Have you gotten stuck in the snow waiting out a storm at a pass or while heading to a trailhead? Please share your winter driving stories.
CHP:
Before Heading for Snow Country:
Make sure your brakes, windshield wipers,defroster, heater and exhaust system are in top condition.
Check your antifreeze and be ready for colder temperatures. You may want to add special solvent to your windshield washer reservoir to prevent icing.
Check your tires. Make sure they are properly inflated and the tread is in good condition.
Always carry chains. Make sure they are the proper size for your tires and are in working order. Carry a flashlight and chain repair links. Chains must be installed on the drive wheels. Make sure you know if your vehicle is front or rear wheel drive.
Other suggested items to carry in your car are an ice scraper or commercial deicer, a broom for brushing snow off your car, a shovel to free your car if it's "snowed in," sand or burlap for traction if your wheels should become mired in snow; and an old towel to clean your hands.
It is also a good idea to take along water, food, warm blankets and extra clothing. A lengthy delay will make you glad you have them.
Put an extra car key in your pocket. A number of motorists have locked themselves out of their cars when putting on chains and at ski areas.
Allow enough time. Trips to the mountains can take longer during winter than other times of year, especially if you encounter storm conditions or icy roads. Get an early start and allow plenty of time to reach your destination.
Keep windshield and windows clear. You may want to stop at a safe turnout to use a snow or, ice or scraper. Use the car defroster and a clean cloth to keep the windows free of fog.
Slow down. A highway speed of 55 miles an hour may be safe in dry weather - but an invitation for trouble on snow and ice. Snow and ice make stopping distances much longer, so keep your seat belt buckled and leave more distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead. Bridge decks and shady spots can be icy when other areas are not. Remember to avoid sudden stops and quick direction changes.
Be more observant. Visibility is often limited in winter by weather conditions. Slow down and watch for other vehicles and for snow equipment. Even though snow removal vehicles have flashing lights, visibility may be so restricted during a storm that it is difficult to see the slow moving equipment.
When stalled, stay with your vehicle and try to conserve fuel while maintaining warmth. Be alert to any possible exhaust or monoxide problems.
AAA:
Cold Weather Driving Tips
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- Keep a bundle of cold-weather gear in your car, such as extra food and water, warm clothing, a flashlight, a glass scraper, blankets, medications, and more.
- Make certain your tires are properly inflated and have plenty of tread.
- Keep at least half a tank of fuel in your vehicle at all times.
- Never warm up a vehicle in an enclosed area, such as a garage.
- Do not use cruise control when driving on any slippery surface, such as on ice and snow.
Tips for Driving in the Snow
-Drive slowly. Always adjust your speed down to account for lower traction when driving on snow or ice.
- Accelerate and decelerate slowly. Apply the gas slowly to regain traction and avoid skids. Don’t try to get moving in a hurry and take time to slow down for a stoplight. Remember: It takes longer to slow down on icy roads.
- Increase your following distance to five to six seconds. This increased margin of safety will provide the longer distance needed if you have to stop.
- Know your brakes. Whether you have antilock brakes or not, keep the heel of your foot on the floor and use the ball of your foot to apply firm, steady pressure on the brake pedal.
- Don’t stop if you can avoid it. There’s a big difference in the amount of inertia it takes to start moving from a full stop versus how much it takes to get moving while still rolling. If you can slow down enough to keep rolling until a traffic light changes, do it.
- Don’t power up hills. Applying extra gas on snow-covered roads will just make your wheels spin. Try to get a little inertia going before you reach the hill and let that inertia carry you to the top. As you reach the crest of the hill, reduce your speed and proceed downhill slowly.
- Don’t stop going up a hill. There’s nothing worse than trying to get moving up a hill on an icy road. Get some inertia going on a flat roadway before you take on the hill.
Tips for Long-Distance Winter Trips
- Be Prepared: Have your vehicle checked by a AAA Approved Auto Repair facility before hitting the road.
- Check the Weather: Check the weather along your route and when possible, delay your trip if bad weather is expected.
- Stay Connected: Before hitting the road, notify others and let them know your route, destination and estimated time of arrival.
If you get stuck in the snow:
-Stay with your vehicle: Your vehicle provides temporary shelter and makes it easier for rescuers to locate you. Do not try to walk in a severe storm. It is easy to lose sight of your vehicle in blowing snow and become lost.
