Winter Driving Techniques: WOT and Kicking Snow.

As a proud new owner of a Grand Cherokee, this was especially insightful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTXUcoGdhw

Loved it when the Prius drove past.

It's a bit deceiving at first, but he's on a giant hill.

Ah, he didn't turn off the traction control.

I want to see the in car video. Maybe he forgot to turn the dial to 'snow/ice'.

Or maybe the cheapest low-profile run-flat tires that chrysler can buy just aren't that good in the snow.

Better He than Me!

By the way it looked to me, he parked it on deep snow high-centering his GC, so he was a little SOL to begin with.

Also, hill or not, he obviously had more traction going in reverse, which he could have got himself out that way, but he was too focused on going forward.

Once again, 4WD does not make you invincible.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Nah, I don't think he was high centered per say, just a dipE36 M3.

Yeah that is pretty sad.

Based on my experience with snow growing up in Michigan. I would say he was caught out by a situation when you park your car and the heat built up in the tires causes them to melt down into the snow and water then adding to that the salted slush falling off the car make a perfect ice bowl that your car cannot get out of.

Even with Hakka's you sometimes get the perfect trap that they can't get you out of. Then, if you don't plan your exit, you end up polishing the ice and snow even more into a better trap. It looks like the superelevation/camber of the road was also causing his jeep to essentially fall towards the curb. The best way I found to get out of that would have been to try and reverse the right rear up onto the curb first then clear as much snow and ice as I could from the path of the front right tire and then try to use the momentum of coming off the curb to slip out. The other trick depending on the temperature would be to put down a few magazines in front of the tires if the temp is just right they stick strongly to the ice and away you go.

The best way to PREVENT the trap is to try and remove the hanging slush before you park then form a flat surface around your tires when you park. If I have room I go back and forth 3-4 times to form a plateau from which I can escape the parking space. If I don't have room then I make the flats before parking or be prepared to shovel the way clear.

This guy is a total ______ . If he can't accept help then he deserved to be left there chewing his wheels up on the curb. But his situation reminds me of my friend's cousin that never saw snow in his life until he came for a visit in MI. He had good all seasons on but didn't understand how to do anything with the car to get it out of the parking spot along the curb. He was humble and we all helped him and reassured him that it isn't easy it takes effort and time. Later, I took him for a spin in the ice racing XR4Ti to blow his mind on the difference of grip with snow tires and also knowing how to handle 8 inchs of fresh cold snow.

I miss snow......

I haven't driven on snowy/icy roads in years, so I'd be a bigger wreck than that for sure.

Am I wrong in thinking that he'd have been better off to back up against or up on the curb to try and bounce it forward? Also seemed like he had a little more momentum on snow than off it, so might have been better to pile something under the tire for grip as opposed to moving it.

And increasing rpm/wheel rpm is the worst thing you can do; years ago, up on Mt. Baldy in SoCal, snow covered parking lot, the only spaces available were at the top of a sloping lot. Another cat and his buddy were trying to get his car up the hill (ala our driver here), spinning wheels going nowhere. They gave up, and told me "good luck man, you're never going to get up there in your little sports car!"

I was taught to avoid spinning wheels when starting out in snow, and starting in second gear was the way to achieve it. So I popped the ol' Z in second, crawled over the snow right up to the top of the lot where the spaces were and parked. Those guys looked at me like I was a little green martian.

After 20+ years of not being in snow at all, though, not sure today I wouldn't crash and burn.

I have been stuck in the snow, but typically it is due to either not having snow tires or having bald tires. I am under the belief that tires make a big difference. Most new cars that I have had the dealership throws on generic all season tires, which even with little no use are terrible tires and burn up quick. Uphill can be difficult especially if traffic is behind you and you are driving a manual in snowing conditions, that is why I would never intentionally live in Pittsburgh as living in Erie is bad enough.

Its the tires, not the drive. Always has been, always will be. http://jalopnik.com/lets-settle-the-winter-tires-vs-all-wheel-drive-debat-1462180324

This reminds of how the old ladies in my condo building drive in snow. And they all insist on going out before the plows. There's usually skidmarks all over the place.

I don't get why he didn't back out onto the pavement and then drive forward? It looked like he could have just put it in neutral and rolled out using the hill.

rcutclif wrote: Its the tires, not the drive. Always has been, always will be. http://jalopnik.com/lets-settle-the-winter-tires-vs-all-wheel-drive-debat-1462180324

Good link. I wish they would show all-season tires instead of summer tires though.

Tires and the driver. Plenty of people on all seasons dig themselves into holes that could be avoided if they weren't awful drivers.

That was SO STUPID, I stopped watching at 1:30 in.

Driver was clearly a goober.

What was that he got from the back seat ?

Toilet paper or tissue.

Seemed he rapped it around his hand and then drove out.

lol, I remember that one from last winter. Was pretty funny.

Oddly, with some modern TCS like the ATRAC (or whatever it's callled) on Toyota trucks, if you get stuck and are spinning, you're actually supposed to put the pedal to the floor and that basically activates the ATRAC. If you Bob Costasfoot it, the ATRAC won't activate and you'll just spin one wheel.

In response to old gray 320i.

That is how I learned to drive when to only option was chains.

I won a TSD rally using the same technique to get up a steep hill.

This is one of the arguments I put up that traction control is not that bad of a thing. I have driven Fiesta's in four winters, never found the need to turn the TC off. Of course, the Blizzaks may have something to do with it.

rcutclif wrote: Its the tires, not the drive. Always has been, always will be. http://jalopnik.com/lets-settle-the-winter-tires-vs-all-wheel-drive-debat-1462180324

Put a subaru on the same tires as the M3, and the subaru would easily walk away from it though. It's tires + driver + how many drive wheels. I have snow tires on a subaru and on a RWD bmw. There is absolutely no competition on which grips better in slippery stuff during acceleration.

rcutclif wrote: Its the tires, not the drive. Always has been, always will be. http://jalopnik.com/lets-settle-the-winter-tires-vs-all-wheel-drive-debat-1462180324

I think that for the video, they wanted to use summer tires to give a more dramatic show about how much better winter tires are in the snow. All-seasons would have gotten farther up the hill, but I don't know how much farther. Tire shops and dealerships should be the ones telling regular drivers to get snow tires first, then think about AWD.