. It blows off on its own and the shit is everywhere anyway. Besides, when it is cold out the last thing I want to do is spend more time out there cleaning my car off.

I don't miss snow at all.

the problem is sometimes it'll freeze then people get on highways that are clear. chunks of ice go flying off at highway speeds.

 

[DrPizza]

don't follow so close that snow from the top of my car can hit you.

Its a very good way to deter tailgaters

Quoted for truth. TONS of cars around here with snow on the roof. I've never had snow from a car in front of me hit my car. Physics: the snow doesn't go backwards. It continues going in the same direction as the car is moving, though it slows down rapidly from drag & falls to the ground. Make a snowball, drop it from the height of a car. That's how long it's in the air, about 0.5 to 0.6 seconds. And, it's moving forward during that time. (Though not with the same speed as the car was moving forward.)

 

[njdevilsfan87]

:thumbsup: And it's usually some douche in a 4wd truck or SUV who thinks the laws of physics don't apply to him.

I think AWD drivers are the most dangerous in the snow. 99% of them don't seem to realize that if you lose traction up front for any short duration, you're on the verge of spinning your tail (because I doubt any of them are experienced with RWD in the snow). Combine this with them just being more careless in poor weather, its no wonder when I saw bad accidents in the snow, it always involved some AWD SUV (and flipped over a lot too).

 

[JulesMaximus]

the problem is sometimes it'll freeze then people get on highways that are clear. chunks of ice go flying off at highway speeds.

Big deal. It just falls harmlessly to the road. You might get a little misting of snow on your windshield but it melts almost immediately, just turn your wipers on briefly and it's gone.

Christ, even this only lasted about a second and most of it hit the road before the guy following got to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIOo9BEou1Y

You guys obsess over the dumbest shit.

 

[Exterous]

don't be the guy that doesn't clean the roof of your car or leaves only a tiny window to see out of.

Pft I never cleaned off my car - even when I had a boat of a Caprice Classic. I like to think the tail of snow made me look like a comet going down the expressway

 

[destrekor]

Quoted for truth. TONS of cars around here with snow on the roof. I've never had snow from a car in front of me hit my car. Physics: the snow doesn't go backwards. It continues going in the same direction as the car is moving, though it slows down rapidly from drag & falls to the ground. Make a snowball, drop it from the height of a car. That's how long it's in the air, about 0.5 to 0.6 seconds. And, it's moving forward during that time. (Though not with the same speed as the car was moving forward.)

If it falls in clumps, that's one thing. If it's fine powder, it'll stay airborne for a fair length of time.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Black Ice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efiW2K8gASM

I'm seriously one of those drivers who has no idea wtf to do in snow and would go 10mph in a 4wd truck. I'm from a pacific island, wtf do I know about driving in the snow? What's worse, in the next few months if we get more here in CA, I'll have to take my family to go play in it. I freakin hate being out in the snow. It sure looks pretty though.

 

[skimple]

I think AWD drivers are the most dangerous in the snow. 99% of them don't seem to realize that if you lose traction up front for any short duration, you're on the verge of spinning your tail (because I doubt any of them are experienced with RWD in the snow). Combine this with them just being more careless in poor weather, its no wonder when I saw bad accidents in the snow, it always involved some AWD SUV (and flipped over a lot too).

You only notice the SUVs because you are predisposed to look for them. I'm betting you drive by lots of sedans in the ditch but they don't register because you aren't looking for idiots in sedans who can't drive.

But once you see an SUV, you go "THERE! See that SUV that doesn't know how to drive!"

 

[Daedalus685]

Quoted for truth. TONS of cars around here with snow on the roof. I've never had snow from a car in front of me hit my car. Physics: the snow doesn't go backwards. It continues going in the same direction as the car is moving, though it slows down rapidly from drag & falls to the ground. Make a snowball, drop it from the height of a car. That's how long it's in the air, about 0.5 to 0.6 seconds. And, it's moving forward during that time. (Though not with the same speed as the car was moving forward.)

This is true except when you add freezing rain or a thaw day in there.

Amazing the lift a slab of porous ice gets, at 100kph it is not rare for sheets of ice off the top of cars (or more often the top of transport trucks) to get 30 feet in the air. That crap is terrifying when the arc takes it across 6 lanes of traffic and lands near your oncoming car. Provided it doesn't land near me, it is really rather neat.

The ice storm we had in southern Ontario last holiday season was terrible for that.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

You only notice the SUVs because you are predisposed to look for them. I'm betting you drive by lots of sedans in the ditch but they don't register because you aren't looking for idiots in sedans who can't drive.

But once you see an SUV, you go "THERE! See that SUV that doesn't know how to drive!"

Yes. That is totally how it works.