Neighbours daughter slid on ice yesterday morning, pranged the front of her car into the rear of a 4x4.

I was there when her Dad towed it back (he's a mobile mechanic) and whilst he was b*llocking her she said "I've never driven in snow before."

She's 22, and it occurred to me - with the recent mild winters, how many young(er) drivers are similarly unprepared?

You have hit an important nail on the head BJM. A lot of people my age (23 and younger) haven't had the experience of driving in such conditions, and certainly wasn't told how to be dealing with it when I had my lessons...

I drove 33 miles in January 2007 in that pretty heavy snow and ice we had so with regards to experience in driving in snow and ice I've probably got as much as anyone my age (19). I learnt so much that day about restricting sudden changes of direction, really really slow progressive braking and acceleration

Probably learnt as much that day as I did on two or three £25 driving lessons.

For what it's worth I consider myself to be a safe driver in icy conditions but still hesitate before deciding to make a journey in these conditions. As I found out 3-4 weeks ago it only takes a misjudgement of the amount of grip you will have for one corner and you can be inches away from another insurance claim (or worse at higher speeds)

What worries me most when driving to work down that same lane is the speed that other drivers (usually aged over 40, may I add..) drive in icy conditions. I dread meeting other cars just because I know it's unlikely they'll be able to stop in time!

By the way, we have a relatively large tarmacced area (private land) close to home. Yesterday I decided to go in there and lift off mid way through a corner to see what "Lift off oversteer" is like in the ice. I learnt a lot even by just doing that; ie in the ice it's more important than ever to get your entry speed in to a corner right. Even though I was doing under 10mph and was in a wide open space it was still horrible to not be in control once I released the throttle and the tail of the car started to come round.

I keep toying with the idea of going on one of those skid pan courses (just because I'd enjoy it more than anything). Has anyone done one, and do you think it's worth it?

I lover gritters, and I love Tom . In my RWD Omega, fitted with 4 of the finest hedgeseeking tyres, and 1600 kgs of lardy car to get around, grit seems to help (Go even more sideways on roundabouts )

More seriously, I was never more pleased to see a gritter than a couple of months back when I was in an empty artic in high winds on the M62 at 3am, driving on an inch of snow.... I was about to pull over and wait it out as I was being blown all over the motorway with having a 45ft "kite" attatched, and no grip from the teflon long life tyres. Gritter pulls on in front of me, so I made my decent of the pennines right behind the snow plough/gritting man.

As for grit damaging car paintwork, I personally have never seen any evidence of that. Crashing makes more damage IMHO.

As for grit damaging car paintwork, I personally have never seen any evidence of that. Crashing makes more damage IMHO.

It just doesn't sound pleasant. The amount of little tar spots behind my two front wheels, I wouldn't be able to spot damage from salt either. To be honest the thread was a little tongue in cheek

I know it was tongue in cheek mate

It is a big improvement going over to the 6mm salt, although the lower slung spinners have helped too.

Neighbours daughter slid on ice yesterday morning, pranged the front of her car into the rear of a 4x4.

I was there when her Dad towed it back (he's a mobile mechanic) and whilst he was b*llocking her she said "I've never driven in snow before."

She's 22, and it occurred to me - with the recent mild winters, how many young(er) drivers are similarly unprepared?

I only passed in June (17) and went out in the snow - more out of curistory than need, better to learn now than by crashing IMO. I couldn't believe the lack of grip, nothing on the driving test/lessons told me how bad it would be. The thoery test tells you the steering will go light, but so did driving on a muddy feild/car pack, but that still had grip.

I think the government should do more to make new/young drivers awhere of ice and its effects - like the Finnish do with skidpan lessons . . . I doubt they will ever consider our winters bad enough to do anything but if it saves one persons life its worth it IMO. Just my 2pennies worth.

Edited 6 January, 200917 yr by TriggerFish

Just how bad for cars paintwork is this salt?

My car has been absolutley filthy for about a month now. I cant wash it because everyday for the past week has been sub zero temps.

