TOT about driving conditions the week

[The Natural Philosopher]

First sensible statement you have made.

The speed of travel is changing if you slowly come to a halt.

nothing needs to.

If you can apply X amiunt of grip over Y distance, starting at Z kinetic energy, the total energy you have to climb the hill is Z+X*Y

If you have grippier chains, its Z+2X*Y

If the actual thrust from the non chained tyres isn't enough to get started up the hill from a stop, you are screwed there anyway.

The key is you hit the hill moving..if the thrust is not enough to maintain speed up the hill, you will eventually stop at a distance governed by the above. If you have more grip, the distance will be longer, and if its enough to clear the crest, you are home and dry.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Steve Walker saying something like:

It's always been the case though, that some coppers are utter wankers.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian saying something like:

Which is the same as the general prohibition against damaging it with tracked vehicles, etc, isn't it? Are snow chains mentioned specifically?

[Adrian]

Grimly Curmudgeon gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Yup.

Not AFAIK, nor are studded tyres.

[Jules]

helps a lot...

[Dave]

You had me confused when you mentioned Portsea Island, I wasn't aware that Portsmouth was separate from the mainland, but I have just got off the phone to her and she agrees it is.

What a mess the roads are there. Both Portsmouth and Southsea are a mess with snow and ice, Southsea particularly bad. I had to drive down the front in Southsea at 10 MPH in second gear. The only other road that caused concern was the M40 it had not been gritted very well and the third lane had a lot of ice on it.

Dave

[Dave]

Well, what can I say, but good for Ford :-)

For the first time ever, I got snow bound in the car park provided for our daughters house. It took a fair bit of rocking and pushing to get it out. Snow down there came quite thick, but I suspect that it thawed somewhat and re-froze again. Until this point, I hadn't walked on the local snow, so I didn't know the nature of it. Had I had done so, I would have used the old trick of driving too far and reversing back to give me a run into the rutted snow. Earlier I tried parking in the layby in front of the house, but could not get my wheels to go over the 6 inch ruts left by other cars, again because of frozen snow.

All's well, I'm back home now :-)

To similar conditions. :-(

Dave

[Dave]

,

It wasn't all that bad today. All 3 lanes were open and speedworthy.

Dave

[Dave]

My limits, yes :-)

I can answer that my self, and it is no. :-)

You don't travel it so much as to notice :-)

Dave

[Steve Firth]

Good news. If anythign I thought today was more difficult driving than when it snowing. The partial melt and re-freeze made driving awkward and they seem to have run out of salt so the A32 was like a skating rink. It didn't stop someone tailgating me all the way home though.

Hey ho, that's life.

[Dave]

No, daughter lives that far away, sister lives 35 miles away

I got back OK

Dave

[Rod]

Used to live in Wales and work in Glasgow. Meant a lot of travelling up there. Luckily when I was doing that in the winter it seemed always to be -10 but almost no snow.

As soon as I saw Lancaster on the way north I relaxed and looked forward to the rest of the journey which I loved.

Rod

[Jules]

Y'know, I had one of those Ford Explorer things on hire a couple of years ago and I was thinking to myself when I saw it "uh oh, this is going to be trouble" (I'd heard lots of bad things about them, and we'd just been told it was a 4x4 at the rental place, not what make/model until we picked it up).

Full credit to it though - I got it up and down snow and ice-covered mountainsides many a time, where there were plenty of other 4x4s falling off the side of the roads (cars just didn't have a hope in hell, and there were a few big truck drivers vainly stopped and putting snow chains on - they were always still right where I'd seen them the next day)

It was quite a nice thing to drive in those sorts of conditions - quite sure-footed and lots of feedback as to what the wheels were doing.

cheers

Jules

[The Natural Philosopher]

come the electric ar, they will al have AWD, with a motir on each wheel, and computerised traction control anyway, and for fuel efficiency, probably deep narrow tyres, just like a Moggie.

So we will be back to the 50's in terms of power and tyre grip, but with

21st century technology controlling it.

The old moggie was a damned good snow vehicle.

[Ian White]

Anywhere north of the M55 junction does it for me... or even the exit from the CPC car park.

[Pete Verdon]

...but now they're all incentivised to be so.

Pete

[Steve Firth]

The anti-Explorer hysteria whipped up by Watchdog was astonishing. Most of it was complete bollocks[1]. I've taken mine over the Alps, Dolomites and Apennines in winter. Often several times a year. With M&S tyres there's no need for chains, and it's big, fat, comfortable and as you say provides good feedback on what's happening so you can drive safely.

[1] What the program and the destractors fail to mention is that the engine is German, the transmission is built by Mazda, the rest is American but what break down is likely for the body and seats? You don't hear Mazda owners going around saying "Oh my Mazda B-series pickup truck is so unreliable" yet that and the Explorer are much the same thing.

[Dave]

IKWYM Was it a woman? They are notorious for tail gating. They don't do it intentionally.

Does Hampshire know what salt/grit spreading is done for? Southsea coast road was virtually a sheet of ice. Now that surprised me.

Dave

[Dave]

I hadn't expected it to be a Ford, cos in off road trials, it is usually a Land Rover that goes in to pull out the sick and stuck motors :-)

Dave

[The Natural Philosopher]

Do women do anything intentionally?

Most seem rather ruled by pack instinct and hormones..