345jeep
Fort Worth, TX
Senior Member
Joined: 09/10/2009
View Profile
|
Pitch wrote:Couple years ago I was toolin along about 40 MPH in 4WD along a flat drifting stretch. Up ahead of me I see tail lights squirrel across the road and a big cloud of snow. Here is a woman sitting about fifty feet out in a field just a spinnin the rear wheels of her Explorer and cursing like a sailor. I asked her to let me give it a shot,so I got in looked around pushed the button to engage the transfer case and drove back out to the road. The woman was flabbergasted,had no idea how I did it. She had never used that button and had no idea what it was there for.
Last year in an ice storm, I was on my way to work in my FWD Volvo sedan. There was a hill that had a lot of people stuck and/or sliding backwards. Using the winter setting of my traction control, a decent set of M+S tires, and my common sense, my Volvo went right up the hill. Meanwhile, a "tricked out" Hummer H2 with huge chrome rims sat on the hill with it's open differential rear end spinning one rear tire.
I've spend a lot of winter driving time in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri over the years. Biggest threat of winter driving is the "other guy" in most cases..whether it be the 10 mph shrinking violet or the 60 mph ditch finder.
Here in Texas, people don't have a clue as to what to do when things get icy. Biggest threat here is the 20-something crowd in their pickups. They fly by with youthful confidence and then end up hitting a retaining wall and/or other folks.
2010 Skyline Layton 190
2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland 5.7L V8 4x4 3.73 Axles
Me, DW, daughter, Golden Retriever and Goldendoodle
|
LIKE2BUILD
Mt. Zion, IL
Senior Member
Joined: 09/30/2004
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
 Offline
|
lesmore49 wrote:Every year with first snow, which up here, invariably leaves a coating of hard ice on the roads....
At this time we always see a few individuals who usually have maybe their first 4 WD and barrel along way too quickly for the conditions and the traffic flow.
Is it just a local phenomenon...or does it happen in other winter jurisdictions too ?
Stupid has no geographic boundaries. I would guess it takes a few close calls for many drivers before they realize they need to slow down for the road conditions. People that live in a "winter weather" region, have no excuse for not knowing how to drive in these conditions.
I once knew a person that had transplanted from the upper Midwest to HOTlanta. She said whenever it snowed there she didn't dare leave the house, there were just far too many people that didn't have the first clue how to drive on the stuff. That's not a slam on people in the south, only pointing out that occasional conditions like that don't give folks a chance to learn how to handle it. People in the north have no excuse, especially the further north you go where snow is increasingly common.
KJ
'02 Jayco Qwest 324G
'04 Chevy 2500HD CrewCab |6.0L|2X4|4.10:1 | Eaton Posi-Trac
Curt MagnumV receiver
Eaz-Lift Hitch with Reese Dual Cam
'81 Seastar 18' Runabout
'96 Polaris SLT780 PWC
'94 Polaris SLT750 PWC
3 Wonderful Sons (11, 4, & 3)
1 forgiving wife!!!
|
hawkeye-08
Northwest
Full Member
Joined: 01/25/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
4 wheel stop has been around a long time.
|
Fordlover
Spring, Texas
Senior Member
Joined: 12/27/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
This is the main reason I think all AWD/auto 4x4 should have an off switch. My explorer has auto 4x4 that engages automatically, and really doesn't give you a good feel of the road. Auto 4x4 is great where I live, where we get snow twice every 10 years, so we usually only have to deal with wet roads, where the auto 4x4 is awesome.
But I think while driving on snow or ice, having two wheels providing the go, and 4 providing the whoa is best.
02' Ford Explorer 4.6 V8 4x4, prodigy and equalizer
07' Crossroads Sunset Trail ST19CK
03' Ford Focus SVT my daily driver
04' Volvo S40 wife's daily driver
92' Taurus SHO
and no payments
|
wilber1
Abbotsford B.C. Canada
Senior Member
Joined: 12/16/2002
View Profile
|
Seems that most of the vehicles in the ditch when it snows around here are SUV's and 4X4 trucks. Many people don't seem to understand that even though it is easier to get them moving, the extra weight of these vehicles often works against them when it comes to stopping or changing direction.
