Snow day
Well, not really. I came in today and yesterday. And let me just say that most people on the road in snow are idiots. Snow still on a rear window acts as an idiot warning system. Like how brightly colored animals are usually poisonous and you should avoid them. I saw all manner of those in the last couple of days. But the major stupid today was the guy/gal in the Honda Hybrid thing that could only be bothered to remove snow from the driver side half of his front window. The car had a Dog is Love sticker on it. If you know that person, tell them the internet says they’re stupid.
And pro tip: if your vehicle is sliding on the snow, whichever way your wheels are facing when you come out of the slide is the direction your vehicle will travel once it stops slipping. See, in my rear wheel drive, lightweight car with a decent engine, I had no problem. Drive slow and take it easy. I apparently annoyed someone in a four wheel drive Jeep Wrangler who decided to ride my ass, flash his lights and then, ultimately, pass me. A bit up the road, I saw him on the side of it. I honked and waved. 4WD helps you go. Not that great for stopping when you’re going the wrong way.
January 12th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I grew up in Memphis; I now live in Omaha, NE.
I used to think people driving bad in the snow was a function of their inexperience in those conditions. After moving here I can report that it appears to be a case of universal stupidity.
My kids and I love to watch people coming down the hill that our house is on going way too fast and winding up in my neighbor’s yard across the street from us.
PS – Shoveling a foot of snow off your driveway is harder than it sounds.
January 12th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Long time ago I used to borrow my dad’s 4WD and drive around looking for cars to pull out of the ditches whenever it snowed. I’d tell them the tow trucks cost $40 but I’d do it for $20.
Made some decent money.
January 12th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Buy a Wovel.
Learning to drive in Wyoming didnt take long to learn that 4WD does not translate to 4WStop
January 12th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
I literally laughed out loud!
January 12th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Get the shit off the windows and windshield. Amen to that. Even though its white, that stuff really reduces interior as well as exterior visibility.
January 12th, 2011 at 1:37 pm
“4WD does not translate to 4WStop”
At least with a jeep it actually does help you stop straighter though – you’re less likely to lock up both back tires and swap ends with the 4×4 locked in. Unless you’re a complete moron obviously, then there’s nothing mechanical that will save you.
January 12th, 2011 at 1:40 pm
Winter conditions just expose bad habits you can typically get away with the rest of the year.
Proper tires go a long way too
January 12th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
My old Cherokee has served me well the last couple days. 1989 with 280k on the clock and its gotten me through everything.
I did bash in the bumper this morning though. Pulled into a parking spot nice and slow and it just didn’t stop. Right into a concrete street lamp post. Oh well, just adds a little more “character” to my $900 Jeep. 😀
January 12th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
4WD also doesn’t help when all four wheels are spinning with no traction.
I always get a kick out of the idiots who think that 4WD button on the dash of their SUV is a magical talisman that allows them to drive through anything at any speed.
I carry a chain and tow strap in my truck to pull people in 2WD vehicles out of the ditch when it’s snowing or icy out, but if you’re in a 4WD and are stuck in the ditch…you’re on your own. Especially if you just blew by me a few minutes ago as if you’re immune from slickiness.
Actually…that last part applies to people in 2WD vehicles too. If I see you doing something stupid that gets you into a ditch, I figure you deserve to have to wait an hour or two and pay a tow truck to pull you out.
January 12th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
4X4 and log gearing make for an easy decent down hills where my little 2ed sedan would slide all over the place.
aeronathan – just a good reason to get a better bumper. old XJs dont die, they get smashed into by other idiots.
January 12th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Shift into neutral, or use the clutch to disengage the torque to the wheels. You’ll stop a lot faster & straighter, even on ice. But, SLOW down some. Going too fast will lead to disaster.
January 12th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Bryan S – no doubt. I paid $900 for this one two years ago, spent $200 changing plugs/wires/fluids etc and the thing just won’t quit. If it gets smashed to the point of death I’m going on a Craigslist hunt for another.
And I have been tempted to break out the mig welder and scrap iron to throw together a better bumper. Maybe once the weather clears up a bit….
January 12th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
’88 Dodge 4wd pickup, winch, chains, shovel, hi-lift jack, buckets of sand, spare clothes, food & water, firestarter, axe. OVERKILL ???
January 12th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Hate to tell you Unc, both the G35 and most (recent)wranglers weigh around 3500 lbs. Neither are light.
January 12th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Here is Asheville, somehow a person managed to get a Jeep stuck on the steep hill that goes up to where my house is. Funny, my Subaru manages to get up and down that hill just fine in the snow.
They have a pink JEEP plate on the front. That might be a clue.
