Poll

How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?  

I am well experienced, and keep the vehicle appropriately equipped
2 (33.3%)
I am experienced and try to plan ahead
1 (16.7%)
I am experienced, but sometimes get caught off guard
1 (16.7%)
I am ok, but leave myself plenty of time when I have to drive
1 (16.7%)
I am ok
0 (0%)
I try to avoid driving in conditions
0 (0%)
It's always nice here, irrelevent
0 (0%)
I don't drive.
1 (16.7%)

Total Members Voted: 6

Author Topic: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?  (Read 2196 times)

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Offline Unorthodox

How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« on: December 14, 2015, 01:53:52 PM »
Widely predicted and warned snow storm, and it's supposed to stop snowing sometime tomorrow. 

Get up, dig myself out, ~4" at our place, leave myself an extra 30 minutes for commute. 

This car is the worst winter driving vehicle I've ever driven, mostly because I have to fight the on board computer, but got myself new tires a couple months ago in preparation for the winter. 

I've logged more hours driving than 90% of people on the road, and plenty in all kinds of weather.  However, my choices to get to work are 3 fold:

I 84 to I 15.  84 is a canyon road, wildlife frequent, winds can be awful.  There's a bridge on the I 15 stretch that is notorious for icing over. 

Highway 89 to Utah 193.  "THE HILL"  Steep decline down 89, that I got to climb back up to get to 193.  Perennially problematic for people to climb back up out of the valley

89 to residential to Riverdale road.  Likely to find unplowed portions. 

I chose "THE HILL".  I've driven it far more, and know it well.  Passed by 24 cars that had gotten themselves stuck and/or slid off on the hill.  Now, getting home, with far more traffic, it can be even more problematic.  Cause if you STOP on the hill, you're not getting started again. 

Offline ColdWizard

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2015, 05:29:36 PM »
I drove in a whiteout once. Only when there were oncoming cars was I ever sure I was still on the road. It was lake effect though, so once I got south of it everything was fine. Just normal unplowed/untreated roads 3-4" probably.

If it's deep, I ain't going and if it's ice, I ain't going. I've made it through both but that may have been more luck than anything else and there's not anyplace important enough to be in those conditions. Fun fact: A 1987 Chrysler New Yorker can top out at 89 mph if you floor it to avoid sliding down the ice covered hill you live on.

Offline Rusty Edge

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2015, 07:02:32 PM »
I figure I'm well above average. I grew up on a farm. Also, after we liquidated the business, and I got a sales job, I was still living in a farm house 1/3 mile off of the road with nothing to plow it. 1 hill and two curves. Way easier in a Cherokee, but when that died ( engine) I had an old Chrysler New Yorker. Momentum management.

After that I had the insurance adjuster job. As far as most of the clients are concerned, when they need to see me, it's an emergency. It was normal to drive 300-600 miles a day. The worst was the Lake effect near Syracuse. Eventually I caught up to a snow plow and decided to follow it. We were almost the only vehicles on I-81. I could barely see the red glow from it's lights when I got too close because both vehicles were plastered in snow and looked like moving drifts.

When he turned off the exit ramp, I followed without even realizing it, until we got up the hill and stopped at a light. I pulled into a parking lot and cleaned off the snow, then I got going again. No traffic, no trouble.

Another time I totaled it. I was taking an unknown shortcut over a mountain, dirt road with snow. I was having defroster trouble, and tried wiping off the inside of the windshield while driving...
I hit a telephone pole on the inside of a curve. Yep. Too cocky. Older and wiser now.

One Christmas I had to drive 150 miles to catch a plane. I had a small Bronco. There was about 8 inches of snow. I guess they closed 80 after I was on it, because there was very little traffic and I didn't see any plows, but the highway was very familiar, and the snow had stopped.

