Drove through the Valley of Trucks

[Richard]

Originally from southern Ohio, I grew up "with" snow, however, I'm aware my experience with snow is not to be confused with those who get "real" snow /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Anyway, having lived in the Knoxville area for some years now, we've not had much snow at all for a number of years, and when we do, the 'locals' just freak out as might be expected because of their relative lack of experience.

Yesterday while at work, we got a snowfall. My wife was home and talking to me on phone (nagging? harping? /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif ) about me getting my butt home and getting it home now before "the snow storm".

Me, smug in my ways, laughed it off.

I left office at 4:00. I meandered to the grocery. I was in thin traffic until "the left turn".

as I came onto a straightaway, I saw maybe 30 cars ahead of me, part of reason for our going slow. someone was driving about .0042 feet per hour, hitting brakes about as often as one can hit them without riding them. Road was snowy/slushy/icy mix. sigh... NO vehicles in front of them. Never in my life, have I seen such a timid driver.

I'm not for being wreckless, so I just smiled and puttered on, pushing my clutch in... (we were going SO slow, I could not even "idle" in first gear... THAT was WAAYYYY too fast /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif )

Ahh.. anyway, my smugness came in, when during trip home (usually 25 minutes and took 3 hours), I saw maybe a dozen vehicles run off road. Interestingly enough, most were trucks.

I had plenty of time to deliberate their demise since it took me probably 10 minutes to crawl past each vehicle as we puttered on.

I got to thinking about my wife and her concerns. Here, these 4 wheel drive trucks were dumped off the road, and me? I'm puttering along in my 2 wheel drive Miata. Hmm... then I got to thinking about something Mr. Chalkley said once... the 4 wheel drive crowd might not realize that though they have 4 wheel "drive", we ALL have 4 wheel brakes.

I had lots of time to ponder many things... most of which I'll not bore you with here. I DID take a certain smugness to the reality that my little Miata was puttering on past, where these mighty beasts had failed.

Phone rings... wife...... where am I, snow is deep at home (means gravel road is covered) I told her about the trucks on side of road, no doubt, feeding (unintended) her fears. Then I told her about the MORON in front of me, who was zipping from side to side in his lane like Indy cars do to warm their tires, how the driver (while moving) opened his door, stuck his leg out to see how slippery the road was (must been TALL dude)...THEN... /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif as his passenger, not only did the same, but then (at maybe 10 mph), the passenger got TOTALLY out of the SUV, door wide open, and he stood holding onto the door while "skiing" on the icy road in traffic, letting the door and roof of SUV pull him along....

I could not belive my eyes at the stupidity.... one slip, one dry patch and he'd been down...with those tires not TOO far behind him... I must admit, though I didn't want any harm to come to him...I DID deviously root for a dry patch to come upon him to trip him up and show him how stupid he was being. I was keeping a nice stopping distance behind them so if he DID fall, I'd be no issue to him.

I got home safely. vehicles on side of road from work, all the way home. As I got home... I met my match. I was unable to get up our gravel road from the dock area /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif... here, I had just traveled through the vally of snow, fearing no evil, I had just laughed at trucks strewn all over the place and now, I, "Mr. Smug", was dead in my tracks.

Walked to the house, groceries in hand, wifey was all releived, though she had seen me "playing" down by the dock making my futile attempts to get up the road. She was all "I told you so" about the snow and the vehicles that were off the road.

Finally, I told her, I'd rather have "ME" as a driver in my car, than some of these local people (never having driven in much snow) in their trucks...because they evidently had a false sense of security and were clueless as to what they were doing/up against.

I got "the look" (wife being a local) /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Today... I get to take Brutus out and since we are so remote, do 2 things... first... drag my car up from the dock and get it up to the house... then, I'll go down and scrape our entire road (about 1 mile) since the county won't be out here for another week or so /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

Oh.. and I get to stay home from work today /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I'm in what used to be snow country. The past couple years have been oddly short of the white stuff but one thing remains the same. Every season's first snow seems to involve a re-education process as drivers even here seem to act as though they've never seen this stuff before. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

I drive a 4x4 and have learned a number of things over the years. One is that it doesn't matter how well you can go through the snow if you're behind someone in a 72 Pinto with bald tires. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Chalkley is sure right on the new 4x4 drivers. Every season I smile at the number of 4x4's I see with their window stickers or temporary tags still on that have fresh front end damage.

 

[Boondox]

Richard -- Glad to see you kept your sense of humor!

Until recently we had a Nissan Pathfinder and a front wheel drive Honda Civic. Even with studded snows on both vehicles, the Honda was by far the more stable, secure ride in all but the deepest snow. And it only became an issue for the Honda when the snow was so deep it was caught by the air dam up front and pushed up over the hood till I couldn't see where I was going.

The worst conditions involved wet, heavy snow right around the freezing point. Traction is usually excellent in the 10 degree range unless there's ice involved, but that slush is hard to handle at times. Makes curves and turns really exciting! The tourists have the worse time of it, because most of them have all season radials and there is no substitute for genuine snow tires.

