I think there should be a factual answer to this question, but Mods if this drifts into IMHO territory feel free to move it.
I grew up on the West Coast were snow and ice was not an issue. I have recently moved to Montana where snow and ice on roads is an everyday occurrence during the winter months.
I get that snow and ice are slippery to drive on, and so we have purchased two 4WD vehicles as a result of moving here. Both vehicles have all-weather tires that are supposed to be good for driving in snow, but they aren’t “snow tires” and I don’t really want studded tires since on some days the roads are dry as a bone (and I don’t really want two sets of tires for both vehicles). I don’t need to carry chains since the roads are plowed religiously.
For the most part I just slow down and avoid making quick stops or sharp turns.
So far I have felt comfortable driving on the roads, but I have seen what happens when bridges “ice over” or there is black ice on the road. My stepson, who has a front wheel drive car, went into a turn and unexpectedly ended up on the other side of the road in a ditch due to hitting a patch of ice. Luckily he was not hurt. If he had had a 4WD car it might not have slid like his 2WD car did.
So other than slowing down, taking turns gradually and braking lightly what else can I do to avoid sliding off the the road?
Snow tires are a good idea. Even if you don’t get studded tires, actual snow tires will give you better performance than all-weather tires.
Realize that 4WD isn’t a panacea. It’ll help you get traction in snow, but it won’t prevent you from sliding off of an icy road, or help you stop any more quickly (I suspect that your stepson would have run into the same problem in a 4WD car). I see a lot of people drive like idiots in snowy and icy conditions, seemingly thinking that, because they have 4WD, they can act as though they’re driving on dry pavement.
Although 4WD or AWD help with winter driving conitions most people are drivers are overconfident in their ability to improve steering or braking.
Basically, you are correct with slow down and steer gradually.
Brake as little as possible and buy a vehicle with ABS (Anti-lock Braking System)
Increase your following distance and give yourself lots of braking distance before stops.
Look farther up the road so that you can anticipate what is up ahead, such as stop signs, traffic conditions, traffic light sequences, etc.
Also, watch other traffic and how they act and react ahead of you and all around you. Other drivers may not be driving as cautiously or they may experience and react to road conditions differently than you might expect.
Of course, if driving conditions are severe, stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.
Beware of “4WD invincibility syndrome”. I see that a lot here in Oregon, often with sport-utility vehicles bearing California plates.;). A 4WD will get you out of a plowed-in driveway or up a slope that might stick a 2WD, but won’t handle much differently than a 2WD at speed on an icy road. Nor does it have superior stopping power. I see far too many people that seem to think “aha!..I, in my super-power wagon-all-wheel-drive mojo machine can pass all these local yokels in their little sedans”. I usually see those same people a few miles down the road, in a ditch or over an embankment. Or sometimes in a ball of twisted mojo machine that didn’t hold up too well against a semi.
That’s about it. To which I would add “always steer into a skid”
Studded tires really do help, but they’re not essential. And narrow tires will bite in and hold the road better than wide tires, which tend to float.
Slow down, be aware, leave early, and stay safe.
SS
Okay, we will get a set of snow tires, but I didn’t think they would make much difference on ice.
Snow tires appear to have deep tread that would provide better traction in snow obviously, but how does deep tread help you when you hit a patch of ice?
Snow tires have a different rubber formulation that is much “stickier” at low temperatures than all season tires.
Just this morning I encountered black ice on my way to work. A school bus stopped a few cars ahead to pick up kids. Everyone had trouble braking because of the ice. I don’t think any of us realized that the road was icy, but since we all had left enough space in between vehicles we all stopped in time. Well, apart from the car two or three behind me that ploughed into the back of another car because he (she?) didn’t leave enough space.
Get snow tires and get them mounted on steel rims making the swap in the spring and fall easier. You won’t pay anymore for tires in the long run since you’ll be changing them out every 6 months or so.
Slow down.
Leave more space between cars.
And that is how you drive collision free in the winter.
Around here a national tire chain like Firestone will swap out your tires for ten dollars each forever (until the next price rise) if you buy them there. That saves big money on the steel rims, and also means you can store them yourself far more easily.
You’ll be surprised at how big a difference snow tires make. Swap them early and leave them on late.
I think some places will even store them for you. I just leave mine on year round. Winter is longer than summer. And we can and do get the odd snowstorm in July. I do spend a lot on tires. I replace them every 2 years, or when they get a little over half worn.
It’s a little more complicated than that. Many roads are built with bankedturns.
If you hit these too slowly when they’re iced up, you will slide off the road.
For each such curve there is a speed at which you can hit it under frictionless conditions, and arrive safely on the other side[sup]*[/sup]. Experience will allow you to determine what that speed is.
When driving on ice, you do not want the road delivering lateral force to the tires. You have to steer to correct for that, and steering is bad It uses up some of the limited frictional attachment you have to the road surface, and that’s all that stands between you and sliding willy-nilly into a ditch.
And of course, when it’s icy, STAY AWAY FROM OTHER DRIVERS, there’s never any telling what they’ll do, and you don’t have nearly the number of defensive options available on the ice as you do under good winter driving conditions.
