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| Not our Skoda (Czech plates are a give-away) nor was the slush so deep. But you get some idea |
OS has a 4WD Dacia Duster which she loves. In it we may explore the options and we take the opposite direction because it is, on balance, flatter. OS knows the 3½-mile sub-route well, it's her way to work, but the country roads are narrow and winding, and there's an absolute bastard steep descent to a double-blind cross-roads.
But the news is good. The surface is slush, not deep snow, compacted snow or ice. The only real hazard is the possibility of a car coming in the opposite direction; moving over could involve deep snow. We're lucky and reach the main road without problems. On the return journey OS switches off the 4WD; driving requires more concentration but it's doable.
The Skoda is bigger, less nimble but it has a switchable auto/manual gearbox. I can lock into whatever gear I choose. Second's quite fast enough. I've learned a lot from travelling in the Dacia and VR, beside me, is able to suppress her worries. Way ahead I see a large Mercedes coming towards us; Bless me, he pulls to one side! So out of character.
We're on the main road and say goodbye to OS who's been shepherding us in the Dacia to the rear. One frightening discovery remains. Ridges of slush persist. A more typical Mercedes overtakes us and in cutting back plasters our windscreen. For two seconds we travel blind.
Moral: keep the wipers on
Moral #2: Don't travel with bare minimum meds. A good description here of what travel has been like hereabouts (almost hourly)for the last six months. We have had a foot of snow on the rooves for weeks. And a higher gear, with less torque, is one of the keys to not spinning the tires on an icy climb. It's a fine line between "lugging" the engine and spinning the tires, which quickly heats the tires and worsens the situation.
ReplyDeleteI hate that kind of "white knuckle' driving in the snow and slush.
ReplyDeleteMoral #3 and bearing in mind predicted increase of similar cold weather events: winter tires and snow chains.
ReplyDeleteMikeM and Sabine: Moral 4. Stay at home.
ReplyDeleteMikeM: Within 24 hours the snow was no more than a memory. There was no climbing in the sub-route we chose so the guide word was consistency: maintain low speed avoiding both acceleration and braking. In retrospect there was nothing to worry about but it didn't seem like that at my daughter's chamingly snow-bedecked house. In Pennsylvania I've known snow of the sort you describe. In November I used to have studded tyres fitted: fine on the flat and going uphill, no use at all going downhill.
Colette: I know how you feel. The scheme my daughter and I devised aimed to avoid white-knuckle driving.
Sabine: 2018 has been unusual here in Hereford. Three separate and quite short periods of snowfall, the first such in 19 years we have lived here. I believe Germany allows studded tyres, the UK doesn't. As things proved chains wouldn't have been necessary.
I always found in my distant past, that the finest vehicle to cope with snow and ice was a motorcycle and sidecar combination (or "chair" as we called it). Its odd configuration kept things straight and on an even keel. When it snowed I even used to go out on purpose it it to "play". I well remember deliberately taking an Ariel Square Four with double adult chair at a fair clip down a snow and ice bedecked main road at about 45 mph and then, for the hell of it, putting on full right lock. Went into a full, 3 wheel drift but once the bars were straightened up it simply returned to straight ahead.
ReplyDeleteVery much less traffic around then, of course (1960s). Also the driving public were far more used to driving on ice and snow because the roads were not salted then.
It would not be advisable these days.
Avus: Despite plenty of opportunities while working on Motor Cycling in the early sixties I never got the hang of driving a chair. I always tried to "lean" it into corners with predictable results.
ReplyDeleteMany years later on a press facilities trip to Goodwood I enjoyed a day spent in mastering skid control. The workhorse was an elderly Ford Escort with bald tyres inflated to 60 psi, following routes marked out on an area of tarmac that was perpetually watered with a garden hose. Good practical fun although I've long since forgotten the techniques.
After decades in snow country, I have just learned that if you've been spinning tires and then put your front-wheel drive into second and lightly engage the parking brake, the car acts like four-wheel drive.
ReplyDeleteThat's all.
Dunno why nobody told me before... Really good when there's an ice pack and you're parked in a niche between high snow walls, though!
Next time, extra meds!
Marly: Tis the most esoteric solution I've ever heard (ie, touching the handbrake) but I can see how it might work. But only for front-wheel drive cars like the Rabbit. The problem with many older US cars was that they were rear-wheel drive and very long, thus there was little weight on the driven wheels and they spun very easily. As a result drivers compromised by carrying a sack of cement in the trunk.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's Dacia Duster, referred to in the post, is a four-wheel drive like the original Jeep. For technical reasons which I won't go into 4WD improves both grip and traction. 4WD is more expensive (where it is offered as an option it costs £1500) and has slightly higher gas consumption.
We do have a 4WD truck, but it's pretty tough to get a guy on crutches in and out--so I was stuck with my wee Toyota!
ReplyDelete