Anyway, living in a tourist town we see a LOT of people off the road and were in a good position to evaluate the relative snow-worthiness of various cars and trucks. SUVs and trucks seemed to go off the road -- WAY off the road from false driver confidence in 4WD -- more than any other vehicle. Front WD cars do pretty well if they have snow tires. But in all our years of observation we have never seen a Subaru get stuck! So that's what we bought. Traded in the Honda and the Nissan for an Outback wagon. Funky car, but six golden retrievers can fit in the back, and it's heavy, which is great for traction. The Audi Quattro seems to be as good, but thousands of dollars more. Curiously, the Volvo XC series seems to be having some trouble. Looks like a decent car, but we've seen several of them slide or fishtail in slushy conditions. I wonder if it's a weight distribution issue..?

Anyway, enjoy your snow. We have four feet on the ground and it's still falling up here. A pleasant 12 degrees as I write this, but a cold front is moving in with lows overnight expected to fall into the minus 20s. Even I am willing to admit that's a bit nippy! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Pete

 

[Trev]

Reminds me one time going through Georgia or South Carolina.. on the way to Florida. Got a freak ice storm, and many of these people had never even seen the stuff before, let alone driven on it. I'll never forget one guy.. he comes out of his driveway, does two complete 360's, and ends up in the driveway on the other side of the road with a look of utter astonishment on his face! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[riptides]

Good for you on your day off.

If you really want to have some amusement, please come to the Washington DC area in Winter. The mention of the word snow causes mass hysteria.

A few years ago, I think my area had a worlds record for the largest accident on an Interstate. Over 120 *IIRC* vehicles involved. Brutally nasty that day.

Unfortunate that one always has to worry about the other guy or gal. Your skiing SUV, person comes to mind. Wonder what else they were capable of?

-Enjoy the snow!
-Mike Z.

 

[PhilNH5]

I live in SE New Hampshire. Today we had barely visible snow flurries. Ground was wet only. I leave home at 6:00 AM and get to work by 6:30 normally. Today it took an hour. Everyone driving well below the speed limit. So snow wussies are not confined to the southern states.

I do tend to notice the opposite effect of you and Pete and SUVs in the ditch. Part of my commute is on a two lane well travelled road. When ever there is a slow going snow wussie pulling a train of cars it is invariably an expensive SUV. Seems to be an inverse corrollary between the cost of the SUV and the speed they drive in snow. Guess they are afraid of damaging those expensive Land Rovers, XCs amd Mercedes SUVs

Phil

 

[Egon]

Golly, I drive slow when road conditions are slippery as I'm not the best of drivers.

The trucks are terrible in slippery conditions unless they have some weight in the back. About 900 pounds for a 1500 series and 1500 pound for the 2500 series will make a world of difference in their handling.

A Suzuki truck/van has been the best vehicle I have driven in slippery conditions. The old square box type.

The type of tires are very important to. On my little car the high performance dry traction type just do not work when a snow flake or two falls.

Egon

 

[Cacinok]

Your trip through the valley of the trucks sounds all too familiar. I did my undergrad in Utah and would travel home to Washington state 3-4 times a year often in snow from Utah up into Oregon. I've seen way too many people lose control in front of me, including a number of jacknifing (sp?) semis. It's surreal to see the semi right in front of you have the trailer jack knife. The semi spun to the point where the truck cab and driver were facing me (eyeballs as big as baseballs - both mine and his) and his trailer was taking up both lanes -- all at about 30 mph. I feel blessed that I've never been in a wreck, snow or no snow.

I think what helped me is that I learned to drive off road (in the mud) before I ever got behind the wheel on road. I learned what happens when you give it too much gas in a low traction situation. I came to appreciate the lack of steering in mud and snow. When I finally hit the blacktop if I ever felt the back end of my old '67 Dodge pickup start to come around I reacted almost instinctually.

I think that people never learn how a vehicle reacts in snow. When we moved from Baton Rouge to OKC, the night of the first snow, I took my wife (a life long resident of Louisiana) to the mall parking lot (after it was closed of course -- no cars anywhere) and just had her play. She thought I was nuts (which is debatable), but I told her to just pay attention to what the car does in the snow. She hasn't had any problems. People are afraid to go play w/ their car or truck in a field of snow, but you never learn the skills unless you use them. More than anything I think what my does best is just go slow and gives herself plenty of room to stop (ABS helps too)

Clint -- in snowless OKC

 

[mwechtal]

I have to relate this story. I didn't see it, but it comes from a reliable source.

This was probably in the mid 70's (not really sure about the year) in Raliegh, NC. There was a light snowfall. My friend was driving to work and saw a local shopowner clearing his parking lot... with a water hose! Yes, the water was draining onto the road. Since it was just below freezing, it wasn't a problem when he passed, and it warmed during the day so there apparently weren't any accidents, but sheesh...

I live in upstate NY, and we see cars spread all over the medians and ditches at the first snowfall. As a friend from Buffalo put it, they seem to speed up for the first snowfall.

Another interesting phenomenon we've noticed around here. If there is a forecast for oh say 4" or more of snow, by the end of the work day you can't find milk or bread in any store!

Last time I was in a ditch was '74 (keeping fingers crossed ;-).

Mike

 

[BB_TX]

<font color=blue>Every season's first snow seems to involve a re-education process</font color=blue>
Reminds me of a business trip to Green Bay a number of years ago in November. Snowed about 4" (first of the season) and the place was about paralyzed. Cars/trucks in ditches everwhere and multiple wrecks. TV news reporting problems all over the state. Ask the guys at the power plant, "I thought y'all knew how to drive in this stuff". They replied, "Naw, we just tell you Texans that. First snow of the year and we have forgotten everything we ever learned."/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif