Firstly, you should have proper winter tyres on. That is pretty much a given if you are going to drive on sheet ice. Here’s an instructive video on what difference proper snow tyres make to a sheet ice situation. Seriously, those are the one thing, above all, that’ll help you.
Then just go as low and as slow as you can and avoid the brakes entirely if at all possible. You don’t want to do anything to break traction, that includes downshifting and sharp steering motions. Be smooth, be slow. Don’t build up so much speed that you are forced into sudden movements.
As long as the wheels are rolling, however slowly, you have the ability to steer and in any case, should it all turn to shit (as it can do on sheet ice) you want to be going very slowly so that any impact is minimised.
Why would you want your engine doing any of the braking in this situation? Usually you do that when you have a long downhill section and you don’t want to overheat your brakes. Your engine doesn’t have ABS, your brakes do. In this instance, let your brakes (with ABS) do the braking. Keep it in D, use the brakes to maintain a slow speed. I don’t see any point in going to neutral: you still want to be able to use your engine if the situation calls for it, and it’s not going to hurt to have your car in gear.
The two big advantages of engine braking on slippery surfaces are, one, that it simply provides smoother and more gradual braking effort than you can usually achieve with the foot brake but also maybe more importantly if you do break traction your wheels will keep spinning at more or less the right speed you want them to be going when you regain traction. If you lose traction when using the brakes the wheels just slam to a stop and drag along, which makes it harder to control the car and harder to regain traction.
ABS helps get you out of a skid, but it’s still preferable to not get into one in the first place which engine braking helps you with.
That said, you do want to watch using too much engine braking, especially with FWD or very front-wheel biased AWD systems (which is most car-based ones, although not Subarus).
You want the engine braking to help keep your speed down so that you don’t have to do so much braking. ABS is not a miracle-worker. It helps often, but not always.
Visit Colorado Springs just after a heavy snowfall, and you’ll very quickly find out what I mean.
That’s part of why the preferred industry nomenclature has shifted from “snow tires” to “winter tires.” Some of the older style knobby snow tires weren’t that great on the ice (unless they were studded) but newer winter tires do pretty well, even the studless varieties.
On a sheet ice car park in an Austrian ski resort a four-wheel drive merc with all-seasons tyres couldn’t even go up it. Me with my little 2wd Yeti and winter tyres not only got up it, we stopped half way and parked confidently on it.
We could barely stand up when we got out of the car but moving off from a standing start was not a real problem. (though the anti-slip control helped I’m sure).
If no other reason, down shifting from D will help limit your speed. Decide on what speed you want to go and between engine braking and gently applying the brake when you go too fast will under some conditions, keep you from losing control. In bad traction conditions, it’s better to keep it slow than to have to slow down quickly.
I’d be choosing the lowest possible gear I could, keeping the speed to the absolute minimum.
If the car has a low range, 1L should be slower than walking speed.
If I HAD to use the brakes, I’d be in the lowest possible gear and be on the brakes at the earliest possible point.
The real idea here is to keep the speed so low that you don’t need to brake to slow down, you are already slow -
And remember - you are talking about 25 Yards.
If it really “sheet ice” - I’d be tempted to park and walk the last 25 yards.
Go down a slippery slope in the lowest gear possible, granny gear for manual and D2 (I think) for auto. You want you vehicle to crawl.
I don’t know how modern vehicles and low gear work, but an old truck with granny gears and good tires can work of you know what you’re doing…and a bit of luck if you are traveling.
When I’ve had to travel long distances I’ve had sore muscles because of being ready to react to ANY movement that was not intended. I’ve never used chains but after the rare times that I could have used them I’d swore I would buy chains…and still haven’t. I don’t regret this until the next ice storm.
So, over dinner last night I commented on my gf’s use of neutral being inappropriate. She listened to me then thanked me. She had no idea. If Only I knew she would be all reasonable . . .
Don’t fall for it! It’s a trick! The minute you get complacent she’ll have a dream about you dating another woman and you’ll spend the next day suffering for what Dream Kayaker did.
The hand/parking/emergency brake is a separate system that operates both rear brakes.
You can lightly set the hand brake and use that braking pressure to slow the descent of the vehicle, but that could lead to overheating of the rear brakes, which could cause the brakes to lock up. You could continually manipulate the hand brake handle with one hand, while keeping the other hand on the steering wheel, but the steering wheel might require two hands in order to maintain steering control.
