Driving in snow

draser · Post by **draser** » 02 Feb 2015, 10:52

Well, we got our foot of snow, and kudos to Volvo for setting up the traction control and abs such to make driving in snow pleasurable. I did not think I was going to make it into work today. Conti tires work well too.

Post by **Matty Moo** » 02 Feb 2015, 10:56

How deep were the drifts?

Post by **scot850** » 02 Feb 2015, 11:22

Always been a fan of Volvos in snow. My first 122 in the mid-70's failed to get my Dad to work only once in snow, and that was when other cars had blocked the road. I even remember my Mum saying she had to 'plow' through snow to the level of the hood to get to work! No snow tires, but just a couple of sacks of sand in the trunk. I even had to drive around a gritting truck on an iced over road as it was stuck on the incline. Again in a 123GT on all-season tires!

Now with AWD Volvos they have been great although the V70R does sit a little low for comfort in deeper snow.

Neil.

Post by **vtl** » 02 Feb 2015, 12:07

XC70 + General Altimax Arctic plows as a tank!

Though good snow tires are more important than AWD and other XYZ.

Post by **oragex** » 03 Feb 2015, 08:08

The XC70 is a wise choice because of good ground clearance. But the S60 is too low to the ground and gets easily stuck in deep snow when parked.

I also prefer disabling the DSTC in city driving, it's annoying not letting spin the wheels in show.

vtl, how do you find the General Altimax tires compared with other winter tires? I had them on my S60 and replaced them because they had poor grip on snow, and I still have them on my Q5 and they just can't brake on slippery and also slide sideways a bit too easily.

Post by **vtl** » 03 Feb 2015, 08:57

This is only my second set of winter tires, so I can't really compare. Previous car (Seat Ibiza - Spanish VW Polo fork) had some cheap Conti's, and so far General's brake nicer. I didn't have any problems parking in 2 ft of snow on my inclined driveway, as well as during commute in yesterday's blizzard - XC70 pulled like a tank. They do slide to sides a tiny bit, but it's not like all those Honda Civics who just couldn't keep straight even at 30 MPH.

Comparing to my other set of tires (out-of-season BFGoodrich Advantage T/A), winter driving is night and day.

draser · Post by **draser** » 03 Feb 2015, 09:15

I had 3' of snow in my driveway in spots, so I woke up at 4 and shoveled hour and a half to get out. My problem was on the road, especially at intersections where we had about 1' and I thought I was gonna get stuck. Plowed right through the soft stuff, probably need to repaint front bumper.

Post by **abscate** » 04 Feb 2015, 15:11

T5 with four Cooper snows new this season. Second best car in our fleet, behind the BMW SAv four wheel drive, which is ridiculously sticky. I do have to keep the Rpms down below the boost phase though, or else it unhooks pretty quickly in winter

I'm a big fan of Four snows, not 2