Oh, and on the subject of people passing you and then you pass them later on, with them in a ditch. One of those old Eagle 4wd cars (No, not a Talon. The real ugly one with the excessive ground clearance) passed me on I-40 in the snow. He’s doing about 65 or so. A few miles later on, there his car is UPSIDE DOWN in the median, with him standing outside looking at it.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
The eagle drive probably was wondering how that just happened.
Mine is a blazer with 230k or so on the clock. 4×4, which is really 2×2, should be used to get out of being stuck. If you go slow it can help, but it will burn gas at a ferocious rate.
The idiots are out in force during snow.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I have learned quite well how dangerous winter can be for driving. I commute into a college town every morning and you can always tell who the college students are. The worst offender I ever saw was a guy who made a small hole for him to see through while driving. It was a 4×4 with California plates (Here those are a sign to give wide berth).
I pull a lot of people out of ditches, if they pass me and I find them in the ditch I stop to help. Though I call it in to local dispatch. If there is an officer available I ask them to come out and issue a citation. I’m all about live and let live, but usually the people who end up in the ditch are trying to do 60 on a highway with no center divider. It’s a country highway. If they lost control and anyone else had been around I’d be calling in paramedics instead. At that point I feel you need a ticket to help correct the stupid.
Then after the ticket I let them wait for the tow truck.
Some people get angry at me and start honking since my truck has the 4×4 stamp. Most of the time though it’s not in 4×4, and I’m not going to trash my differential or transfer case when there’s random patches of snow. It’s amazing how many people think 4×4 = invincibility.
January 12th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
In my younger days, driving hail, a truck rode my bumper, honked, flashed high-beams, and passed me on the left shoulder, cut me off, slammed the brakes to a complete stop, then tore off. Ten minutes later, when I passed his overturned truck, a good 50 yards off the road, I didn’t stop (because it was hailing, and traffic was still too fast and too heavy and the roads were too slippery, and I didn’t have a cell phone). Hail turned to a night of blinding snow. The next day, news reported that several people in different cars had died on that stretch of road, trapped in their cars far off the road where no one was aware of them. I deeply, deeply regret not having stopped. I don’t know if my particular jerk died. As packed as the traffic was, somebody must have seen every single person who went off the road.
January 12th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Wait, so you need an office to do this?
January 12th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Curt beat me to it: “On ice 4WD just means all four wheels spin. And slip.”
Yeah, every time it snows here in OK you get
People who think “I have a ‘X’, so I can drive normal speeds”
People who think “I have an ‘X’ so the rules don’t apply to me” and
People who think “I’m starting up a hill, I should slow down.” And get stuck and block the !)(#&& road.
I once said I wanted a turret and 20mm cannon I could mount on the roof in icy weather, just to clear some of the above out of the way.
January 12th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Oh man, when I first got my license, the first icy weather we had I found a big empty parking lot and practiced maneuvers and recoveries. Been in a few sticky (or rather not sticky) situations since, and though I’ve bumped a couple of curbs and been stuck a time or two, I’ve never had a real crisis, coming up 30 years.
January 12th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Hear frickin’ hear. The number of people who drive around the Knoxville region with snow still all over their cars (two full days after the last big fall) is just mindboggling, much less the idiots who still have windows obscured.
In other news, as my parents were fond of saying, four wheel drive will get you stuck where two wheel drive would never let you go.
January 13th, 2011 at 3:24 am
During the last snow storm here in Germany, i was driving my 09 Mustang GT @ ~25kmph(~15mph) and had a BMW M5 on the tail so close i could not see the headlights, but he was flashing and honking away, and when he finally passed me, on a curve no less, he was unable to get back in to our lane, and slide right off the road. He did not like the fact that i stopped called ADAC(think German AAA) and the Police for him, and made sure he got a ticket(or 3).
The best part was the Police asking me why i was driving so slow, and i said:”Because its slick out here and i was having traction issues.” and the Police said:”you would thing that would be a clue to that dumbass.”
just goes to show you cant buy smarts or a good enough car if you are a dumbass.
January 13th, 2011 at 3:31 am
I was a sales rep for a liquor wholesaler in SE Wisconsin, and in1987or 88, I hit a patch of glare ice
and wound up deep in a ditch in a small rural community
on my way to I43. Fortunately, there was a farm and barn almost right across the road, so I waded through the fairly deep snow and found someone in the barn who let me use a phone. I called a tow truck, and it
wasn’t too long before a wrecker arrived, pulled me out of the ditch and sent me on my way. Probably cost $50 or so. When I got back to the office, the sales manager said I was a dummy and any salesman worth his
salt would have a bottle of brandy in the trunk, and the farmer would happily pulled me out the ditch with
his tractor. Live and learn!