Do you want to know how to drive in the snow? Do not worry; we have you covered in this article!
We’ve all heard (or experienced firsthand) at least one terrifying tale about driving in the snow. We comprehend what it’s like to lose traction and slide into a junction or another car, encounter black ice at high speed, mainly on the freeway, or ditch a car stuck in a snowbank. Winter traffic conditions can be pretty tricky for drivers.
Whats the best speed to drive in snow?
This really depends on road but the main point here is you should be driving far slower than you usually would. You also need to make sure you leave a 10 second time gap between any vehicles in front of you. This is going to give you the time you need to slow the car down without skidding into the back of the car in front.
10 Tips For Driving In The Snow
These tips will help change how you drive in those snowy weather conditions and hopefully avoid those awkward situations that lead to expensive car repairs. Here are ten tips for driving in the snow safely:
- Drive using a higher gear that normal Snow can be as slippy as ice so any fast movement using acceleration or hard turning can easily lead to the car sliding. Best way to avoid this is simple use the highest gear possible without the car stalling. Think of it this way. MORE ACCELERATION/TURNING = MORE CHANCE OF SKIDDING
- Check your tyres, screen wash and wind screen wipers. This is the most important time to make sure your tyres are in good nick with no cuts or bulges and sufficient tread depth. You will also get mega dirty windows when driving because of the road grit. To clean the windows you will need washer fluid with de-icer in it to make sure its not frozen.
- Pack for emergencies Chances are you wont need them but better to be safe than sorry. Include a basic survival kit, heres a list of basics:
- Torch Blanket
- Water
- First aid kit
- Warning triangle
- Jumper cables
- De-icer
- scraper
- phone charger
- Plan your journey Make sure you check the news and traffic updates before setting off to ensure there are no accidents or road closures and keep your journey smooth sailing.
- Take a Long View You should look—and think—further down the Road as it becomes slicker. Consider what action you’ll take next. For turns, go very slowly. If you can see a queue of traffic focus on the leading vehicles so you can better anticipate what the rest of the traffic will do. This will give you more time to break and less chance of losing control.
- How to deal with a slide – If your car begins to skid the hardest part is staying calm. After all we have just lost control of the vehicle, its pretty scary. The problem is if we panic and turn away from the skid this continues the skid for longer. If we can focus and turn into the skid this will help us gain control again faster.
- Use anti-lock brakes in this manner – Make sure your ABS brakes are working, You can tell if there is any issue with them as you would have a warning light on the dash of the car. These will help prevent skids or slides if you need to brake harder than usual.
- Four-Wheel Drive Vs Front wheel drive – All-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles might give the impression that you have considerably more traction because you have all four wheels working. However the biggest effect on control when driving in the snow comes down to winter tyres. Do not over estimate your control because you have a 4 wheel drive car.
- Install winter tires – This is by far the best tip for driving in the snow and is actually more effective than choosing a 4 wheel drive car with standard tyres. This is because winter tyres are designed for driving in poor weather conditions and give us the best road traction.
- Read the Road – You need to try analyses the road conditions. Is it fresh snow on a wet day? If so it may not be to negative on your driving. If its snow on top of a week of frozen winter nights then this is seriously going to effect your driving.
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