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10-27-2011, 09:51 PM | #1 |
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1ers Up North.. Be Careful!
I'm not sure who took a dump in Mother Nature's corn flakes this morning, but she's pissed.
Last week we had a couple days at 70 degrees up here in NJ. Tonight, driving home from NYC temperatures hit freezing. I'm still on my summer tires, so I was driving extremely carefully. I was on an on-ramp behind another car, speeding up slowly and cautiously (knowing fully that my tires won't agree with this weather. Plus, I couldn't even accelerate quickly if I wanted to due to the car in front), and all of a sudden exactly what I was mulling over in my head and fearing happened. I lose traction and swerve right. I assume I hit a patch of ice or even just a puddle, so try and correct myself slowly without braking to not make matters worse, but the car doesn't agree with me and swerves left over 3 lanes. At this point I'm braking full force but it doesn't matter because my tires have no traction in this cold weather, and I go over the median and end up facing oncoming traffic on the grassy patch. I don't get out of the car, but the cops come and say I must have batman reflexes because there is no damage to the car and I am inches away from the median barrier! They stop traffic momentarily and let me get on my way without so much as taking my name. However, I noticed there was some vibration in the steering wheel at moderate speeds, so I stop the car and notice a piece of my front rim is missing and mud is everywhere. That was the only damage to the car (insert likeaboss.jpg). Anyway, moral of the story is that we are in for some freaky weather. On Saturday there's actually a chance for snow in the NYC area. Before Halloween.. and last week I was still wearing shorts and flip-flops. Be careful out there, guys! You never know when something out of your control will happen. It looks like a season for early winter tire mounting. BTW, this is the damage:
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10-27-2011, 10:03 PM | #2 |
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Nice to know you are O.K. and the car only has minimal damage. It is much easier to fix a car than a person.
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10-27-2011, 10:09 PM | #3 |
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+1. Glad to see that nothing bad happened! That situation could have turned south quickly... Get those snow shoes on and drive safe!
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10-27-2011, 11:44 PM | #4 |
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+2. Good to hear you are OK.
We had some wet snow here in Central PA tonight, though nothing that stuck to the roads. Though, the forecast for Saturday is interesting. I'm headed to a wedding in Frederick, MD, and there could be a few inches of snow. It's enough to make me keep the 1er in the garage, and make me call the Focus out of the bullpen for the trip. I don't have the snow tires on it yet, but at least it has FWD. No way I'm rolling down I-70 on summer runflats that are worn enough to need replacing in the spring. If only it would be the only snow storm of the season, but that's wishful thinking. |
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10-28-2011, 08:09 AM | #5 |
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Moving away so I'm selling my car, and the buyer wanted the stock wheels. Sold my aftermarket summer setup yesterday actually and since my stock wheels have winter tires on them I had no choice but to put them on for now. WHAT A GREAT TIMING, I got so lucky.
Got the little cold weather gong driving to work this morning. 37 degrees outside this morning already! Supposed to snow tomorrow. And yes I was wearing shorts last week. |
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10-28-2011, 09:25 AM | #7 |
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Thanks for the condolences guys!
I just hope my story serves as a word of warning for everyone. The weather's gettin' crazy. and that bus.. wow. Sometimes I dream of doing that.. through traffic though
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10-28-2011, 09:35 AM | #8 |
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Yeah, a good reminder to all and glad to hear you are ok. I was just having the same thoughts as I flew from Detroit back to Chicago this morning. The airport weather tracker said O'Hare was 35F ! luckily the sun was out upon arrival this morning and the roads were ok
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10-28-2011, 09:36 AM | #9 |
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yeah this is why I went to my winters 3 weeks ago. I dont trust my dad
you probably just loosened up your alignment or something. |
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10-28-2011, 09:38 AM | #10 |
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Yep. The winter 'shoes' go on tomorrow morning. Michigan had think frost and fog this morning - time to get ready.
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10-28-2011, 09:57 AM | #12 |
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Why? Because he was running summer tires in the winter?
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10-28-2011, 10:07 AM | #13 |
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stretched, wider tires provide better traction in the winter. particularly on snow and ice. plus, if he had AWD the situation would be different.
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10-28-2011, 10:12 AM | #15 |
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Today I'll be switching over from summers to all-seasons here in the Northeast. I have a 3rd set of snows, but I'll wait to put them on as long as possible (ideally December, a few years ago I didn't mount my snows until January).
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10-28-2011, 10:14 AM | #16 |
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Fail.
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10-28-2011, 10:27 AM | #17 |
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Ice is ice... unless you have studded snows, you would have had the same outcome. My friends are putting their setups on tomorrow but I really wanted to wait until Dec 1.
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10-28-2011, 10:50 AM | #18 |
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I am also not sure how much difference winter tires would have made. Seems like the major issue, the swerve left, might have been an over correction of the initial right movement. That is pretty easy to do when a rear wheel drive vehicle oversteers, possibly because of ice.
We do not get enough snow around here to do this but when I lived in the frozen north, we liked to go to a parking lot first snow and do some donuts. You'd need to switch the stability control off. It helps get the feel for the car in the slick conditions and also is a good reminder about under and over steer correction. Understeer (plowing in the front) is easy, just get off the gas and leave the brake alone until you regain control. Oversteer (the rear end gets loose and kind of wants to be in front of the car) is trickier. You have to initially steer into the slide but if that is all you do you will hook up and loose control. So as the front and rear of the car gets into agreement, you have to steer with the front the direction you were trying to go. The momentary sliding sideways slows you enough to allow this to work. If you wait too long to steer back the way you want to go, you spin (the rear end pendullums to the other side and can do that quick enough you can't catch it). If you are only off a little, you swing from side to side several oscellations. I got my last refresher on this at M school last year. I didn't spin but I swug a little side to side the first couple times. The instructor has you get the car up near the cornering limit on a wet skid pad (stability control off) and then he slams the emergency brake to cause the rear to loose traction completely. It is more violent than most oversteer conditions but probably not one induced by a patch of ice. If you can recover correctly 3 times in a row, you can try drifting around the skidpad. That is harder than the snow drifting (donuts) I've done many times because the skidpad is inconsistent. It has rough surface, then smooth, then rough. I wasn't good at recognizing the transition so I never made it all the way around. Maybe half way was my best. Jim
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10-28-2011, 11:48 AM | #19 |
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No fail on you. Its all situational.
over 3 inches of snow and wider tires are more advantageous. under that and skinnier tires are better. |
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10-28-2011, 04:06 PM | #22 |
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You're lucky you are OK and that you were able to control the car enough to avoid serious injury!
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