Snow Has Arrived...

[Llanigraham]

Peter, was that up from Bwlch-y-gle Dam?

They were on about closing that hill according to one of the Council men I saw last night.

[The Plumber]

Hi Peter,

sounds as if you needed chains or Nokian Hakka's (not legal here) for that one. Glad you got home safely

TP

[Tristar 1011]

Peter, was that up from Bwlch-y-gle Dam?

They were on about closing that hill according to one of the Council men I saw last night.

Hi Peter,

sounds as if you needed chains or Nokian Hakka's (not legal here) for that one. Glad you got home safely

TP

No Graham, This was just to get upto Dylife. (Our road has had the "Heavy Snow - Road Closed" sign up for a week now!). We were supposed to go up beyond the Dam, just a bit before the turning for the sailing club - my daughter helps an old lady (Dr.) and wanted me to drive her up there, but after a short while decided it was not worth it...

Thanks TP, Providing it does not get any worse we should just about cope...

Peter

[dbg400]

Most of the roads around here are clear now and it's been around 5c, so thawing quite well. I went with my son to feed the ducks at the river and watched quite a few drivers give up on the hill leading out, and then go the wrong way down the one way street that leads to the car park. One of them was a Freelander which we watched spin all four wheels while staying still! At that point we went home for an early lunch then came back to clear the slope. I took the Yeti first just to have a go and just went slowly up the slope - no slipping, no drama. Parked and then watched a BMW 1 series get stuck where the Freelander did, so cleared in front and got it going. It would all have gone by tomorrow anyway, but it stopped anyone else getting stuck and gave us some exercise!

[Llanigraham]

Peter,

Up past the end of the Pennant valley then. Don't forget someone went off their a couple of years ago and lived!

Dr Britt?

Shame I'm in work this weekend, a drive around would have been quite nice.

[Monster Mash]

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading this forum post with interest as I was unlucky to have to go out in last nights blizzard conditions in our factory-spec Yeti 1.2 TSI SE with factory spare wheel. I mention the wheel in case this has bearing in the weight distribution.

One tip for anyone driving a similar spec in the snow, and a tip that got us home last night in some horrendous road conditions;

Turn off ASR.

And turn it off again, when you restart your car!

With ASR on, the Yeti was hopeless. The wheels just weren't gripping. Even when feathering the accerlerator, the turbo was kicking in spinning the tyres. Changing quickly up, and even starting in second-gear to lay down traction, just resulted in the engine revs dipping and stalling. I even resorted to reversing up hill as a last-resort. Again with no joy.

I've driven in all manner of snow conditions in the French alps over the last 10 years so was dumbfounded why the car was performing so badly.

I eventually realised ASR was the culprit and with that off, we were able to lay down the traction. After that the only obstacle was the other drives stopping in our tracks. On one 10 mile climb out from the centre toward North Leeds we overtook a good 10 cars stuck in their tracks. Others traveling behind us appeared to stop dead and some in front attempted to tackle climbs only to turn around. We thankfully managed to plough/power slide out through

I was kicking myself late last night for not reading about ASR in the manual, but felt a little vindicated if what I read is true and these features are not mentioned in the manual?

Some all-weather tyres and some snow socks/chain are on the shopping list.

Anyhow, hopefully this helps anyone.

Cheers

Edited 26 January, 2013 by Monster Mash

[domhnall]

Yup, standard stuff. In deep snow turn off asr. It's in the manual

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[Llanigraham]

It's in the manual

But as we all know too well.......................................................

[domhnall]

RTFM

:-)

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[FenlandPete]

I had my first outbreak of Yeti smugness on Friday afternoon, driving between Betws-y-Coed and Blaneau Ffestiniog on the A470 in North Wales - over the Crimea Pass. It was raining as we left Betws, but turned to heavy snow as we came up the hill out of Dolwyddelan, and saw a line of stationary brake lights ahead on the steep hill. There was a lorry off the road in the ditch on the otehr side - a power company Land Rover went past the queue, so I decided to follow him - just as I started to pull out, the Ford Focus at the back of the queue in front of me decided he was going too, but did not get very far, spinning wildy on his slick summer tyres. I got out and offered to help get him back onto the side, but was rebuffed with a ' No problem, I'll get through fine'. Eventually he slithered back into the back of the queue, so I pressed the off road button and edged out past the queue up the hill - the Hankook W310s did their stuff and we sailed up past the queue to astonished looks from the drivers of the numerous BMWs, Audis, Fords etc, stranded on the hill. No slipping at all -very impressive. There was no traffic getting up the other side up the steep hill from Blaenau - saw several stranded vehicles, and got a wave from a Jaguar driving putting on snow chains. The descent into Blaneau was treacherous, but I used the hill.descent mode to good effect, only one very slight slip on the steepest part of the descent. We got back to our cottage near Porthmadog, and heard on the local news that Police had closed the Crimea Pass to all but large 4x4s (would they have let a Yeti through ?? - interesting point for dicsussion, perhaps).

