Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics.
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
No matter how comfortable you get driving in the snow, always drive slow.
I don't care if you got four wheel drive chains and snow tires, drive like 5 10 15 miles an hour.
Also, if you start to skid, don't slam on the brakes.
If it is a long skid and you have time to react, drop your vehicle down into low gear (which should not be very difficult because you've been driving slow right?) and let off the accelerator and allow the resistance of the drivetrain to slow you down.
If you feel yourself decelerating you can try tapping the brakes but if you do not immediately regain traction and slow back down, let off the brake.
When you are in a skidding situation, do not White knuckle your steering wheel. Especially when you are turning against the skid, suddenly regaining traction with your tires at an extreme angle can put you into an entirely new skid. You need to be prepared to let go of the steering wheel as soon as you have traction if need be.
Finally, practice.
When there is a gentle snow, which there often is prior to large snows, take your car out and drive it around. Find out how your car reacts in the snow and get a little bit of practice with the small skids that you might encounter on the roads that you travel.
If you live up or down a large Hill, find out if there are alternative routes that you can take to get to your destination. If there is no way to get to your house without either going up or coming down a large hill, identify places where you can safely park your car away from the hill and walk to your home.
Finding that information out beforehand will save you a lot of hassle in the event of a winter storm.
I'll finish that up with saying, if you expect yourself to be in severe winter weather, it is a good idea to get some chains and some traction devices and some blankets and some water and store them in the trunk of your car during the winter season.
That way, if you are caught unaware's, you will be prepared.
All of my advice are for severe places like Wisconsin. If you live in a place where the snow is well managed that might be Overkill.
I moved to Washington State and got caught in a blizzard in an old beat-up pickup truck.
Part of my route to get home required that I go down a Long Hill, so I slowed to 5 miles an hour and dropped my vehicle in to low gear and made it about 20 ft down the hill before I lost traction.
As I'm slowly uncontrollably skiing down the hill on a bed of snow, to my left and to my right I am passing by row after row after row of vehicles that had been abandoned by their drivers unable to traverse this road.
It was a good day to wear brown pants
However, by steering against the skid and not white knuckling and not riding my brakes and keeping the vehicle in its low drive I was able to safely ski down the road that I had found myself on and make it to the other side.
I was able to drive home that day by following my own advice.
If something like that happens to you, I hope you do the same.