Second gear!!!!!!

[ThePainInSpain]

Also 4x4s have a higher centre of gravity and are more likely to topple over in a crash.

I remember Tiff Needell doing a feature on it on 5th gear once. He was looking at swerving on a motorway and managed to stay upright at 60mph in a saloon (Rover 75 I think) but rolled a Range rover at 40mph doing the same manoeuvre.

Correct, and see my post regarding 4x4's and road tyres. Driving a 4x4 requires a different technique which most of the pillocks who buy them purely for status do not bother to aquire.

I drive a Nissan Terrano, a very good compromise of on and off road capabilities, but I once drove a Land Rover Discovery. What a bag of shite on road, Fantastic off, but rolled like a b$t$h cornering on road.

One of the major problems with most drivers and in particularly women (I said MOST not all, before you hang me by the man things), is, that as soon as the test is passed they can drive, or think they can. They think steering a car is the same as driving, it's not. They do not bother to hone their driving skills. And I find most women drive because they have to, not because they want to, therefore do not take it a seriously as they should.

 

[Headgardener]

Back before we moved down south from the midlands, when winter aproached my father would fit Michelin (I think) Town and Country's to the drive wheels and put a three by two paving slab in the boot, and I don't remember us getting stuck in any of the snow that was a regular winter thing then. Don't suppose they make them now.

 

[Arch]

<bites lip very hard in the cause of festive peace>

Sadly, I think the sexes have pretty much evened up in the race to be crappest drivers. I suspect, if I was to generalise at all, that some women are less aware of the technical issues and some men are just too macho and have too much faith in their own abilities.

There was someone on the radio (either last night or this morning, I can't remember) doing a piece about people's uselessness on the roads in the snow. Lack of preparation (carrying shovels, blankets, making sure phones are charged etc), ignorance of how to cope, basic lack of manners like forcing their way through, failing to give way to vehicles coming uphill and so on. It was good. Not a rant, just a very straightforward peice on how people make it worse for themselves and others.

But then one of the paper reviewers on BH this morning was doing her piece 'down the line' from the Cardiff studio, and saying how bad the taxi ride had been from her house to the studio. The taxi had apparently skidded 3 times in the space of the mile long trip. A mile! Unless she's disabled, she could have walked it in half an hour at most. Get your wellies on woman!

 

[Arch]

Back before we moved down south from the midlands, when winter aproached my father would fit Michelin (I think) Town and Country's to the drive wheels and put a three by two paving slab in the boot, and I don't remember us getting stuck in any of the snow that was a regular winter thing then. Don't suppose they make them now.

I'm fairly sure you can still get paving slabs....

 

[badkitty]

<bites lip very hard in the cause of festive peace>

Go girl!

 

[Arch]

Go girl!

I honestly think that men and women are equally good or bad drivers. I think their shortcomings might differ, but that's about it. An inattentive driver and an agressive driver are equally bad and dangerous.

Personally, I think there are two giveaway signs. Anyone who says "I'm a very good driver" or anyone who thinks you ever stop learning.

 

[potsy]

Go girl!

Arch is a girl

(Well there might be some new members since 9am this morning)

 

[Svendo]

Why everyone thinks a 4x4 would be any better in the conditions you describe baffles me. I drive a 4x4 and it's useless in muddy condition of road (for mud read snow in your case).

Why?

Simples

You still only have road tyres fitted which have no more grip than a 4x2 saloon car. It's just that you have no grip in 4 tyres instead of 2.

You are only better off if you have proper off road tyres fitted.

My reason for driving a 4x4 is for the ground clearance.

When I've been skiing at my Dad's in Santa Fe, New Mexico and it's snowing, the drive up and down to the ski area is 11 miles, winding road and even with constant ploughing can't always be kept properly clear.

I was in a rear wheel drive 1979 Ford Ranger pick up (small car sized pick up, big 2.3 litre engine but road wheels and tyres) with an empty bed, proper N.M. hick car, bench seat, faded paint, rust holes and dents, just lacking the gun rack! Yet with chains on when the road was snowy, more than once I've pulled embarrassed fancy 4x4 owners out of the snow bank/ditch. Once there's no traction 4wd just increases the number of spinning wheels!