[sup]*[/sup]At least there is in the best of all possible worlds, which is a place real-world road engineers appear to at least try to simulate.
Nothing stops on sheer black ice. Nothing. If you hit an extended portion take your foot off the gas. Do NOT slam on the brakes, which will guarantee you will skid and spin until you either meet un-iced road or a stationary object.
Get in the habit, if you must drive on icy roads, of looking far ahead and observing all traffic ahead of you. Actually think about bail-out options: If I hit sheer ice, what will I do? If the cars in front of me hit sheer ice, what will I do? It’s better to slide sideways into a snowbank than head-on into an object.
Anticipate any change in velocity – speed OR direction – with caution and make any necessary changes as gradually as possible.
If you can find a place to do it safely, an interesting exercise is to drive at a *very *slow speed and then brake on ice to see how you and your vehicle handle it.
Know whether or not your vehicle has anti-lock brakes, and drive accordingly. (If it does not, you’ll need to “pump” the brake pedal when driving on slippery surfaces, rather than holding it down.)
Winter tires will wear out very quickly at summer temperatures. Different compounds and all that.
All-season tires are better than regular tires, but they’re a compromise.
I have driven in Canada for over 30 years, but have only used winter tires for the last maybe 5 or 6 winters. The technology in winter tires has come a long way in the last decade or so. I wouldn’t really think of driving in the winter again with just all-seasons.
Glad to hear you’ve adjusted your driving habits; that’s the biggest, easiest, cheapest change you can make.
4WD makes you less likely to get stuck, but it doesn’t allow you to stop any faster than 2WD. Where safety is concerned, stopping is the big issue; starting is secondary (unless you’re on a fire trail 30 miles from civilization). I know you don’t want to hear this, but to improve stopping ability, you need snow tires. My experience has been that all-season tires are “OK” for the first season, and crap thereafter. If you want to be able to stop sooner AND avoid getting stuck, snow tires are the only way to go. As has been noted, there’s an up-front cost associated with getting the snow tires (and the rims to put 'em on), but once that’s done, you don’t burn through tread any faster, since there’s only one set of tires on your car at any given time. Well, maybe a little faster, since snow tires tend to be softer tread compound.
Once your foot is off of the gas, a front-wheel drive car and a 4WD car behave exactly the same; the only thing that will keep you from sliding off the road during a turn is reduced speed, and/or snow tires.
Sometimes at approaches to intersections, the wheel tracks on the road tend to get iced up from people sliding their wheels as they decelerate, and spinning them when the light turns green. If you deliberately drive a foot or so to either side of these tracks, you can often find bare pavement or tractable hardpack-snow, and get the grip you need to stop/go as desired.
Unless the roads are obviously in good shape, I find it worthwhile to test traction every once in a while: if there are no cars behind you, apply the brakes until the wheels lock up or the ABS kicks in. This will give you a seat-of-the-pants feel for how much traction you have, and you can then adjust your driving behavior accordingly.
Snow tires offer slightly less grip on clean, dry pavement than all-seasons or summer-only tires; They’re also noisier, and often feel a bit “squirmy”. The flipside, of course, is much-improved traction on snow and ice.
If you get a set of snow tires, that means you can ditch the all-season tires and replace them with “summer-only” tires that are truly optimized for non-winter performance.
If by “regular” you mean “summer only” tires, yes, summer only tires will be miserable in snow and ice. All-season tires will be slightly less miserable in snow and ice. The tradeoff is that summer-only tires can be made to give really, really good performance on bare pavement (wet or dry). My summer-only tires are Goodyear Eagle F1’s; they are quiet, and the grooves handle rain really well so that wet traction is pretty good, but the complete lack of siping means that they would be just about useless on snow and ice.
I have to admit that after having used all season, snow, and studded tires that studded tires are the absolute ultimate. They grip better than snow tires; they also rip up the road. They’re now illegal where I live, unfortunately, so snow tires are better than the alternative.
If you can afford and are allowed a second set of tires, I’d recommend studded. If not, snow tires. But yeah, where you are, gotta have two sets.
Like Machine Elf said, if you’re on an empty street (or approaching a stop sign with nobody behind you) go ahead and “test” the brakes - press on them only slightly less than you normally would and see how much you skid. Next stopsign, try it again to find that that happy place so you know how bad it is. Snow covered roads at 30 degrees are wildly different than snow covered roads at 15 degrees, the bottom layer of which is more likely ice.
And be CAREFUL on bridges. They freeze much, much sooner than the road.
I would look at some so-called “sticky” snow tires like Blizzak. I had a set of these and noticed a marked improvement in traction. They’re heavily siped for snow and ice, and are a softer material than all-weather tires. I would highly recommend taking them off during the summer as they will wear quickly on dry pavement.
As for driving, sudden acceleration or deceleration is not a good thing. Steady on is the best solution for most winter conditions. I once made the mistake of gearing down my Jeep (was daydreaming a bit, I guess), and as I started to let out the clutch, the ass-end started coming round to meet me. Bad idea.
As noted, nothing much will help you in a skid, other than knowing how the car will respond to braking, steering and acceleration during such an event. I would find an empty parking lot some evening and practice recovering from or controlling skids.
