Been contemplating getting a set for the Volvo, to keep in the boot. They seem to go for about the 50 quid mark and might be a good investment if this 'bad winter' we keep hearing about should actually materialise.
So, will they actually work (i.e. improve my chances of getting home) and is there a minimum amount of snow needed before they are useful?
I know the roads are likely to be blocked with stranded RAV4s anyway...
You're not frightened of shifting them are you? You don't have to put them back afterwards!
We call 'em Chav 4's round here! I have never ever got stuck in the snow. I once drove a Sapphire Cosworth 2WD all the way home from Leicster on the M1 in a horrific snowstorm. It was hairy as a mother f***er, but the real testing part was the 12 hours it took me to get from Leeds to Braford, a total of 10 miles. All this was due to fuckwits in BMW's that don't know how to drive in the dry let alone snow. I never got stuck once. I did have tons of gear in the boot mind you! Anyone who know the locality will know there is not one level road in or out of Bradford! The snow on the hill i lived at that time (It's called Gaisby Lane, a VERY steep hill) was about a foot deep in drifts & I abandoned my car half in my garden as the road was closed!!
To this day, i have no idea how the hell i got that car home, it was a feckin' mad night well known around these parts! It was in 1995 i think. I reckon the LSD helped on the Cossie (I mean limited slip diff, not a reference to halucinagenic drugs btw!)
Nige
-- Subaru WRX Range Rover LSE (Bob)
'"gimme the f*ckin' money"
once drove a Sapphire
It was hairy as a mother
to Braford, a total of 10
the dry let alone snow. I
know the locality will
lived at that time (It's
abandoned my car half in my
mad night well known
Cossie (I mean limited slip
I've only been stuck once - in my Peugeot 205 years back. Dropped sister off at a school do, got half-way home and realised that I'd never get her home again in a couple of hours. Went back for her, but got stuck half a mile from home on a steep hill, because bloke in front of me managed to put his car sideways and block the road.
The Volvo isn't going to be good in snow though - wide low-profile tyres with tight tread. The auto box will be a mixed blessing as well. For 50 quid the chains might make the difference getting home and not, or even blocking the road and getting out of the way.
The Cossie had very wide tyres (for it's day) but it wasn't too bad really. Nowadays, no-one under 25 has driven in the snow. I used to take the cossie out for fun in the snow!! You can't beat a good old empty car park & a mega powerful RWD car to learn how to correct oversteer! The really odd bit, is the Subaru (basically a rally car with road going expectations) is nowhere near as good in the snow! It is a lot better than the wifes Golf gti though (we aint even tried it yet, but you just know!)
-- Subaru WRX Range Rover LSE (Bob)
'"gimme the f*ckin' money"
On or around Thu, 8 Dec 2005 22:01:28 -0000, "Nige" enlightened us thusly:
mad night well known
Cossie (I mean limited slip
yeah, the XR4x4 had one of them, although technically it's a viscous coupling not an LSD, and also in the centre diff. That and a 2/3:1/3 rear:front torque split makes it an amazing thing in the slippery.
In message , Austin Shackles writes
One of the best cars I ever had in the snow was a Daf with belt drive. The ratios to the rear wheels worked independently, so the slipping wheel would be at its highest gearing whilst the gripping wheel was at its lowest.
On or around Fri, 9 Dec 2005 11:46:01 +0000, hugh enlightened us thusly:
yeah, 's a pity about the daf. Ford produced a CVT thing recently using a flexible steel belt, muhc tougher - I bet it doesn't have the simplicity of the daf and the advantage you describe.
But the 4x4 ford system ought to be on Rangies and the like, IMHO - almost makes traction control with all its complexity redundant. Presumably, you could in theory have another VCD in the front end - although the ford doesn't.
When I had the 110 with the BW transfer box and the VCD in it, I kept meaning to fit a VCD in the back axle, presuming I could find one.
once drove a Sapphire
It was hairy as a mother
to Braford, a total of 10
the dry let alone snow. I
know the locality will
lived at that time (It's
abandoned my car half in my
mad night well known
Cossie (I mean limited slip
I was out in the slippy stuff 'tother week. if it wasn't for the LSD on the jag i'd have had a much tougher time getting home, love it to bits.
-- Mark.
................................................................ Posted via TITANnews - Uncensored Newsgroups Access >>>> at
Drove up to the top of the long mynd in snow in my Grannie estate once, which was quite hairy. The auto box kept me from making any sudden acceleration or deceleration.
On the other hand last Christmas my landie ran off the road in the snow. Staying on the road has as much to do with the smoothness of your driving technique as anything else. With an auto box and power steering it was not difficult to pilot my grannie, whereas smooth is hardly the way you would describe the throttle control, gearbox and steering of a series 3 or maybe I am just getting old.
hi tim .
snow chains are very good to keep in boot of car , or keep a pair on a set of spare wheels/tyres, they work very well in any snow and in fact some landy owners fit chains to theyre heavy treaded tyres in order to obtain more grip in snow .
you only tend to use them on rear wheels if rear wheel driven , i am not sure if they get fitted to front wheel drive cars but i would guess they do .
can only drive up to max 20mph with them .
there are plenty of snow chains for sale on EBAY in the motoring accessories section .
if they are cheap and you have a set in the boot, they could save the day for you sometime. after all they cost nothing to run or keep .
When I were a lad I used to take my old 1.19 litre Opel Kadett into a field and f*ck about. A friend of mine suggested we swap cars, he then promptly doughnutted on a playing field in my car while I waved at him from the sidelines to stop it, too late though, lots of residents took my number! Never heard anything back though.
Har har, the amount of Scooby owners who think that their car is the same as the rally cars they see on telly is amazing.. There are no shared parts, the cars aren't even built by Subaru. There is a "production class" in rallying, which is almost never shown on telly, but even those cars are heavily modified and aren't very similar to the road cars. In Classic And Sports Car magazine there are occasional auctions of Subaru or Mitsibushi etc WRC rally car parts and they always have in very large letters "No road car parts available" on them to stop the owners of the shopping trollies turning up trying to buy bits, 'cos that's what was happening and then they were moaning about the bits not fitting!
I can remember an interview with Colin McRae where he said that the car he was driving at the time shared just 13 parts with the road car, and they were the lights and the dashboard to make the external and in-car shots look like the road-going car. Personally I think it's a monumental con, but it works well and sells cars. WRC rules for the top of the line cars state that the car has to look like the road car and that's it. They're built from the ground up for rallying with not even a thought about the design of the road car they're pretending to be, and made by dedicated car building teams with some small input from the road car manufacturer, mostly money though.
Ditto Touring Cars BTW, f*ck all to do with the road-going cars, all custom made race cars by dedicated racing companies with look-alike bodyshells on. Not keen on it but it keeps the money coming in at the sake of any pretence of honesty. It's the same in pretty much all top-of-the line racing, I'm a Lotus Esprit fan but their GT racing Esprit was a dedicated machine built from scratch, bore no resemblance mechanically to the road-going car, which in my experience is probably for the best! (looks mornfully at pile of parts in corner of garage)
Oops, sorry for the rant, it's a pet subject of mine ;-)
Front-wheel drive sucks monumentally in the snow, although I got out of a bind once when I'd gone down a hill into a trough in my Audi and couldn't get back out, so I turned it around and reversed up the hill, worked a treat!
On or around Fri, 9 Dec 2005 22:57:21 +0000, Ian Rawlings enlightened us thusly:
also diesel ones work better, nice heavy engine to give more grip on the driving wheels.
That's what mine is. A fat bloke on the bonnet would help too, but sadly I was driving.
If I do much driving in the coming weeks I reckon a few bags of grit in the boot will be in order.. Throw 'em on the bonnet, and if that doesn't work, throw 'em on the road! Driving the Landy is probably a better bet though.
That old trick. In the days of yor when cars had serious troubles going up hills, unlike to day, reversing up was common practice as reverse was (is?) the lowest ratio gear in the box.
...and Ian Rawlings spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...
I beg to differ slightly - the best car I ever had in snow (Landies excepted) was a 2CV Citroen. Totally unstoppable. Low power, light weight and driving wheels of massive diameter and narrow width helped, I think. Plus, if you dyked it, you could just lift it out and carry on. Almost.
On or around Sat, 10 Dec 2005 13:12:03 -0000, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:
2CVs are amazingly successful in the slippery. it's the big narrow tyres, mostly, helped by the light weight as you say.
Failed to get up a hill in the snow in a Mk2 Escort once. No weight so no grip. Reversed to the bottom and shovelled the boot full of snow. On the second attempt it climbed about 3/4 of the hill as opposed to about 1/4 of it on the 1st attempt. Reversed to the bottom and shovelled the back seats full of snow as well, successfully climbed the hill with that lot in. Theres always a solution if think laterally!
Gerald
On or around Sat, 10 Dec 2005 16:45:59 -0000, "Idris" enlightened us thusly:
I take it you weren't planning on carrying rear seat passengers any time soon?
Did even take the stuff out again, just waited for the thaw! It was Treview hill.
Gerald
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