My first spin on ice.....
Discussion
Apparently on the travel news it reported there was an Oil Tanker spinning on the A285. It said the driver was trying to produce a Gymkhana style video (ala Block). As he got out surveying the damage to 40 acres of Sussex countryside, other drivers were directed via alternative routes.
Max_Torque said:
Possibly true, depending on your particular ABS calibration, but, in a lot of "Loss of control" incidents, stopping is actually not the first priority. Modern cars really don't take well to even gentle meetings with hedges (unlike old steel bumpered cars without all the trinketry we now adorn our cars with). So, if you have a spin, and nothing is coming the other way, keeping it on the road, enables you to drive off and think "feck, that could have been bad!", whereas stuffing it, at even 15mph into a hedge or ditch is a real PITA (and i talk from experience here ;-)
ABS? What is this witchcraft of which you speak?/MX5
Asterix said:
I was lucky enough to be qualified as a ski instructor way back when I was in the Army. One of the prerequisites I had to do for driving students and other bods around in registered Army vehicles was a winter driving course.
Lots of skid pan work and other advanced stuff - very valuable and has been brought into play many a times.
I'd recommend doing that sort of thing to anyone as just having the practice of dealing with a car seemingly out of control means you can cope far better should anything go a bit south.
that reminds me of trying to stop a 110 on xcl's on sheet ice, and avoid hitting the 4 tonner in front..... we were in convoy i was at the back and a civi van got in front of me at a junction. the convoy up front stopped at the precise moment the civi turned left into an entrance... he turned off and there was a stationary line of trucks in front of me.. brake skid, brake, skid, brake,skid. mmmm not going to stop in time, pulled over a little nothing coming, somi slithered down the wrong side of the road, eventually stopping 4 trucks down line Lots of skid pan work and other advanced stuff - very valuable and has been brought into play many a times.
I'd recommend doing that sort of thing to anyone as just having the practice of dealing with a car seemingly out of control means you can cope far better should anything go a bit south.
JimSuperSix said:
Gizmo! said:
That's funny. The winters on my MX5 (Nankang SV2) were perfectly fine on the hottest days of the year, and under some sustained abuse (e.g. driving down to the Rolls Royce SS last summer).
I agree - I had Quatracs on my Toyota and even in hot weather they feel nicer to drive on than normal summer tyres as they feel so grippy and accurate, and yet they'll still pull the car out of 12 inches of snow. Fabulous tyres all round.I've done skid pan training. After a while you get the hang of it, and think you can now drive on sheet ice. You can't. A kid pan is dead flat, and no bumps or pot holes. These exist on roads, and they will take control of the car, and send it where you're not expecting it. I've lost control driving in a straight line at 10 mph, when the road camber was just to much, and gently slid sideways into the edge of the grass verge. I've also stopped car, put handbrake on, got out, and watched it slowly slide down the road !!
Even in the little Aygo I managed (quite by accident) to get broadside at the bottom of Duncton Hill, ice rout in the middle of the corner, front pushed wide, I tightened and let off the throttle, then the back stepped out across the same bit of ice! Caught that, then couldn't accelerate up the hill for about 40yards as it was just spinning the wheels!
Flanders. said:
I very nearly Crashed my Merc Sprinter going into the Yard this morning. It was coverd in Ice and I was in a bit of a rush to get going.
I crashed on black ice going into the works car park this morning. Fortunately(ish) I was on foot by that point. Landed on my back on top of a kerb.Jesus, my arse hurts and my back has a bruise the size of a dinner plate
sinizter said:
Cotty said:
Garlick just out of interest does the LS have a LSD? Not that I think it would have made any difference as I have had my non LSD equipped auto E30 slide out in very cold, damp 40mph corner.
Do LSDs make it worse ?Perhaps I should not post when I have had a few beers but I think having a non LSD has saved me a couple of times when one wheel has spun but not both.
The senario Garlic quotes is the same as I have had, the momentum is going to push the back end out regardless.
