Snow Driving Stories
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Legend
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 8,914
Likes: 4
From: Fredericksburg, Virginia
More proficient than good, I think.
Dude, we're surrounded. Wear your seat belt and keep your eyes open! Don't sit too close to the air bag.
I don't know how it's going to be this winter, having been gone for four years, but in the winter of 2006/2007 we had entirely too many flatlanders up here, oil field trash from the sun belt lured here by the oil shale extraction work. Most of them have returned to their native haunts, so it might be safer now... time will tell. Before we left, there weren't too many wintry days when there weren't any crashes, and when things really did get treacherous there weren't enough wreckers in town to clean up the messes in a timely manner. It got to where I was afraid to leave town, or to even be out and about in town when they were commuting.
One of those clowns actually told me, after totaling his truck in a single car crash, that he held the state accountable for having posted the speed limit at 65 when it wasn't safe to drive that fast. And that he was planning to sue for damages.
PS: I got sidetracked! The whole reason I poked the Quote button was to remark that yours is a helluva good story. I've got relatives that do that kind of crap and get away with it -- it's safer to ride with them than to be anywhere near the highway when they're out. My solution is just to live far away from the lot of 'em.
Dude, we're surrounded. Wear your seat belt and keep your eyes open! Don't sit too close to the air bag.
I don't know how it's going to be this winter, having been gone for four years, but in the winter of 2006/2007 we had entirely too many flatlanders up here, oil field trash from the sun belt lured here by the oil shale extraction work. Most of them have returned to their native haunts, so it might be safer now... time will tell. Before we left, there weren't too many wintry days when there weren't any crashes, and when things really did get treacherous there weren't enough wreckers in town to clean up the messes in a timely manner. It got to where I was afraid to leave town, or to even be out and about in town when they were commuting.
One of those clowns actually told me, after totaling his truck in a single car crash, that he held the state accountable for having posted the speed limit at 65 when it wasn't safe to drive that fast. And that he was planning to sue for damages.
PS: I got sidetracked! The whole reason I poked the Quote button was to remark that yours is a helluva good story. I've got relatives that do that kind of crap and get away with it -- it's safer to ride with them than to be anywhere near the highway when they're out. My solution is just to live far away from the lot of 'em.
Crazy.... The idiot driving the Ford Diesel at the end owned the friggin' hill till he slowed down for whatever reason. Going up a snow or ice covered hill and slowing down / stopping = disaster.
I'm 25 now, spent most of my life in Virginia or North Carolina, which surprisingly the entire we lived there, it BARELY snowed, I can only remember one good snowing.
Anyways... I'm fairly familiar with how to drive in snowy conditions, a little "out of date". It's fairly flat in my neck of the woods down here, but let 2 or 3 inches of fresh snow hit the road, every body in their truck will be out spinning tire or trying to go to Wal-Mart (I kid you not, the first year I was here I noticed when it rained, EVERYONE went to Wal-Mart).
I'm willing to bet most people down here haven't seen snow or, it's been so long since they have they've forgotten how to drive in it. If and/or when it snows good here, I'm staying HOME...doing 360's in the front yard with the 360....
Last edited by stewie01; Dec 26, 2011 at 05:26 PM.
Administrator
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 24,686
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From: South Georgia/East Florida
I got a bunch, but they are all old ones, since I've been living in either south Georgia or Florida since '91. I'll have to stop back in this thread and spin a yarn or two when I'm not typing on my phone...
Champion
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 2,697
Likes: 3
From: Cape Carteret NC
Last year we had some snow, and the CO sent everyone home.. I learned that cepek fc's aren't real good in the snow.. once they pack, and they will pack, they imitate four blocks of ice connected to the axle.. anyway:
Testosterone of young Marines, and driving on ice pack, doesn't mix well.. I was sitting at a light when a dude turning right IAT the intersection thought it would be fun to goose it.. he slid, fairly softly, into the car in front of me.. his drivers side rear bumper corner caught the back of drivers side front wheel/tire, and curled the quarter panel and into the door of that car.. he was a lance corporal (e-3), and the car that was hit was a captain (o-3).. several people jumped out of their cars and aided the captains case, and no doubt everyone, just as I, knew that lance coolio was being a jerk and reckless..
I didn't stick around, but I'm thinking it didn't end well for that clown..
Grand Champion
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 5,011
Likes: 6
From: Meeker, CO
I'd bet that a warm front blew through the night before, and then with meltwater on the road the temperature dropped again. It happens every now and then around here, and when it does the best bet is just to drop anchor. Stay home. If you've got to drive, chain up... for all the good it will do with idiots on the road running naked just looking for something to crash into. We're short on idiots around here, or at least used to be, but the Front Range (Denver area, really Pueblo to Fort Collins) is chock full of them. As that video shows.
Myself, living in a town that's only a mile long, when it gets like that I just don't drive. If I have to go out I'll strap on my Stabilicers and walk, keeping to the alleys and intentionally staying on the ice or hard packed snow to avoid wearing out the Stabilicer cleats. I've made dozens of grocery runs that way when it was snowing like mad or well below zero, dragging our little green wagon behind me. Never had a wreck that way.
I always wonder why the guy shooting the video didn't run his own happy *** up to the top of the hill to wave traffic around to an alternate route.