I never did get the chains to spin, and being young and reckless at the time believe me I tried!

 

[Svendo]

When I've been skiing at my Dad's in Santa Fe, New Mexico and it's snowing, the drive up and down to the ski area is 11 miles, winding road and even with constant ploughing can't always be kept properly clear.

I was in a rear wheel drive 1979 Ford Ranger pick up (small car sized pick up, big 2.3 litre engine but road wheels and tyres) with an empty bed, proper N.M. hick car, bench seat, faded paint, rust holes and dents, just lacking the gun rack! Yet with chains on when the road was snowy, more than once I've pulled embarrassed fancy 4x4 owners out of the snow bank/ditch. Once there's no traction 4wd just increases the number of spinning wheels!

I never did get the chains to spin, and being young and reckless at the time believe me I tried!

I should also add for Arch's benefit that all these 4x4s were driven by men as far as I can recall!

 

[GrasB]

It doesn't matter how many wheels are driven if there's no grip.

However there's very rarely no grip, more just a very small amount of it. What I learnt from driving around near my in laws is that AWD is often the difference between crawling up the 30% at idle in 4th or 5th & being stuck at the bottom of it.

 

[Norm]

Do people notice that a majority of the cars that appear on TV news reports upside down on their roofs are 4x4s? Wonder why this is?

Well, I could be all Linfy and say that I reckon it's jealousy, but it's could also be to show those who have 4WD cars that they aren't invicible.

I honestly think that men and women are equally good or bad drivers. I think their shortcomings might differ, but that's about it. An inattentive driver and an agressive driver are equally bad and dangerous.

I asked the wife not to take the Land Rover, but that mostly because the thing is very agricultural and is a bastid to drive in the cold. The gearbox oil takes 10 miles to warm through enough to change down "normally" and I'd prefer to be the one fighting the gear stick driving on my own than Mrs Norm doing so with a kid in the middle seat.

You still only have road tyres fitted which have no more grip than a 4x2 saloon car. It's just that you have no grip in 4 tyres instead of 2.

You are only better off if you have proper off road tyres fitted.

My reason for driving a 4x4 is for the ground clearance.

My reasons are carrying capacity and off road ability, so I have off road tyres fitted.

I just took ours out on roads that had two days worth of compacted snow and I could accelerate, steer and brake just as I would do normally. There was less margin for error, obviously, but normal inputs got normal responses.

But, there's generally very good levels of grip anyway, especially on white roads.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I spun my Fourtrak on a snowy lane this morning. I just thought I'd see what happened if I planted the throttle ... what happens is that it flicks the tail out with extraordinary speed and buries its nose in the hedge. Shan't be doing that again, except later the same day on a deserted lorry park.

 

[XmisterIS]

Some tosser in a Range Rover was as filling up a large tub from the grit container opposite my house. 1/2 hour later he was back, he almost emptied the thing ! I Live on a junction at the start of a gradual incline over a railway, cars slipping all over the place. once the snow stopped I went out and put what was left of the grit on the road up the slope, and on the junction sorted, not one stuck car after that and my good deed for the day done.

The traffic spread the grit around and this bit of the road is now clear

Personally, I would have gone out with a camera and taken photos of him doing that, including his number plate, then emailed them to the local council and police. They might not have done anything, but then again they might have. If he'd seen me taking the photos, I couldn't care less.

 

[guitarpete247]

4x4's do have a little more traction in icy/snowy conditions over standard 2 wheel drive. I wouldn't want to be driving anything like a BMW with rear wheel drive only unless with the afore mentioned 2x3 slab in the boot (or a coule of over weight school run kids in the back seats). The trouble is that, though you have twice the traction with a 4x4 you have exactly the same 4 wheel braking though with a little more rubber on the road even on standard tyres.
Last week I went slowly past this left turn I wanted. Even with ABS I locked up at less than walking pace. I knew if I tried to turn I would spin so, as nothing was behind me, I accepted it and reversed back when I finally stopped. A couple in a Fiesta waiting to come out from the road I wanted found the sight of me slowly gliding past them amusing but showed them how icy it was.

 

[sheddy]

The current weather also demonstrates how over dependant we are on the horseless carriage, out of town shopping centres and supermarkets.
And our inability to walk any distance with proper footwear