Wait..what?

 

I always run in 2wd on ice unless I need to accelerate faster(slow city driving or highway driving 4wd is engaged). By having it in 2wd the trucks ABS is able to function better and keep you on the right course. Leave atleast 3x the gap between cars you normally do more gap is better. Basically you need to visualized an egg on you gas and brake pedal. Smash the egg your going too fast.

 

i dont know how good it is on the tranny but when i had my envoy and was in colorado i would drive slower and let off the gas like everone has said but if i needed to stop i would down shift the envoy to first and let the engine slow it down. it saved my *** plenty of times

 

Yes it does work but in extreme ice if you were not careful would it not lock up or really slow down the rear wheels too quick causing a spin or were you rocking 4wd.

 

downshifting is no different than upshifting from the trannys point of view. downshifting is actually healthy for the engine so long as the rpm's dont go unusually high

 

Good catch. Which was it?

 

Just to add to this, downshifting too fast could cause what is called a "compression skid". The engine causes the tires to slow faster than the vehicle speed and breaks traction anyway. If you're not used to driving on ice, your best bet is to freewheel. If you're driving a stick, push the clutch. If driving an auto, pop it in neutral. A free wheeling tire is more likely to grab traction than a tire that is being controlled by engine speed. Now, after you get some experience under your belt, and can match your tire speed to road speed, you'll learn how to feather the throttle out of a skid. It's not a bad idea to put it in "N" when coming to a light or stop sign either. I'm not sure how the newer trucks are set up, but, older vehicles had like a 70-30 split braking force. I've seen guys, with the front brakes locked, Idle through an intersection wondering why thier truck is still moving. I don't think it's as much of a problem now with our 4 wheel discs.

 

Being in 4WD does absolutely nothing to help with braking.

 

He is saying he was driving a 4wd truck in 2wd mode.

If you want to learn how to drive on ice, Find a large open empty lot that is iced over and have some fun. It is really fun to do in pegleg trucks.Thats How I learned. just after I learned how to drive my dad took me out to a mall parking lot at about 3am the first time there was significant amount of ice on the ground, Gave me the keys and said have at it. 3 hours later I feel I could drive anything on ice anywhere and have proven it many time over. The first thing you will learn is that ice is not predictable, however, Newton's First Law of Motion is.

 

i never just slammed into first and i usually had it in 2nd coming off of a frozen mountian any way. i guess i was never going fast enough to cause a skid. i usually had it in 4 wheel auto.