Some, make that most, drivers just don't have a clue. I have yet to get stuck in snow, but I pass hundreds that have and I only drive a normal car with two wheel drive. The smart car I drive is the most difficult car in the snow, it has a very short wheelbase and rear wheel drive and a stupid semi auto box.. you have to be quick to catch it if the rear end starts to slide. If I am going to get stuck it will be in the smart.
At least no-one bailed out on my street in the snow (sound quality is poor due to the wind)
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "ARWadsworth" saying something like:
pissing in the garden was undoubtedly the highlight of the clip.
Funny thing is, everybody still goes loopy on the first few days of proper snowfall each year; seems like it takes the most people a while to re-learn how to cope with the stuff.
We got about a foot of snow on Christmas Day, but before that it had been unusually mild up here this year; we got a few inches of snow back in October and then nothing afterwards (in other words I think the UK was beating us on snowfall until a couple of days ago :-) cheers
Jules
Down here in the Thames Valley it was 2cm of ice. Combined with roads that are packed to the extent that someone on the hard shoulder with a flat tyre causes a major jam.
Even if people _did_ know how to drive in it we would not have been much better off.
Actually I'm not sure about that last bit - I've heard a few silly stories - but it would have been bad.
Andy
You UK guys HAVE been encountering some unusual, for there, weather! Not too unusual here, during many winters.
But will recount the following:
Driving back, alone, some 250 miles to the capital city from an area called the Burin Peninsula during heavy icing, many winters ago, in a V8 rented automatic rear wheel drive Chevrolet, typical for that period. IIRC it had snow tyres but not the studded variety, no extra weight in the back because had not anticipated the type of weather.
The longest section of that road were, then, unpaved and sleet/ice can really stick to that. Rushoon Hill was always a particularly treacherous section; even in good weather nicknamed 'Mile Long Hill'. And it faces north. Driving north arrived at the top of this downhill section; there were several vehicles having a problem, one, like myself, descending was sort of, 'Off the road' part way down. Coming up was a truck struggling for grip. It's the middle of nowhere, even today the nearest community is several miles away.And it's late afternoon coming on dark.
No sign of a Highways vehicle, and not likely to be, salting and sanding not common on those unpaved roads. Nearest tow trucks about 50 miles up the road at place called Goobies!
What to do? Tried edging down out of gear using the brakes! No good; heavy car just slid bodily, sideways toward the ditch, without any steering control. Easy to see why that other car was 'sort of' off the road. Wishing my vehicle was at least a manual drive so I could have edged down in low gear. But on that type of Chev. rental, probably then a 3 speed automatic; no good at all!
Solution: Now on the downward slope of the hill. Oops!
So put car in reverse, edging forward with the rear wheels turning slowly backwards. Worked a treat, the faster the rear wheels turned, backwards, the slower the car rolled forward. With complete ability to steer past other obstructing vehicles; and the ditch!
Soon reached the bottom of the really steep part of the 'Mile Long' and could then roll to reach the more normal but also icy section. A couple of hours later reached Goobies where the unpaved (dirt) road joined Highway 1 (The Trans Canada) and was able to complete the remaining mileage into the capital city St. John's. on relatively ice free and/or salted/sanded road surfaces.
That was many years ago in another existence. But as a family we have always preferred manual drive vehicles in these conditions for better control.
BTW one major caution. 'NEVER use Cruise Control in icy weather'. In fact I have never used it on my 7 year old Nissan and have no intention of doing so. One person, here, was asleep in back of a vehicle where the driver was using Cruise Control. Went off the road on ice and that person now is a quadriplegic communicating via a special computer set-up.
Good Luck. terry ex-Liverpool 1956.
terry wrote: snip Dave L
Yes, it has been a tiny bit rough, but that has been down to the local authorities not gritting the minor roads
Being ex Liverpool, you will have never encountered the winters I did in Oldham. Frost used to form like a crew cut on the top of cars, snow used to fall at the drop of a hat and be a foot deep in the morning when you had to go to work. In the winter of 79, I was riding a small motorbike in Preston and my boss was amazed that I made it to work (14 miles away.) We were brought up with the snow and ice.
Last week, we had a bit of snow and as I was going out to get my morning paper, I heard this car revving to about 3000RPM plus. I thought that is a bad way to warm up an engine, but all he was trying to do was get up a snow covered road, on a very small incline and he had someone pushing him. His wheels were spinning so fast, you could not see what wheel trims he had.
I wonder how some of the Brits would go on in Canada?
Dave
On Dec 27, 8:34=A0pm, Dave wrote: Re: Oldham weather etc. =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Thanks Dave. My recollection of four years in Liverpool 1952 to 1956 was that I mostly biked to work and night school etc. We did later have an old 1934 Lanchester grandfather had given us. IIRC only walked to work twice in four years; because there was enough snow to prevent cycling and disrupt buses and/or trams. And by the time we got off work at 12 minutes to 6 PM, both occasions, the snow had melted sufficiently for things to be almost normal. Cheers terry
On Dec 27, 8:34=A0pm, Dave wrote: .
. I find we learns pretty quick! {:-)
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember terry saying something like:
Heh. Well seen it was a rented car.
Yes a rented car that had somewhat worn winter tyres (and not studded). But returned to them in good condition. I think it was rented from Hertz. Many years later (like around 25 to 30) in connection with marriage of a daughter we decided to 'rent a passenger van'. The agent/manager of the rental company greeted me by name and said that he remembered me renting Chevrolets from them on several occasions back in the 1960s. Same guy! Small city. Everyone knows everyone ....... etc. Nice touch; eh?
Many years ago had four 'strap on' chain units for the back wheels of a 1956 Ford Consul One poked the straps through the rim from behind and secured a buckle. Two on each back wheel would often get one out of 'a situation'.
They were not designed for long continuous use and since the straps would stretch slightly, but not enough for the next hole of the strap etc. would loosen slightly. Haven't seen them on sale for years; although guess one could fabricate something similar?
But nothing was so terrifying as broken cross piece of regular (full wheel) chains slamming continuously, every revolution of the wheels against a car body. But when one has to get somewhere, perhaps on the way to a hospital during a storm, whatever works! Even so living some miles out of town in cold and icy eastern Canada for some 50 years, have never need/owned a four wheel drive vehicle!
BTW: On the previous snow-blower we tightened the chains with those elastic straps with hooks on each end. Must equip the new one in a similar manner; but it's wheels are somewhat bigger so new or modified chains are required. Only used the new blower three times so far this winter..
Best wishes to all posters for this time of year and the new one coming up. Cheers.
Being near the sea would have kept it quite mild in Liverpool. I once went to my sisters house, in North Wales, for Christmas and I was in my shirt sleeves helping a neighbour with his car on Christmas day. This far inland and we are not that far from the sea, but quite a lot higher, the snow and ice tends to bite when it gets cold.
Dave
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