"Never trust a man who has not a single redeeming vice" WSC
|
|
|
millerak49
Fairbanks, Alaska
Full Member
Joined: 10/19/2009
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
Offline
|
Even though we have many months of ice and snow on the roads, it is the same here. First week of snow there are wrecks and stuck cars everywhere, then everyone settles down for the rest of the winter. It can get bad if we get a mid-winter warm spell with some rain/freezing rain.
|
resmas
Alaska
Senior Member
Joined: 05/05/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
I've found idiots driving every type of vehicle. 4WD, 2WD, AWD, tiny compacts to lifted 4WDs. I grew up in the Adirondacks of NY, near Lake Placid, and now live in Alaska.
I don't think it really matters WHAT you drive, it is HOW you drive it. It might take you a bit longer in 2wd, but you'll probably make it if you drive it right.
|
JustLabs
Washington State
Senior Member
Joined: 05/13/2002
View Profile
Offline
|
SoCalDesertRider wrote:Heck, we don't even need snow or ice on the road around here to cause a major havoc. It hardly ever rains here and as soon as we get a few drops of rain on the highways, we get idiots causing accidents in every direction. It's like a circus of morons as soon as the road is wet.
We get almost 36" of rain in Western Washington. You go through the summer season where it doesn't rain for a month or so ,and you get the people that have driven in rain their entire lives spun out in the ditch.
I don't know how its possible to forget 20 years of how to drive in the rain over the course of 30 days.
Add any snow or ice and Seattle comes to a standstill.
2007 Dodge Ram 3500 SRW,4x4,Cummins 5.9, 6spd.
2007 Keystone Cougar 289BHS Fifth Wheel.
|
Thunderbolt
North Branch, Mn USA
Senior Member
Joined: 07/03/2003
View Profile
Offline
|
During winter here in Minnesota I look at the cars in the ditch as I drive by (I will stop and help if it is safe). A good majority of the vehicles I see in the ditch are 4x4 or AWD. Almost all I see rolled over are trucks. I too see that either people continue to drive as they did in the summer or they drive 5 mph. I will also say that even with no snow the road conditions are different as well, You do not have as good of traction on cold roads as you do in the summer. I remember a few years ago I helped a young kid out of the ditch several times before he stayed on the road. I pulled him out and stopped while he steered back into the ditch not once, but three times before I told him if he does it again I can't help him. On his defense he was nervous about what his dad would say about putting the family car in the ditch. Around here people have a hard enough time driving in the summer so when it snows it is down right miserable. I drive 45 miles into the city for work and not a morning even in the summer does someone not rearend another car from following to close.
Bryan
2003 2500HD Ext. cab short box
6.0 liter 4.10 gears, Nelson performance PCM
98 K1500 4x4 heavy duty 1/2 ton
6,600lb GVWR 5,280lbs on the scale empty
14 bolt rear diff. 3:73 , Tranny and oil coolers
280,000 miles still purrin' like a kitten
|
EPenney
Galt, Ca
Senior Member
Joined: 03/03/2003
View Profile
Good Sam RV Club
Offline
|
CJ5Jeeper wrote:We live in the foothills on I 80, when it snows every local tv station has a reporter on Donner summet to report the accidents. The SUV's racing up on Friday night to ski, and the race back to the bay area are guaranteed to produce enough accidents to close the highway.
I know what you mean. While traveling to & from our family vacation home in Squaw Valley during the past 40 winters, I had great intertainment watching the Bay Area Road Race Team fly past me on I-80 in snow and ice conditions, only to see some of them nosed into a snow bank further up the road. Quite a few of those vehicles were 4WD or AWD.
'07 Chevy 2500HD Silverado "Classic" CC D/A 4x4
'07 Komfort Trailblazer T252FS fifth wheel
Reese Signature 18K Slider and other stuff.....some useful.....some not
|
|
|
