genepires Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 So I get this monthly newsletter from Pemco and it has this winter driving quiz. First question is below. T/F. If you feel your car starting to skid, turn your wheel in the direction you're sliding. Answer T. Although it may feel counter intuitive, steering into a skid improves your chances of regaining control. So if I am reading this right, if the nose of the car is sliding to the left, I am supposed to turn the steering wheel to the left also? Seems like it would make me spin around. Anyone with experience driving in snow this way? Curious if this is true or am I reading the question/answer wrong. I suppose I should go out to a empty parking lot and try it out. Quote
ivan Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 sounds like you need to take the family truckster out to a snowed in walmart parking lot to do some donuts Quote
keenwesh Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 tap the gas to regain traction or fucking freak out, slam the brakes and spin the wheel frantically. ideally lay on your horn too. Quote
G-spotter Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Steering into a spin is pretty basic, dude. But I nearly went into the ditch one time because I was so focussed on steering into the spin I forgot to brake. Quote
wfinley Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Go practice. It's embarrassingly easy to flip a vehicle on icy roads. Quote
pcg Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 So if I am reading this right, if the nose of the car is sliding to the left, I am supposed to turn the steering wheel to the left also? Seems like it would make me spin around. No, steering into the skid means steering to the right in this case because that is where the rear end is going (to the right). Most skids involve oversteering, which means the rear end is doing most of the sliding. So steering in the direction of the skid means steering in the direction the rear end is going. In the case you mentioned, the rear end is sliding out to the right so you would steer to the right. The trick is always to not overdue this and be ready to steer back to the left and straighten the wheels as soon as the rear end responds and starts to go back to the left. DO NOT DELAY. Otherwise you will send the rear end out to the left and now you are back where you started, only skidding the opposite direction. If you don't react soon enough you will lose control - very common for peope to do this. If you have front wheel drive or all wheel drive, you will find that accelerating can help pull the vehicle out of the spin, although this is not always possible. I had my wife take a skid class at Portland International Raceway and the instructor didn't say anything about steering into the skid. He just told her to point the wheel where she wanted to go and GAS! GAS! GAS! This often works, but I will add that when she told me this I promptly went and and started spining our VW Rabbit in the snow and then attempting to power out of it. This was so much fun I did this over and over until I rear-ended a tree, which was a good thing. Otherwise I would have gone backwards down a 50' canyon. All of the above holds if your vehicle does not have antilock brakes and stability control. I guess all new vehicles now have antilock brakes and more and more have stability control. So now there are two entities trying to regain control of the car - you and a computer. The only way to figure it out is to practice. A good 15 min. session in an empty snow park is the easiest way to make sense of it all. And yes, you are correct, turning in the direction the nose is going would just encourage a spin. Quote
genepires Posted January 18, 2012 Author Posted January 18, 2012 OK, so I was reading the question / answer wrong. Was just weird how they said that the right way was counter intuitive when it is very intuitive. Do what it takes to keep the nose pointing in the right direction seems like the most intuitive thing to do and has served well for many spin outs. I'll work on the fucking freak out, slam the brakes and spin the wheel frantically. ideally lay on your horn too and just put my faith in the lord. Quote
AlpineK Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Drive like this team does [video:youtube] Quote
sobo Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I'll bet the brown stain in that guy's trowzerz is the diameter of a dinner plate... Quote
Marmot Prince Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K0i-QeFTiw Quote
Coldfinger Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) Throw the empty Bourbon bottles out the window & aim for the oncoming VW bus! Reason being the cops are going to be all over the hippies and will ignore you...... Edited January 19, 2012 by Coldfinger Quote
genepires Posted January 19, 2012 Author Posted January 19, 2012 Throw the empty Bourbon bottles out the window & aim for the oncoming VW bus! Reason being the cops are going to be all over the hippies and will ignore you...... so I shouldn't drive by vw bus in the winter in Wyoming? If the cops see the riff raff I hang out with lately, the hippies will ignored. Quote
Coldfinger Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 so I shouldn't drive by vw bus in the winter in Wyoming? If the cops see the riff raff I hang out with lately, the hippies will ignored. Geez Gene, didn't know you've been working on a drill rig lately! Quote
Tyson.g Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 Throw the empty Bourbon bottles out the window & aim for the oncoming VW bus! Reason being the cops are going to be all over the hippies and will ignore you...... so I shouldn't drive by vw bus in the winter in Wyoming? If the cops see the riff raff I hang out with lately, the hippies will ignored. Hey! I resemble that comment! Quote
selkirk Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 Suggestion: take the bus. I see more buses stuck around here than anything else! Quote
Laughingman Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 (edited) Go practice. It's embarrassingly easy to flip a vehicle on icy roads. It's embarrassingly easy to crash a car on just plain old wet roads... Result of losing control on wet roads right before the I90 to I405 interchange, going westbound... Put the car into a spin and hit the wall going 55+MPH... No one was hurt... Edited January 20, 2012 by Laughingman Quote
DPS Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 One winter day while driving SR 18 from 1-5 to 1-90 I saw THREE SUVs on their backs within a five mile distance. Each one was turtled right after a curve or a bridge. Quote
rocketparrotlet Posted January 21, 2012 Posted January 21, 2012 My entire family almost got killed coming home from Leavenworth this weekend because a driver didn't know how to handle driving in the ice. Be careful out there! Quote
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