Snow + 4x4s - the absolute proof of mumptiedom!
Discussion
As I mentioned on previous posts, we suffer in our village with mumpties in HUGE panzers (Land Cruisers, Ranges, Nissans etc) taking their spoilt squealing little brats to school and kindergarten.
Well we've had a little snow the last couple of days, nothing mind you, that stops real drivers, only about 4-5 inches each morning.
Asked one of the mumpties why she wasn't using her panzer this morning to take her brood 500 yards (500 yards FFS!!!!) to the Kindergarten.
"Oooh it's sooo much snow and I don't know how to drive it! (the panzer that is!)" was the mumptie answer from someone who has the equipment to actually be able to drive in snow!
Needless to say I gave her an earful when she said she didn't even know how to put it in 4 wheel drive.....
Any other mumptie/panzer tales at this time of the year??
Well we've had a little snow the last couple of days, nothing mind you, that stops real drivers, only about 4-5 inches each morning.
Asked one of the mumpties why she wasn't using her panzer this morning to take her brood 500 yards (500 yards FFS!!!!) to the Kindergarten.
"Oooh it's sooo much snow and I don't know how to drive it! (the panzer that is!)" was the mumptie answer from someone who has the equipment to actually be able to drive in snow!
Needless to say I gave her an earful when she said she didn't even know how to put it in 4 wheel drive.....
Any other mumptie/panzer tales at this time of the year??
We have had more than 30cm of snow in the last couple of days yet some 4x4 drivers are still using 2wd, probably similar to the schoolmum, and do not know how to switch it over.
Tuesday night I was turning across the traffic and had to wait for a gap, I had brakes on and indicator flashing on a straight piece of road (at least 250m straight behind me) and had to pull forward rather sharpish when the numpty coming up behind was obviously unable to stop in time on the compacted snow. Luckily I was in my Niva and had enough traction to ge out of his way because I had my family with me. We were unable to get the other car (Pug 206)out of the house and up the 100m driveway to the road (unless I spent an hour or so with a shovel).
Tuesday night I was turning across the traffic and had to wait for a gap, I had brakes on and indicator flashing on a straight piece of road (at least 250m straight behind me) and had to pull forward rather sharpish when the numpty coming up behind was obviously unable to stop in time on the compacted snow. Luckily I was in my Niva and had enough traction to ge out of his way because I had my family with me. We were unable to get the other car (Pug 206)out of the house and up the 100m driveway to the road (unless I spent an hour or so with a shovel).
Agent006 said: The belief that 4WD makes the car stop better on ice.
Err - a proper 4WD system actually does. With both diffs locked, and by not dipping the clutch when you brake, the car has two options, slow down or stall the engine - slowing down is generally the easier of the two options for the car. Until you've actually experienced it, you won't believe how effective locked diffs are in snow!
Why you think that Ur's stuffed every car for ~8 years in rallying - esp. on the snow stages!
Still - most people wouldn't know what a diff lock was - never mind if their car actually had one
J
A mate of mine saw a classic in the snow on Friday. There was a line of cars waiting to get up the only hill in our little town each taking it one at a time and managing ok. Mr Land Rover Defender decides he is not going to wait his turn and decides to overtake everyone else. Gots halfway up the hill then lost control. Bounces off road into a hedge then reverses into one of the waiting cars, spins his Land Rover and manages to take out another two cars.
joust said:
Agent006 said: The belief that 4WD makes the car stop better on ice.
Err - a proper 4WD system actually does. With both diffs locked, and by not dipping the clutch when you brake, the car has two options, slow down or stall the engine - slowing down is generally the easier of the two options for the car. Until you've actually experienced it, you won't believe how effective locked diffs are in snow!
Why you think that Ur's stuffed every car for ~8 years in rallying - esp. on the snow stages!
Still - most people wouldn't know what a diff lock was - never mind if their car actually had one
J
You may be correct, but what i was meaning was a 4WD doesn't inherrantly have more grip than a 2wd car. It just distributes the power differently, so the driver has the illusion of having the same increased traction when trying to stop.
Big_M - priceless.
On the same Friday, I had cause to take my leaky cat to the vet, and while the roads were semi-snowy, it's nothing I hadn't coped with before.
The most direct route to the vet in the next village is a little single track road in between fields and past the farm that operates them. The other route is the A14... No thankyou. Regular rat run though, so plenty of traffic had passed.
Still covered in snow though, so I took it nice and easy, 20 mph the whole way. (Makes a change...
)
The one solitary car in the ditch from the previous day's carnage was....
...A Mercedes G-Wagon.
FFS.
On the same Friday, I had cause to take my leaky cat to the vet, and while the roads were semi-snowy, it's nothing I hadn't coped with before.
