Yet another video about the importance of winter tires

[Alex P.]

Watch until the very end Filmed in the city of Simferopol.

Edit: the original video seems to be removed, but here's a copy of it shown at local TV news:

 

[Gibson99]

I'm so glad i don't live in a place where i have to deal with ice on the roads.

 

[roadbug]

Like playing Tetris!

 

[Gibson99]

Like playing Tetris!

hey, tetris is russian, too! maybe that's where they got the idea.

 

[parklawn]

I'm so glad i don't live in a place where i have to deal with ice on the roads.

You have no idea how fortunate you are. I've wiped out a couple of times, even with winter tires on, it's a challenge.

 

[Gibson99]

You have no idea how fortunate you are. I've wiped out a couple of times, even with winter tires on, it's a challenge.

i've had to drive on it a few times. not fun. glad i've had loads of racing experience, so recovering from a skid just comes naturally to me. driving on ice is like racing in the rain... in extreme slow motion. which is why it's SO easy to overcorrect and make it worse.

meanwhile in the summer here, our tires simply melt when you stop for too long.

no, not really.

 

[flank]

I wonder if that last jeep had a chance if he would have stepped on his accelerator while sliding down. That must have been a good chunk of ice everyone hit.

I was thinking about doing a road trip this year that would carry me into winter, but now I'm thinking about avoiding snow places altogether. I never driven in snow before, my tires would be for street usage.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

So many words come to mind after watching this

 

[Gibson99]

I wonder if that last jeep had a chance if he would have stepped on his accelerator while sliding down. That must have been a good chunk of ice everyone hit.

I was thinking about doing a road trip this year that would carry me into winter, but now I'm thinking about avoiding snow places altogether. I never driven in snow before, my tires would be for street usage.

snow by itself is fine. it's when it melts and refreezes into ice, or it rains on top of snow and then freezes... that's when it gets ugly. i had to drive a few unplowed roads in colorado last year, and our minivan is nothing special - a front-wheel drive sienna with all-season M+S tires. most allseasons are M+S which stands for Mud + Snow. they'll deal with a few inches of snow just fine as long as you don't do anything stupid. it's when it gets deep that it's a problem.

of course, black ice is always a danger, so...

 

[kamkar]

I ran all season tires on my FWD Opel back in the 90ties, did okay but it was crusioal to keep the speed up when driving in 30-40 cm deep fresh snow, and you really had to punch it to get thru deeper snow thats blown onto the road. really creeapy to drive in that deep snow as all you can see it a white wave crashing on your windscreen.
Allso a challenge to drive in the 30-40 cm snow, driving 50 km in those conditions was the first time i was think i am getting a heart attack now, my system was just flooded with adrenaline as i was steering all the time to keep it strait while i was passing slower cars and snow plows

To me the worst in winter is when you get the wheels on one side of the car in one kind of snow, and the other side of the car is on somthing else.
Then you really gotta be on your toes.

 

[Alex P.]

I was thinking about doing a road trip this year that would carry me into winter, but now I'm thinking about avoiding snow places altogether. I never driven in snow before, my tires would be for street usage.

Driving in snow is nothing really "special" - just make sure your tires aren't "summer"-rated or "all-terrain" and they have plenty of thread left. Even a decent set of "all-season" tires like Continental's DWS will do pretty good in snow (again, as long as there's plenty of thread left), and in case if you might get into deeper stuff - keep a small snow shovel in the trunk (something like this) and a nylon towing cable with hooks that will fit into the towing eye hook (the thingie that screws into the bumper of your car for emergency towing purposes) in case if there would be other car nearby which would agree to pull you out of snow

Everything else is pretty much a "common sense" thing, like avoiding any driving on such steep roads with tight turns if they are completely covered with snow/ice

 

[I Killed It With Fire]

I don't think avoiding hardpacked snow and ice roads are an option here...

This is what the road looks like all winter here at my country house.

 

[Alex P.]

I don't think avoiding hardpacked snow and ice roads are an option here...

This is what the road looks like all winter here at my country house.

Lucky you, here the roads are completely clear and dry (covered by salt dust) even at -16C temps. Though it does snow occasionally - I took a drive during last snowfall when most people were still sitting at home:

The car was pretty stable - good braking, stable acceleration, even with pretty average Dunlop "all-season" tires (the tires were new, though, and had plenty of thread left). A little bit of fishtailing when stepping on gas pedal in turns but easily correctable just by releasing gas pedal

 

[I Killed It With Fire]

What you see in the photo above is a dirt road with about 3-6in of snow packed hard into what basically amounts to ice. It's like that from early december to late march and they don't salt those roads here, they do spread a very thin layer of sand and fine gravel every few days (all of which disappears within hours). When people ask how we drive on that crap, there is only one answer: carefully!

Alex P. ... Your video is more or less my daily drive most winter days when I'm in town. I work shifts so I usually drive to or from work before the snow plows are out in the morning, and I do not get "snow days" so if there is a storm my only option is to "leave earlier" so as to not be late

Sadly driving in/on snow is pretty well the norm all winter long here (I guess that's why winter snow/ice tires are mandatory by law).

 

[kamkar]

Me and my friend use to go driving in our 4x4 cars to help ppl back on the road, and by dooing that often earning a little mony
One year we even drowe 200 Km just to get to some snow where we could help some ppl and have a little offroading fun ( land rover + mitsubishi 4x4 )
This year seem to be one of the snowless ones ( dont count 100 mm snow thats gone within a fjew days )

 

[Gibson99]

Me and my friend use to go driving in our 4x4 cars to help ppl back on the road, and by dooing that often earning a little mony
One year we even drowe 200 Km just to get to some snow where we could help some ppl and have a little offroading fun ( land rover + mitsubishi 4x4 )
This year seem to be one of the snowless ones ( dont count 100 mm snow thats gone within a fjew days )

the snow you didn't get seems to have landed in the northeast US. my mom's roof is damaged and leaking because they cant clear it fast enough.

 

[jokiin]

apparently she just needs a big hydroponic setup in the roof which will keep it defrosted, and provide a second source of income

 

[Gibson99]

apparently she just needs a big hydroponic setup in the roof which will keep it defrosted, and provide a second source of income

heh, no... my dad lives in colorado, where it's legal now. mom's in new hampshire. the "live free or die" state. it actually says that on the NH license plates. you'd think with a motto like that, they'd legalize it, but nope. i do believe NH is an open carry (firearms) state though.

 

[Sabe]

In short, every time when you see cars sliding in the snow or ice it's plain stupidity, nothing more, nothing less.
If you have winter use winter tyres or stay at home, simple as that.

 

[kamkar]

I am smart enuff to shut up when a Finnish guy start talking driving in snow or at high speed on dusty roads