-Don’t over exert yourself: When digging out your vehicle, listen to your body and stop if you become tired.
- Be Visible: Tie a brightly colored cloth to the antenna of your vehicle or place a cloth at the top of a rolled up window to signal distress. At night, keep the dome light on if possible. It only uses a small amount of electricity and will make it easier for rescuers to find you.
-Clear the Exhaust Pipe: Make sure the exhaust pipe is not clogged with snow, ice or mud. A blocked exhaust pipe can cause deadly carbon monoxide gas to leak into the passenger compartment of the vehicle while the engine is running.
-Stay Warm: Use whatever is available to insulate your body from the cold. This could include floor mats, newspapers or paper maps. Pre-pack blankets and heavy clothing to use in case of an emergency.
-Conserve Fuel: If possible, only run the engine and heater long enough to remove the chill. This will help to conserve fuel.
Car and Driver:
How to Drive in Snow Safely
If you live where the snow flies, you've seen overconfident drivers blow by you on a snowy road and wondered if—and maybe even secretly hoped—they'd end up in a ditch. Whether they did or not, one thing's for sure: you don't want to be that person.
And you don't have to be. Years of driving and testing cars (and winter tires) in wintry conditions have taught us that following these nine simple winter-driving rules will greatly improve your chances of arriving at your destination calm, collected, comfortable, and—most important—safe.
1. Drive Super Smoothly
The key to safe driving in snow is being smooth with the steering wheel, accelerator, and brakes. Why? Jerky movements with the controls easily unstick tires that have a tenuous grip on the slippery road, so every turn of the wheel, push of the brakes, and movement of the throttle must be deliberate, gentle, and gradual. Pretend there's a cup of scalding coffee in your lap and drive so as not to spill it.
2. Look Far Ahead
The slipperier it gets, the farther down the road you should look—and think. Anticipate what you'll need to do next. Slow way down for turns. Allow double the stopping distance when the road is wet, triple on snow, and even more on ice. Driving carefully and safely takes extra concentration.
3. Heed the Flashing Lights
How much traction do you actually have on a snowy road? One way to know before you get into trouble is to understand what one particular small, amber, flashing light in the instrument cluster means. (It's an outline of a car with squiggly lines behind it.) If you're accelerating in a straight line and this light is blinking, this is the stability-control system warning you that the wheels that drive the car are slipping. Heed it. And ease up on the accelerator so the tires regain their grip.
If you're turning and see a blinking amber light, this is also the stability-control system alerting you that the car is beginning to slide from your intended path. Again, ease back on the accelerator until you are no longer applying any throttle; this allows the car to regain grip. And do not accelerate aggressively when turning tight corners in town on snowy or slushy streets. Always ease into the accelerator so that nothing untoward happens abruptly.
4. Look Here!
If you feel your car beginning to skid, always, always, look where you want to go—not where the car is heading at that precise moment. Let your peripheral vision take care of whatever you're trying to avoid. Racing drivers know that you almost always end up where you are looking; that's one of the reasons they're so good at recovering from skids.
5. Deal with the Skids
Sooner or later you will hit a slick spot and get a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach as your car starts to slide away from the direction in which you want to be heading. Skids, even big ones, can be managed, and you can bring the car back under full control in short order. First, don't panic—and don't stab the brakes! Instead, do the following:
For a front-wheel skid—where the front tires lose grip and the car turns in a wider arc than you expect—ease off the gas. In a beat or two, the front tires should regain traction. Then aim where you want to go as your traction returns.
For a rear-wheel skid—where the rear tires lose traction and you feel yourself beginning to spin out—quickly turn the steering wheel in the same direction that the rear is sliding. If, say, the rear is swinging to the left, turn the wheel to the left. Ease off the accelerator and stay off the brakes. As the rear wheels regain traction, steer back in the original direction.
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No matter which type of skid you're experiencing, make sure you keep your wheels pointed in the direction you want to be going. And you can gently (remember point number one) use your brakes if you think you can recover without hitting anything. If an impact is imminent, don't be afraid to stand on the brake pedal as described in point number six.
6. Use Your Anti-Lock Brakes This Way
If all else fails and you need to stop as quickly as possible in snow or on ice, it's time to engage the help of your car's anti-lock-brake system (ABS). All new vehicles on the road today are equipped with anti-lock brakes, which use an onboard computer to optimize the car's braking in extreme conditions. If you are in a skid from which you can't recover or you need to avoid an obstacle—and your vehicle has ABS—push the brake pedal down hard, and don't let up. The computer will do the rest, keeping each wheel braking as aggressively as possible based on the available traction.