My first (only, so far... though I did get about 90 degrees from 'forwards' once in my first winter, staring out of my window at a postie) was actually on something like the hottest day of June 2009, when I'd just finished college for the year and... was a bit too exuberant, saw a truck coming the other way on a B road a bit too late, went wider to give it room (on a right-hander), left-hand wheels on gravel... staring at all the grass hitting my rear side windows as my car did a 270... I clenched quite a bit as I was going some to lose all that grip. Drove home shivering like a pharaoh in Alaska.
Got winters on this... winter, and the front end (got a Corsa
) was scrabbling a little bit on the smallest road I go on, where it crosses a river, so I had my brain switched on in the drive in to work this morning.
Well done OP on keeping it on the black stuff, even if it was the black icey stuff. It's one hell of an eye opener when it happens!
Got winters on this... winter, and the front end (got a Corsa
) was scrabbling a little bit on the smallest road I go on, where it crosses a river, so I had my brain switched on in the drive in to work this morning.Well done OP on keeping it on the black stuff, even if it was the black icey stuff. It's one hell of an eye opener when it happens!
Garlick said:
Not winters 
Pirelli P-Zero's all round. Recent too.
I had P-Zero Rossos on my car at the start of the first cold spell last Winter. Absolutely atrocious levels of grip (and only about 7-8k on them at the time so plenty of tread). Major factor in pushing me into getting Winters.Pirelli P-Zero's all round. Recent too.
Sounds nasty that does, and really drives home the need to steer into the skid.
I drove through an enormous puddle of petrol/diesel the other day without knowing (no colourisation to the road at all). There was a broken down Focus ahead but I thought nothing of it; the next minute I have no traction pulling away (I eventually got away in 2nd). At first I put this down to the cold weather so I knew I had a traction issue but not seeing ice on the road ahead I lift off and very lightly brake down a hill to stop for some lights earlier than I normally would (in case) and immediately lock up.
This was literally like driving on black ice, I had no ability to brake whatsoever and having ABS wouldn't have helped either, it was an instant lock up. Luckily it was a straight road and not a corner as I'd have stuffed it straight into the opposite curb. Never experienced anything like it, it was like my tyres had been replaced by blocks of ice. I get to where I'm going and see the streams of rainbow in the water on the road laid down by my car and others that had come the same way. I can only assume the Focus had a catastrophic leak of its fuel tank or engine oil.
This happening on snow is expected, but when it sneaks up on you - s
t.
I drove through an enormous puddle of petrol/diesel the other day without knowing (no colourisation to the road at all). There was a broken down Focus ahead but I thought nothing of it; the next minute I have no traction pulling away (I eventually got away in 2nd). At first I put this down to the cold weather so I knew I had a traction issue but not seeing ice on the road ahead I lift off and very lightly brake down a hill to stop for some lights earlier than I normally would (in case) and immediately lock up.
This was literally like driving on black ice, I had no ability to brake whatsoever and having ABS wouldn't have helped either, it was an instant lock up. Luckily it was a straight road and not a corner as I'd have stuffed it straight into the opposite curb. Never experienced anything like it, it was like my tyres had been replaced by blocks of ice. I get to where I'm going and see the streams of rainbow in the water on the road laid down by my car and others that had come the same way. I can only assume the Focus had a catastrophic leak of its fuel tank or engine oil.
This happening on snow is expected, but when it sneaks up on you - s
t.Cotty said:
I "think so" but I haven't tried it on ice, a few occasions on wet roads with leaves on them the non LSD has just spun the wheel that has no traction, rather than both breaking traction.
Perhaps I should not post when I have had a few beers but I think having a non LSD has saved me a couple of times when one wheel has spun but not both.
The senario Garlic quotes is the same as I have had, the momentum is going to push the back end out regardless.
LSDs offer higher traction since you can use both tyres to more of their ability but when it does go it will be a bigger, but easier to control, slide.Perhaps I should not post when I have had a few beers but I think having a non LSD has saved me a couple of times when one wheel has spun but not both.
The senario Garlic quotes is the same as I have had, the momentum is going to push the back end out regardless.
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