Last time I washed it it had 2 coats of collinite

. The molasses lark is a good one too, not a lot of putting salt down for it to all blow away

.

also good for encouraging deer, sheep and other beasties to stand in the road eating it:eek:

also makes it quite tasty to wildlife .

:p

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom_vRS

. The molasses lark is a good one too, not a lot of putting salt down for it to all blow away

Better than the last lot of heavy snow in Warks --

Excuse 1 - "the forecast was rain ,so we waited for the road to dry ,and it snowed "

Excuse 2 - "We salted the road ,and the rain wash edit away ,then it snowed "

wrong sort of forecast /rain /snow ??

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slider

also good for encouraging deer, sheep and other beasties to stand in the road eating it:eek:

-makes getting a bit of venison easier to find then

Mind you -last decent fall I saw in the Borders (A697) -you'd be hard put to see a deer off road -but that was the one in 1978

best advice for anyone is to find a deserted car park and pull some hard turns, accelerate, brake hard, handbrake etc and then get an experience of how the car will react and what little control you can have and how easy it is when you lose it to try and control it etc.

IMHO the best advice for people who have never driven in snow is if they have money and space to store the second set of tyres is to fit winter tyres.

I learnt to drive over a snowy winter and I have to say the complete lack of grip from some modern tyres in light snow or even just cold weather (below zero) is astounding. The wide low profile tyres don't help in the cold either mind.

best advice for anyone is to find a deserted car park and pull some hard turns, accelerate, brake hard, handbrake etc and then get an experience of how the car will react and what little control you can have and how easy it is when you lose it to try and control it etc.

That's what I would suggest too

Well you'll all be pleased to know I went out and did a run at 18.30 this evening, and I've just got out of bed ready for another run at 03.00... fun fun fun.

It is very difficult when rain is forecast, it takes a good 2 hours to do a run, so you don't want to grit just before it rains, and sometimes it can freeze before you get a chance to grit... ah well.

That's what I would suggest too

but one thing i forgot to mention was dont spend more than 5 minutes in the car park doing it in case its patrolled by the cops/security etc, they been a bit hot around my way with boy racers using car parks for testing their vehicles (in)capibilities and are usually in the car park between 5-10 mins to break it up

The cars unable to stop? Or the drivers? Can't say I've noticed a great deal of problems running on summer tyres (Eagle F1's) in this weather tbh

Chris

Well ok the drivers unable to realise they needed to leave more space than they might usually think they can get away with.

On the tyre front don't get me wrong they were working fine until it got to near zero then they got a bit less grippy, but when it's around the -5 degrees or lower mark they seem to just totally go off in terms of grip.

Obviously at -5 you shouldn't be expecting vast amounts of grip anyway, but it's was a very large reduction in grip from above this temperature to below it.

Can't say i've had anything quite like it from the older style tyres on any of the other cars i've driven.

ive personally not noticed any loss of grip when driving, but then i drive to the conditions as their is only about 12" of rubber on the road at anyone time (counting all four wheels). the only time i have noticed a loss of grip has been on untreated streets like swmbo's but then i was only trying to see how slippery the road was

Tom,

Do get in many accidents with idiots who just can't wait to get past?

I saw a gritter use its anti-chav button (double dose) on a Nova who was flashing his lights/beeping his horn. Don't tell me you haven't been tempted!

*ahem*

It is amazing how many people dive onto the verge to avoid us, or take silly risks to get out infront of us etc. Never had a near-miss or anything though, but I do have to chuckle sometimes. People see the beacons flashing and just have to beat them.

The boost button comes in handy . Its fun doing the market places when people are out clubbing in little skirts etc.

Hi Tom

Will these new state of the art MAN gritters that the Highways Agency have bought make gritters and ploughs better than those ancient Fodens. It always amazed me that those tatty old sheds kept going year after year.

Northants had some sexy new looking gritters with, erm, no grit by some f'ing huge ploughs on!

We've got a mixture, some lovely brand new Volvos, all the way to some old ex-military stuff with no heaters! :eek: