Tips for driving in snow?

with vaseline on the tires.

if FWD, liberally apply handbrake for increased comfort and driver motivation.

Remember that EVERY aspect of your car is diminished. Acceleration, braking, traction, steering and so on.

Winter tires will help you in all aspects, but they do not make you invincible - the worlds best winter tires will still have less grip on snow than the worlds worst summer tires will have in summer. I dont know what Michigan winters are like so I can't say if you need winter tires, all seasons or if average summers are fine

What to do if you start sliding;
If the front tires slip in a turn; release accelerator, apply brakes lightly
If the rear slips; release accelerator, apply brakes lightly and counter steer

If you get stuck you're pretty much stuck. You can TRY to put the car in first/drive, get out and push yourself, but this might be disastrous if you get going but you're not able to get in again quickly. You can bring a small shovel to remove snow and some sand/cat litter to put infront/under the tires to help you get going again, but this won't always work. At that point you'll need help, either in form of people pushing the vehicle, a more suited vehicle with a tow rope/strap or a recovery truck

I feel like I am being misinformed lol. Is Vaseline some sort of Veeky Forums meme?

Ah I see. Thanks.

Now would having a stronger engine be better it worse? For example, I have a v4 engine. Does that not really matter?

No.

vaseline is extremely useful in the winter.

You can also use it to keep your headlights from freezing over

Don't forget to liberally spread used oil from your last oil change on the underside of your car

this.

Or else the salts from the roads will have your car down to a pile of rust before winter's end

Doesn't really matter - what matters is your control of the throttle. I know folks who drive 400hp BMW M3's and Type R civics through the entirety of winter with no issues

How much power does your V4 even put out? I'm looking at Wikipedia and cant find a V4 for the Camry anywhere

Seems like you do a lot of snow driving so you just have to be retarded

OP whatever you do, if you start sliding don't just drop off the gas and for fucks sake don't brake

There's a funny thing called weight transfer...

If the back end starts to slide, in a FWD car your best bet is to countersteer (point front wheels where you want to go) and even apply more gas in most situations, this will "pull" you out of the slide and make the unavoidable fish tailing much easier to control.

You have an I4, and no you're just a pussy, it's more than enough power and FWD is easy mode anyway

Traction is a much more relevant concern, not power

I need tips too haha
Had a bit of a fuckup today

"""""fuck up""""

Unrelated but I've always wondered how people in Eastern Europe can afford cars.
In Western Europe you're looking at around ~€600 a month for a new car (payments, gas, insurance), which would be over 50% of the average salary in Eastern Europe.
How do you guys manage it?

What are you implying

Got the car from my dad for free and the insurance is 200 euros a year (yes, not month)
LPG costs 50 to 60 cents/liter.
That's everything I spend on the car.

Also don't forget to put vaseline on your brakes.

The icy cold weather can cause to freeze the brake pads to the rotors. This is why everyone puts vaseline on them.

Also prevents brakes form squeeking.

>insurance is 200 euros a year
Man what the fuck. I have a company car, but if I were to insure my own car, it would be close to €100 a month.

What are you going to do with more power when your wheels can't put it down on snow and ice? Speed is what puts you in the ditch in the first place.

And to getting stuck, it depends on how you are stuck. Sometimes you can get out easier backwards, sometimes in FWD you can make it out by rocking the car into either direction sideways and hoping to find better grip. If you just floor it and it wont go, you'll just dig out all the ground from under wheels.

If wipers freeze, dont rip them up. The micro edge frozen to the glass will just fracture and your wipers are worse every time. Wait until windshield heater melts them loose. Wont help scraping them over ice anyway. If you must, get a sprayer with glykol or other anti-icing liquid.

What's so special about rear window? You have to scrape the ice out of all windows anyway. If you mean the inside of the car freezing up, you just got to get rid of the moisture somehow. Heat it up, keep windows slightly open. Park in a warm place occasionally. Take the snow and ice out from floor mats before it melts.

And also in a slip, apply clutch.

I would not advice him to try any of the "complicated" recoverty methods until he has gotten used to the low traction, increased braking distances and such. And I'm not advicing him to SLAM the brakes, I'm telling him to lightly apply them so that he can slowly slow down until the tires are able to regain their traction

One of the better tips is to find a parking lot or other empty space with snow on it and playing around. Find out the limits of your traction at certain speeds, see what braking too much in a corner will do, feel what its like once you spin out and you go backwards and so on.

Mind you, the conditions on the road may not reflect the condtions you're practicing on at that lot/open space. The road is always changing, so you have to be aware of that.

1. Get snow tires
2. Drive as if there was no snow

My dad paid about 150€ a month for his Opel Meriva. Insurance is about 250-300€ a year.

Inline 4, not V4.

As someone else said, if front wheels are sliding, get off accelerator and apply light brakes. Perhaps reduce steering angle a bit too to get back into tire/surface back into static friction. If rear wheels start slipping (tail end starts coming around), countersteer and keep holding the throttle. If you're good, you may be able to pull through the turn by applying more throttle (if the front wheels still have good traction). Extra throttle shifts weight to the rear wheels, allowing them to bite more.

The problem is that if the rear wheel have already lost traction, the very last thing you want to do if shift weight forward. That perpetuates the lost traction on the rears. If conditions are really bad, even slight application of the brakes can cause a dangerous spin. It's almost like what happens in a lift-off oversteer spin.

True, but when you're on terrain that slippery there is not a whole lot of weight that will be shifted forwards

Counter steer & no throttle/clutch in is the most essential part to it, and once you've gotten comfortable enough counter steer & throttle can be the best option, but these are recovery methods that should be applied once you're starting to get the hang of winter driving. What I'm talking about is minimalizing the negative outcome of a potential slide or similar, as I believe that a unexperienced driver attempting those things can just turn out to be more disastrous than it need be

When in doubt, throttle out.

If you carry enough speed, you can make it through a 24" tall snow drift without seriously damaging the car.

If the front wheels start sliding, use the e-brake to make the back rotate and get the car back in line.

Stop lights/signs are optional if there's snow on the ground. If a cop asks, just say you slid through.

If you're out of windshield washer fluid and the windshield starts getting covered in salt so you can't see, tailgate the nearest vehicle, tractor trailers for preference. The spray from their wheels will clean your windshield.

Other than that, just get winter tires and you'll be fine. If you have to drive in snow, the general guideline is to reduce speed by 10 MPH for every 6 inches of snow on the ground. So if you're in a 50 zone and there's 3 inches of snow on the ground, as long as you don't go faster than 45 MPH (assuming you have winter tires), you'll be fine.

This. In a fwd, letting off of the gas is the second worst thing you can do if you oversteer, with braking being the worst.
You're an idiot. For someone who drives in the snow often and is a tripfag on an automotive board you have really not a clue. "complicated recovery methods" do not include keeping constant throttle pressure when oversteering. Releasing everything and "lightly getting on the brake" is advise I would expect to hear from my mother.

I'm struggling to understand what scenario you're imagining. I'm thinking about a typical "enter a curve too fast, understeer". A safe option here is to punch the clutch/let go of the throttle, brake lightly until you've reached a speed where the front has regained its traction

Yes, you can do all of those things, I am simply advicing a NEW driver, someone who hasn't gotten the hang of winter driving just yet.

Dont blame your crashes on xfinity

Brakes on ice makes ABS happy. Not much weight to be shifted with that grip, but that's another variable. Past a point the tail is just not coming back that way, but before that there's a chance to get out while braking.

Honestly drive like a fucking granny. Ease onto the pedals, ease the steering and plan every move in advance. Give yourself plenty of room for mistakes. Get stuck, start digging you fuck.

Pretty much smooth pedal control is key. However much space you think you need to stop you really need more.

For the troll about stop signs and lights is half right. If you wanna climb a hill in snow or ice you have to commit. You go and don't stop till you get to the top. If you do puss out and stop best bet is to try and creep back to the bottom with out sliding and get a better run at it.

If you can find empty parking lot with some runoff space and just fuck around and see what happens.

>"If the rear slips; release accelerator, apply brakes lightly and counter steer"
>"True, but when you're on terrain that slippery there is not a whole lot of weight that will be shifted forwards"

For understeer, that is correct. However as quoted above you are specifically talking about OVERSTEER. For oversteer in a fwd car, the advice you are giving is not only wrong, it's so bad that it's the two worst things you can even do in that situation.

For a new driver especially, it is important to instill good habits. Teaching them the absolute wrong way to fix a scenario becuase they "aren't expecianced enough" to do it the right way is just dumb. Besides, keeping your foot in the same spot isn't exactly rocket science anyway.

Like I said; I'm talking about the normal scenario of losing traction in a turn. Its not ideal, but attempting to reduce the speed is for him the safest way until he he has gotten some training done and will be able to work the wheel & throttle together to both prevent and recover.

Counter steer to attempt keeping the rear pulling you around, aswell as keeping the tires pointed in the best direction for braking
Brake to reduce speed
Release throttle/insert clutch to prevent you from gaining speed.

OP; the two of us are probably gonna continue bickering, but despite all this remember; the best way to deal with losing traction is to prevent it from ever happening. Its important to know what to do should it ever happen, but the best is to avoid it all together. Take care, keep a speed according to the terrain and conditions.

I don't feel like bickering, but weight transfer never stops being a consideration. Braking while already oversteering is a bad decision. However, if you honestly feel that the most likely situation no matter what you do is a crash, then sure, get on the brakes and reduce the damage as much as possible.

Honestly, I'll let OP or whatever other anons are reading this decide if they feel confident enough to try saving it.

Thats a good thing you're mentioning tho; the chances of recovering an oversteering traditional FF may not always be good because of how "detached" you are from the rear axle.

The key words that I think both me and will agree on are "practice" and "awareness"

Differnentry user here.

Everything I have every driven in snow was AWD or RWD. That said this is Veeky Forums and people with no experience give advice all the time. I'm leaning more twords benz simply because op has admitted to not know how to drive in snow

Green text how I would approach a fwd understeer slide in snow.

>slide starts as I am entering turn.
>back off throttle, not drop it, because I am.clearly.going to fast for this turn
>see if u can shave some speed to regain traction to make turn.
>if still sliding at the point of 0 throttle test brakes to see if they cut speed or just lock and keep sliding.
>if brake do shave speed try and get going slow enough to make turn.
>if still sliding try and figure out where to run off the road so I dont end up stuck.. or in a tree.
>if all this fails sit in ditch stuck waiting for tow truck to pull me out and think about at what point the slide became unsalvageable.

Snow driving really is more about experiencing differnt types of slides and how the car behaves with different input.

Just my 2 cents. Anyone chime in if this is bad