The most direct route to the vet in the next village is a little single track road in between fields and past the farm that operates them. The other route is the A14... No thankyou. Regular rat run though, so plenty of traffic had passed.
Still covered in snow though, so I took it nice and easy, 20 mph the whole way. (Makes a change...
) The one solitary car in the ditch from the previous day's carnage was....
...A Mercedes G-Wagon.
FFS.
Ah - Ok - yep. Without the diffs locked, and with the clutch dipped (which most people do when they brake), a 4wd car turns into a 2wd car when you hit the brakes
Agent006 said: You may be correct, but what i was meaning was a 4WD doesn't inherrantly have more grip than a 2wd car. It just distributes the power differently, so the driver has the illusion of having the same increased traction when trying to stop.
J
"Oooh it's sooo much snow and I don't know how to drive it! (the panzer that is!)" was the mumptie answer from someone who has the equipment to actually be able to drive in snow!
Errr... Was it my Mrs you were talking to?
Comments like "What's that other gearstick for?" and "It goes all slidy" meant she's now booked into a weekend off-road tuition later this month.
Only if you go around tight corners
deltaf said: Dont use it on the road, youll bugger your tyres and possibly the diff too.
The Ur manual actually recommends locking the rear diff (not the centre one) on motorway driving which I've done for the last 9+ years without any problem. It gives greater control, helps with tramlining (which the Ur does in spades) and stops the rears locking up if you have one of those
moments... Also - remember that tyres need to be within +/-5% diameter of each other, otherwise if you do lock the diff on tarmac you will quickly scrubb the tyres and nacker the diff gear cogs!
>> Edited by joust on Thursday 6th February 13:47
The mind boggles..... all the 'school run mums' round our way have had a smug look on their face for the past 2 weeks because of the weather, though oddly i haven't actually seen any of them driving around!!!
the only 4wd car i've really seen out recently was on the friday after the heavy snow last week. a V6 freelander was overtaking the line of cars i was in, but despite the huge expanses of straight bits of road (i can overtake 5 cars easily along the straights) the freelander was restricting his overtaking manouvers to the refuges to turn right across the road - nice!!!
edited because it made no bloody sense!!!
>> Edited by littlegearl on Thursday 6th February 14:16
the only 4wd car i've really seen out recently was on the friday after the heavy snow last week. a V6 freelander was overtaking the line of cars i was in, but despite the huge expanses of straight bits of road (i can overtake 5 cars easily along the straights) the freelander was restricting his overtaking manouvers to the refuges to turn right across the road - nice!!!
edited because it made no bloody sense!!!
>> Edited by littlegearl on Thursday 6th February 14:16
Errr... Was it my Mrs you were talking to?
Comments like "What's that other gearstick for?" and "It goes all slidy" meant she's now booked into a weekend off-road tuition later this month.
I think she should probably be booked into a Nissan Micra instead for the forseeable future....
As I mentioned on previous posts, we suffer in our village with mumpties in HUGE panzers (Land Cruisers, Ranges, Nissans etc) taking their spoilt squealing little brats to school and kindergarten.
Well we've had a little snow the last couple of days, nothing mind you, that stops real drivers, only about 4-5 inches each morning.
Asked one of the mumpties why she wasn't using her panzer this morning to take her brood 500 yards (500 yards FFS!!!!) to the Kindergarten.
"Oooh it's sooo much snow and I don't know how to drive it! (the panzer that is!)" was the mumptie answer from someone who has the equipment to actually be able to drive in snow!
Needless to say I gave her an earful when she said she didn't even know how to put it in 4 wheel drive.....
Any other mumptie/panzer tales at this time of the year??
theres no point having 4wd school mums, the schools always close the instant it gets cold anyway!!
joust said: ...and with the clutch dipped (which most people do when they brake)
Incredible - do people really do that?
No question, the Ur Quattro was the best thing I ever drove on snow. Once pulled a Landie out of a drift with mine.
Acute embarrassment forgetting to disengage the difflock when turning in to the house though. Shudder to a standstill
Yep - I did it "once" in the Ur - never ever again.... (a few £k later to remodel the front ensued
McNab said:Incredible - do people really do that?
)
No question, the Ur Quattro was the best thing I ever drove on snow. Once pulled a Landie out of a drift with mine.
and people "diss" moi for having the X5 
Acute embarrassment forgetting to disengage the difflock when turning in to the house though. Shudder to a standstill
- I've done it twice - even funnier is if you lock it on the motorway and forget about it, come off and go to leg it around one of the many roundabouts - you make a "lovely" sound as the rears struggle to make it round - very Max Power J
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