Forgot how to drive on ice!

[ewagner]

Whew!

My hands are still shaking. I had a meeting in a town 25 miles north of here and found the normally bad two-lane highway covered with rutted ice. My little Mazda would suddenly found itself drifting toward the oncoming traffic and there wasn't any "feel" in the steering wheel. At one point it got so bad I had to steer to the shoulder and drive in the snow that was left on the shoulder for traction.

Fortunately, I remembered some of the rules:

No sudden movements of the steering wheel.

Make very, very small moves.

Don't hit the brakes.

Don't accelerate/decelerate too fast.

Anybody else have experience/hints?

Strangely enough, the northbound lane was worse than the southbound. Probably because the wind is coming out of the north.

btw. Currently it's 3 degrees with a windchill of -15.

Gotta go start the @#!$%^ snowblower now.

[Robb]

1. Best advice from grandpa was

Assume you have no traction whatsoever, and make all your moves under that assumption.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. Well, you're one up on me

as a native Californian I've never known -- which was unfortunate during the time I got caught in a blizzard (OK, this is a Californian's definition of blizzard) over the grapevine (mountain area between the San Joaquin Valley & L.A.) one time. I didn't have a clue as to what to do. I knew not to downshift but every five minutes there was a car or truck "skating" across 6 lanes of traffic in front of me. I don't know how you guys who live in cold weather states do it.

Californian's philosophy on snow: One goes and visits the snow, then one goes home. One doesn't actually LIVE IN the snow! B-)

[NightTrain]

3. I had a similar experience last weekend...

...during Connecticut's big snowstorm. On Saturday morning, I was driving my delivery vehicle down Route 2, when suddenly I felt the rear end careening. (The car's rear end, that is.)

Thankfully, I regained control pretty quickly, but not before I found out that Bill Cosby was right: "First you say it, then you do it!"

[MadAsHell]

4. Avoid Hwy 13 at all costs ....

There is something about that road surface or the lay of the land around the road or something that makes that road really terrible. I drove across the state yesterday as well. It was not to bad on East-West roads but the North-South road stunk.

[notadmblnd]

5. Many people don't remember this from drivers training but

I find that if you use 2nd and 3rd gear (yes, even with an automatic) to stop and go on the ice. Your driving experience will be much more bearable. Now you can't be driving 55 and pull it into 2nd gear to slow down but if you are traveling slow on the ice (say 25mph), it certainly does cut the sliding down significantly. Try it and let me know what you think.

[catmandu57]

6. Nice and easy see

that's the way to do it.
Your gramps was right assume no traction and go from there. The best way to recondition yourself is to find a large empty parking lot that is covered in ice and snow and go crazy. Cut catsass's and doughnuts practice starting and stopping until you have the feeling back.

[tsakshaug]

7. lots of fun

In order to get to my house, you have to do a neat maneuver. The road to the house is short but it starts at the base of a hill-which never gets sanded or salted. The road you take to get to the street is a steep downhill, then you make the 90 degree turn uphill. To do this, half way down the hill, you lock your breaks, putting the car into a slide with the front facing right, just when you get to the road enterence you release the breaks and up the hill you go. It takes a few attempts to do this right, if you don't make it you can't do the hill so you turn around and try agian.