Other drivers are the primary peril. Well, provided I remember that I have to acclimate, and there's little to be done about pure ice. But I live in the Midwest now, and it's more snow than ice, and comparatively straight and flat. In the Appalachians the windy roads tend to weed out the drunks and bad winter drivers. Here they're pervasive.
I try to be prepared with jumper cables, a towing cable, a snowmobile suit, gloves, a shovel, and a long,sturdy ice scraper/snow brush. I drive a 5,000 pound Pacifica with AWD. Haven't had the need for snow chains on it yet, but I can afford to stay home now.

Generally though, my driving ability is a function of how much I'm doing that year. Like most other skills, practice, practice, practice.


Offline Unorthodox

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2015, 07:37:48 PM »
1981 Tercel  FABULOUS vehicle.  Absolute TANK in the snow, just chugged along
1991 Tercel  Little bit squirrely, too light, any deviation in the snow/tracks would wobble you, but manageable. 
???? Mercury Mystique  Performed fairly well, once you got it moving, heavy and sometimes hard to get going from a stop. 
2011? Corolla  Awful vehicle, as the 'traction control' computer does about the opposite of what I want the car to do half the time.  I can only temporarily disable it, it resets far too often/quickly.  (that aforementioned hill, you HAVE to spin tires and maintain momentum to get up, the computer don't like that)

Note, all just front wheel drive. 

hEt's vehicles:

???? Aztec (now Kyle's) AWD, tank, very easy to drive. 
2015 Explorer 4WD:  Yet to see snow. 

Others:
Semi truck:  Depended on the load.  Hauling liquids in a snow storm sucks royally.  Heavier loads preferred, generally. 
Bobcat: Easy to get into trouble. 
Forklift:  Generally sucks on all levels in the weather.  Great for learning to control your slides, though. 
Electric Forklift:  Forget it.
Front end loader:  Awesome fun in the snow. 


Quote
Other drivers are the primary peril.

True, that. 

Only been in one ice storm.  I'll call in if there's another one. 

Offline gwillybj

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2015, 10:05:20 PM »
"Experienced and try to plan ahead." I have to admit the van is not properly equipped or stocked for winter. Even if we don't get much snow this year, I have a feeling we'll see plenty of ice.
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. ― Arthur C. Clarke
I am on a mission to see how much coffee it takes to actually achieve time travel. :wave:

Offline Rusty Edge

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2015, 10:59:52 PM »

Semi truck:  Depended on the load.  Hauling liquids in a snow storm sucks royally.  Heavier loads preferred, generally. 
.
Front end loader:  Awesome fun in the snow. 

Based on my observations when I had a lot of road hours, the toughest thing to drive was a semi hauling a pre-fab house. Oversized, so low clearances. Hollow, so the wind wants to blow them all over the place every time they drive out of a cut and onto a fill or a bridge. Then, when they get wherever they're going they have to do a precision placement park, usually with obstacles.

Milk trucks are more challenging than you would expect. Not just because they have to make pick-ups on back roads in all kinds of weather, but because they don't have baffles in the tanks because those tend to facilitate bacteria growth. So milk trucks have a high slosh factor.

I always thought an articulated  front end loader would be cool to drive in the snow!

Offline Valka

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2015, 01:25:21 AM »
I don't drive. Even if I did, there's nowhere important enough to try to go on the provincial highways when there's a snowstorm or risk of black ice.

Offline Unorthodox

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2015, 01:07:11 PM »
This morning, didn't get near as much snow as predicted.  Storm total at our place is ~16" 

My road:  unplowed.  No shocker there. 
89: unplowed.  WTF?
Washington Terrace residential: Plowed, not salted, little ice. 
Riverdale road: immaculately plowed and salted. 


Offline gwillybj

Re: How well do you handle driving in adverse conditions?
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2015, 08:40:35 PM »
Riverdale road: immaculately plowed and salted.
Does the Supervisor live on that road? :)
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. ― Arthur C. Clarke
I am on a mission to see how much coffee it takes to actually achieve time travel. :wave:

 

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