Winter in the car......

[sethorly]

Asked my trusted garage owner if I should buy winter tyres. He said naaa, just drive in high gear.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Asked my trusted garage owner if I should buy winter tyres. He said naaa, just drive in high gear.

Your trusted garage owner knows nothing about winter tyres. . High gear won't help you stop or swerve or find grip when your summers are hard and can't get traction

See the difference here:

https://youtu.be/GlYEMH10Z4s

Do not expect abs /esp/ traction control to work if tyres have no grip....

If you can afford it DO IT!

I currently have M+S marked Continental all season tyres on my new car once they are shot I'm fitting a more winter biased set to it with the snowflake and mountain symbol as they are not a patch on dedicated winters

I got my little punto stuck on standard summer bridgestone tyres when I could see through the slush... Fitted winter tyres and it could outclimb posh peoples 4x4 cross over couldn't get up The 1:4 hill yet I made it no drama

And I won't forget the police car that eventually stopped me once we reached a treated road as apparently I was going "too fast". I had grip and control fortunately the copper understood having been on a course and we just agreed that I should slow down a bit

But it was fun leading tailgating idiots into bends knowing I could and they couldn't

tip from the wise know your own and your cars capability and don't follow the car in front blindly ideally find a place free of traffic and get used to the various modern technology bits if you have a newer car abs and stability control takes some getting used to if you have never experienced it


Oh and a few advanced driving courses such as a skid pan session or a rally driving lesson or a 4x4 off road course gives you a much better understanding on how a car behaves and how to control a wayward front or back end or a 4 wheel slide

[Jamesey1981]

Traction control is a right pain on a really slippery surface, I had a Merc a class a few years back, they were fitted with the best ESP system that Merc could get their hands on at the time to stop them crashing.
When it snowed I had to turn the traction control off as it wouldn't let the car move!

Not had a problem the last few years, have had 4x4s (real ones, not school run SUVs) on all season, all terrain tyres so I don't worry about winter tyres, I would have a set if I had a normal car though, if you can afford an extra set of rims (just get some steels the right size from a breaker, the salt in winter is no good for alloys anyway) and have somewhere to store the extra set then why do without grip if you don't have to?

[Yorkshire Andy]

I must admit I'm was not a believer of magic witch craft black box electronics till I played with it

Still not a fan of traction control when it kills power at a slippery junction

But Tuesday I played on a iced over hump back level crossing from stationary it just pulled away I was shocked thought about trying it as I saw this ages ago...


https://youtu.be/j-hHWSQhKuc

[Jamesey1981]

Modern traction control is surprisingly good, it's still no substitute for taking care though, a lot of people think that traction control is a magic superpower that means they can drive like a wally and not get into difficulty.
In my l200 I occasionally get caught out and the traction control kicks in, if I know it's likely to be slippery then I keep it in four wheel drive, (you can use 4wd high range on tarmac in Mitsubishi models with the super select 4x4 system as it has a viscous coupling) but ordinarily I have it in rear wheel drive to save a bit of diesel, and rear wheel drive, auto gearbox, turbo lag, limited slip rear diff and very little weight over the drive wheels does make for the odd accidental powerslide when pulling away briskly at a junction!

[Yorkshire Andy]

The hill holder on mine is great much better on the clutch and handbrake when towing especially on very steep hills no chance of rolling back as soon as there is sufficient power and bite point is hit it just pulls away

[Yorkshire Andy]

Double post

[Jamesey1981]

A hill holder would be handy for towing, I have a auto so the creep holds it happily on a hill anyway, but I'm sure it wouldn't if I was pulling a trailer.
Not that it matters, I can use a small trailer (but don't need to, it's a pick up truck) but anything larger and I would need class B+E.
Daft really, I can legally drive a 59 foot long articulated bus weighing 30 odd tons fully loaded, (and did for a living) but I can't tow a caravan with my pick up truck!

[Yorkshire Andy]

And you could probably put the same caravan on the back of a ford focus and be legal ....

[Jamesey1981]

And you could probably put the same caravan on the back of a ford focus and be legal ....

I could yeah, in fact back when I had a caravan I had to pull it with my ratty old cavalier that I had as a daily knockabout rather than my Land Rover which would have been a much better and safer tow car but I was over the limit on MAM.

So many of our motoring laws don't make any sense, for example, I can drive the aforementioned 59 foot long articulated bus, but only if the engine is in the rear section, if it's an articulated bus with the engine in the front section then I would need class D+E as the back section then counts as a trailer, even though it can't be removed and the bus handles exactly the same.

Another thing, I have a license to drive a manual bus, but I took my test in an auto and have never driven a manual bus, I was given a manual bus license as I have a manual car license.
The same rules also apply to HGV licences, which scares me a bit, I really wouldn't like to have an artic or a coach rolling backwards down a hill towards me because the driver has fluffed their gears!