Thread Starter
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Legend
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 8,914
Likes: 4
From: Fredericksburg, Virginia
I doubt he'd have made it in that heavy truck with naked tires. He'd probably have got a bit further until momentum wasn't enough to keep him moving forward, and then slid backward from even further up the hill so he'd do more damage when he found something to run into.
I'd bet that a warm front blew through the night before, and then with meltwater on the road the temperature dropped again. It happens every now and then around here, and when it does the best bet is just to drop anchor. Stay home. If you've got to drive, chain up... for all the good it will do with idiots on the road running naked just looking for something to crash into. We're short on idiots around here, or at least used to be, but the Front Range (Denver area, really Pueblo to Fort Collins) is chock full of them. As that video shows.
Myself, living in a town that's only a mile long, when it gets like that I just don't drive. If I have to go out I'll strap on my Stabilicers and walk, keeping to the alleys and intentionally staying on the ice or hard packed snow to avoid wearing out the Stabilicer cleats. I've made dozens of grocery runs that way when it was snowing like mad or well below zero, dragging our little green wagon behind me. Never had a wreck that way.
I always wonder why the guy shooting the video didn't run his own happy *** up to the top of the hill to wave traffic around to an alternate route.
I'd bet that a warm front blew through the night before, and then with meltwater on the road the temperature dropped again. It happens every now and then around here, and when it does the best bet is just to drop anchor. Stay home. If you've got to drive, chain up... for all the good it will do with idiots on the road running naked just looking for something to crash into. We're short on idiots around here, or at least used to be, but the Front Range (Denver area, really Pueblo to Fort Collins) is chock full of them. As that video shows.
Myself, living in a town that's only a mile long, when it gets like that I just don't drive. If I have to go out I'll strap on my Stabilicers and walk, keeping to the alleys and intentionally staying on the ice or hard packed snow to avoid wearing out the Stabilicer cleats. I've made dozens of grocery runs that way when it was snowing like mad or well below zero, dragging our little green wagon behind me. Never had a wreck that way.
I always wonder why the guy shooting the video didn't run his own happy *** up to the top of the hill to wave traffic around to an alternate route.
He made it a pretty good way and it looked like he was doing okay until he slowed down, he lost all traction then. But he may not have made it up regardless...
We've made it up some pretty steep Va hills with nothing but a front wheel drive car, you need a good straight path if possible and steady speed.
Too slow or even too fast and you end up like the 20 people in that video.
And I guess the camera men felt it more appropriate to film all the carnage instead of trying to direct traffic.
Thread Starter
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Legend
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 8,914
Likes: 4
From: Fredericksburg, Virginia
My last year in Virginia it was Christmas Day, we were fixing to go to my step father's grandma's house for supper, the hill was covered in sleet which had froze, thawed, and then refroze even slicker then before, and just to make it worse it was pouring rain.
I had tire cables (light duty tire chain's) for my Blazer but decided to see if I could get down without them on - I have a google maps picture to help with visuliaztion
I used to live in the house right by the red arrow thingy, I had the blazer in 4Lo with the transmission on 1, and for whatever dumbass reason I pressed the brake pedal and the front end slide right into the ditch, mind you that Winter Place Lane is all up hill, I couldn't get a street view to show just how much up hill it is, anyways...
With the passenger front tire in the ditch, and most of the weight on the passenger rear, I couldn't back out of the ditch, so I decided to walk up the hill to the house to get the cables, between the refroze sleet and the rain I had to hold onto the vehicle to make it from the driver door to the rear bumper, (like 5 steps on an s10 blazer).
My footing gave out right at the bumper and I slide on my back almost all the way to the road that cuts off to the left going up. It was SOOO cold, I got soaked. I walked up in the field next to the house, got the cables, put them on the rear, put it in 2wd, and backed up to the house.
Started using tire cables to get down from then on, then I found if you go with 2 wheels in the ditch you'll get more traction.
I had tire cables (light duty tire chain's) for my Blazer but decided to see if I could get down without them on - I have a google maps picture to help with visuliaztion
I used to live in the house right by the red arrow thingy, I had the blazer in 4Lo with the transmission on 1, and for whatever dumbass reason I pressed the brake pedal and the front end slide right into the ditch, mind you that Winter Place Lane is all up hill, I couldn't get a street view to show just how much up hill it is, anyways...
With the passenger front tire in the ditch, and most of the weight on the passenger rear, I couldn't back out of the ditch, so I decided to walk up the hill to the house to get the cables, between the refroze sleet and the rain I had to hold onto the vehicle to make it from the driver door to the rear bumper, (like 5 steps on an s10 blazer).
My footing gave out right at the bumper and I slide on my back almost all the way to the road that cuts off to the left going up. It was SOOO cold, I got soaked. I walked up in the field next to the house, got the cables, put them on the rear, put it in 2wd, and backed up to the house.
Started using tire cables to get down from then on, then I found if you go with 2 wheels in the ditch you'll get more traction.
Last edited by stewie01; Dec 26, 2011 at 08:52 PM.
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Joined: Apr 2010
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From: Clayton MI
When ya get as old as some of the fossils on here.... you'll have some hair-raisers too.