The amazing thing about ABS systems is that you can keep the brake pedal fully depressed while steering around obstacles; the computer will adjust the braking force at each wheel to allow you to maneuver while simultaneously slowing down. So in an emergency, don't just jam on the brakes—keep steering!
No safety system can ensure you avoid all accidents, but anti-lock brakes undoubtedly have saved many drivers from disaster. Note: most ABS systems cause the brake pedal to shudder when they activate to let you know they're working, so don't lift off the brakes when you feel this vibration; it's perfectly normal.
7. Constantly Assess Your Traction
In the course of almost any snowy drive, your available traction will ebb and flow as road and weather conditions change along the route. In addition to the warning lights from the traction-control and stability-control systems, your anti-lock-brake system can help you assess how much grip you have on snow-covered roads. Here's how: Make sure there are no cars close to you, then apply the brakes gently for a second or two while driving in a straight line. If you feel the brake pedal chattering underfoot but detect minimal deceleration, the ABS system has activated, and you can rest assured the road beneath your tires is very slick. If you can slow down at a reasonable rate without ABS activating, you're on a more grippy surface. Once again, be sure there are no other cars around you that will be bothered by your unexpected slowing. Some anti-lock-brake systems will also flash a small amber light in the instrument cluster while ABS is working, so this can be another clue to low traction when you are brake-testing for grip.
8. Beware All-Wheel Drive
Vehicles equipped with all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive can lull you into a false sense of security on slick roads. They send their power to all four wheels rather than just two, which on slippery surfaces enables impressive, slip-free acceleration, especially from rest— which can make it feel as if you have much more traction than you actually do. Don't be fooled; these systems don't in any way improve your vehicle's ability to turn or stop in snowy conditions, so expect it to behave just like any other "normal" vehicle when you push on the brake pedal or turn the steering wheel. If you want to assess how much traction you have, you can employ the technique described in the previous step.
9. Fit Winter Tires
Technically this isn't a driving tip—it's a survival tip. That's because fitting a set of four winter tires (more commonly called "snow tires") is actually the best thing you can do to improve your safety margin and reduce your anxiety level on those awful snow-covered roads. Proper winter tires provide far more traction in snow, slush, and on ice than even the best set of all-season tires. We at Car and Driver test winter tires and install them on all of our long-term vehicles, and we have some top suggestions for your vehicle.
10. Read the Road
Is the surface shiny or dull? Is there a uniform coating of powder, or bare spots interspersed with snow in the shade? Is the temperature cold enough to ensure crunchy, light, snow, or is it warm enough to create a slushy mess? While you can stop the car and get out to assess the surface if you're in doubt (and that's not a bad idea), you can learn a lot about available traction just by knowing what you're looking at. In general, shiny is bad, since that means either ice or water. Shady spots are deceptive, since dry pavement ahead of them can lead to a false sense of security. And dry snow is much better than slushy slop. Dry snow actually offers pretty good traction—think of the crunch beneath your boots—whereas slush behaves like deep water, with the tires riding up on top of it.
11. Plan Ahead
We already mentioned looking as far ahead as possible, and that's a good idea in general. But chances are, you're driving in familiar territory, so you can use that knowledge to your advantage, too. When you head down that hill, is there an equal climb on on the other side of the valley? Maybe conserve momentum for that. Is there an off-camber downhill left a quarter-mile away? You don't have to wait till you see it to slow down. If you know what's coming, drive like you're your own rally navigator and think a few steps ahead.
12. Carry the Right Supplies
There've been times—usually when we're halfway through relocating a snowbank with our hands—that we've declared that we'd pay $500 for a snow shovel. The better solution is to throw one in your car before you leave, along with a bag of salt and a tow strap. If you're really concerned about your winter trek, you can get your tow eye ready, too. The tow eye screws into a threaded socket (usually behind a square plastic cover that pops out of the bumper) and can be used to attach a tow strap to vehicles that don't have a hitch or bumper-mounted tow hooks. The tow eye is usually under the rear cargo floor, with the spare tire, so if you think you need it, don't stack a quarter-cord of firewood back there before you set off.