This was my first experience of the Yeti on winter tyres in testing winter conditions - very impressive !!

Pete

[Duck_Pond]

Well the snow has gone now and the 4 seasons managed ok throughout. On fresh and compacted snow, they're great. Not as good as full winters, but I think I'm so used to being cautious in such conditions, I'd not drive any quicker even if they were fitted.

On the slushier stuff though, especially where the snow had been compacted, frozen, melted, snowed over, re-frozen and started to thaw, while the traction for moving was there, the car slid around sideways and tramlined quite badly where there were ruts. I don't know if the full winters would have been any better - I assume so? Though TP's comments about that forest track make me wonder.

Black ice is still a concern - I've felt the car slip slightly on that, in particular when there are metal man-hole covers on roundabouts - have to be careful with them.

Touch wood though, these all season tyres seem to be acceptable when coupled with the 4x4 of the Yeti, in all weathers here in the UK.

[Brijo]

...Hankook W310s ...

...4 seasons ...

Two helpful reviews - thank you both! :clap:

[Dinski]

Hope this hasn't been posted before. Made me laugh with its cheese but it's still informative

[Llanigraham]

All our snow has gone, and this was driving to work to work on the 27th:

and driving through it:

[Hirundo]

Talking about snow... It's been not that bad here in Estonia this winter – perhaps stable 10-30 cm deep snow since november, but 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 it was much worse...

Just found this pic of my friends Citroen DS back in 2011:

[domhnall]

Same here, the winter this year hasn't been much to talk about. 2010 was bad but nothing too serious since.

The thing is that while snow is weather for most, if it lands in the south of England it's the year's biggest news story

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[IainM1970]

We are away for the weekend with the caravan and the snow has started! Lets hope it doesn't stick ... not home till tomorrow so anything could happen by then, the weather forecast has changed so many times I've stopped looking.

[CFB]

It started snowing mid afternoon yesterday and ain't stopped.

Not that heavy but its getting on for 4 inches and still going.

SWMBO had no hesitation in taking the yeti this morning.

The octavia is still on the drive but even the citigo managed a short trip to the shops

[Duck_Pond]

After checking the tread levels, I decided in the end not to change to the new set for the trip last week to Scotland, and didn't regret it once. The car was fine through all the deep snow around the estate on which I was staying, on the tops of the moors between Aviemore and the north coast, and it even got us to the top of the Applecross Pass and down again without too much concern, though I did engage Off-Road mode and HDC on the way down, as the road had been covered with snow between visits from the ploughs.

What surprised me most about the trip was that 2 friends I met up with in Inverness hadn't got winter tyres on their cars and admitted they were crap in the snow, so we took the Yeti over to the west coast. You'd think with the amount of snow and ice up there each winter they'd be more prepared!

Only one moment of concern from the whole trip, and that came when a taxi and another Yeti pulled out on me at the bottom of a hill on the A9 in a blizzard, despite me doing 60 with my Xenons on, forcing me to use the outside lane, which was a tad slippery, and I felt the car twitch doing so.

So the snow that greeted me this morning back in the Midlands didn't concern me much after all that!

Applecross Pass though - what a view from it. Awesome road.

[Brijo]

...Applecross Pass though - what a view from it. Awesome road.

I heard they had a gust of 139mph up there during the recent gale :peek:

[Duck_Pond]

I was advised to kneel down when the gusts picked up, to prevent me from being blown off my feet. I did so, and despite being lower down, one gust moved me and my camera gear across an icy path sideways. Was quite amazing though a little disconcerting also!

I soon learned to face away from the weather as it thundered in. Even tiny pieces of ice flying in the wind really stung when they hit you. Probably would have hurt more had my face not have been numb from the cold.

Probably a nice day to the locals... just that I'm a soft southerner