friend has a house in stowe. Puts snow tires on the minivan and never gets stuck. Never owned a 4wd in his life and never had a problem up there. Seems impossible...
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Storm on the way
- Thread starter kingslug
- Start date
friend has a house in stowe. Puts snow tires on the minivan and never gets stuck. Never owned a 4wd in his life and never had a problem up there. Seems impossible...
kingslug
Well-known member
Actually I've had some pretty good snow events since I moved to CT. Last November when that surprise storm blew in we had snow tires already on. Everyone else..not so much. Biggest mess I ever saw. Took hours to go 8 miles, accidents everywhere.
As far as CT drivers in general..very poor. Never signal, pass on the right, speed up to not let you in..just poor driving.
As far as CT drivers in general..very poor. Never signal, pass on the right, speed up to not let you in..just poor driving.
drjeff
Well-known member
I would make the argument that numerous policies that the folks in Hartford choose to keep implementing help "attract" a fair amount of "low hanging fruit" to our mutual home state, and with that in some form, we see some of what we get on our (poorly maintained) roadways.
As for the speeding up to pass on the right thing. On my way home from work, I have a section of a state highway (Route 6) where it goes from 2 lanes down to 1(right lane having to merge left) and then about 1/4 mile later you get a right turn only lane for a Walmart Supercenter.... The number of times I have been passed on the right going into the the merge left, just to see that vehicle then head into Walmart is huge! Literally over a 1/3rd of my trips home from work! Many CT drivers leave plenty to be desired!! :angry:
ss20
Well-known member
AWD/4WD is good for parking lots, driveways, and intersections. Unless you're trying to get through 6"+ of snow (unlikely if you're staying on the main roads trying to go skiing) snow tires is all you need, imo.
abc
Well-known member
I guess there’s not much from this “storm” to talk about except bitching about the driving habits of others...?
KustyTheKlown
Well-known member
eh, pretty garden variety and much needed refresher. videos out of jay and smuggs this week look good. catskills seemed to have slightly rebounded but caught some icing. overall a good thing but not a blockbuster.
today is the only day i could have conceivably played hooky for a day trip to cats or soVT. i'm glad i didnt. it's really really cold today, and i have some good music on tap tonight in the city.
tomorrow is such a nonsense day of work. then we have my girlfriends bday dinner tomorrow, our friends xmas party saturday, my family hanukah dinner sunday, and then we leave for colorado super early monday morning (early enough to bag a few laps monday afternoon). ski thru 12/30. home night of 12/30. 2.5 days to relax hard before going back to work.
haven't had a real break since july 4 week. so stoked to disconnect and ski and be with gf, friends, family.
today is the only day i could have conceivably played hooky for a day trip to cats or soVT. i'm glad i didnt. it's really really cold today, and i have some good music on tap tonight in the city.
tomorrow is such a nonsense day of work. then we have my girlfriends bday dinner tomorrow, our friends xmas party saturday, my family hanukah dinner sunday, and then we leave for colorado super early monday morning (early enough to bag a few laps monday afternoon). ski thru 12/30. home night of 12/30. 2.5 days to relax hard before going back to work.
haven't had a real break since july 4 week. so stoked to disconnect and ski and be with gf, friends, family.
That was probably my ex.
First snow of the season is always worse. No material on the roads yet.
I am not sure if the drivers are worse here, CT, or it's just that there are more of us. I am actually in NY now but lived in southwestern CT for a loooong time.
Good snows w a Saab 900 has never let me down on the ( mostly) dirt road of Roxbury Gap Road.
If anything, its the driver more than the 4X or front or great tires - outside of studded Nokia's, some peope don't have a clue about ice, especially black ice. A 12 wheel drive isn't going to help.
My 9 year old and I tried to help out a brand new Jeep in a ditch just below the pass on Rox side Sunday around 5:30 - the girls just assumed 4WD would keep them on the road. Ultimately after smelling transmission burn and tire smoke I told her to call AAA.
SUV's help in 6+" as the Saab is low - but momentum and downshifting heading down hill are all skills seemingly lost on many.
Friday night after the Exit 9 stop in Warner NH - road turned to ice - 20MPH and cars flipped over - at least 3 - and an 18 wheeler in front of us w the trailer sliding sideways into the right lane - going 20. It was not pretty. By Exit 16 they had re salted/sanded. Rest of way was 50-60 w no issues.
no replacement for experience in snow and ice.
at least with high snowbanks it can be like bowling with bumpers in gutters.
If anything, its the driver more than the 4X or front or great tires - outside of studded Nokia's, some peope don't have a clue about ice, especially black ice. A 12 wheel drive isn't going to help.
My 9 year old and I tried to help out a brand new Jeep in a ditch just below the pass on Rox side Sunday around 5:30 - the girls just assumed 4WD would keep them on the road. Ultimately after smelling transmission burn and tire smoke I told her to call AAA.
SUV's help in 6+" as the Saab is low - but momentum and downshifting heading down hill are all skills seemingly lost on many.
Friday night after the Exit 9 stop in Warner NH - road turned to ice - 20MPH and cars flipped over - at least 3 - and an 18 wheeler in front of us w the trailer sliding sideways into the right lane - going 20. It was not pretty. By Exit 16 they had re salted/sanded. Rest of way was 50-60 w no issues.
no replacement for experience in snow and ice.
at least with high snowbanks it can be like bowling with bumpers in gutters.
You got a link on this 30% number?
I would also like to caution that there is a significant difference between snow performance and ice performance. I run Michelin Xice. They have the right idea, worry about ice because that's what is most likely to put you in the ditch.
SkiingInABlueDream
Active member
Driving home from Stowe Sunday night, there was a long backup on 100 heading back to 89 (Google map said accident). I turned around before passing it and Google rerouted me to some fairly winding and hilly side roads, all of which were very slippery. I made it through easily (AWD + snows + good driver[emoji846]) but I passed 2 or 3 cars on the climbs with blinkers on and slowly reversing down the hill. And ironically those cars all had green plates[emoji848] I certainly didn't wish any ill on those drivers, but I couldn't help thinking about forum posts dumping on "flatlander" drivers.
SkiingInABlueDream
Active member
4wd SUV with fully lockable diffs and Nokians!
But as a new Audi driver I'll agree Quattro is pretty sweet. My old WRX was more fun, in an irresponsible way, but I'm really impressed with how a modern AWD system (with good snows) makes easy work of slippery driving.
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kingslug
Well-known member
Thousands of years ago my favorite winter car was my 1972 Caddy Eldorado. 500 cube motor front wheel drive. I used to put those big snow tires on and blow down the road past everyone else ..who was stuck with rear wheel drive and bias ply tires or whatever they had. Never got stuck in that thing.
lol. 26 years ago I stopped off from a business trip to LA in Denver for a long weekend of skiing, meeting some friends who had a condo rented in Silverthorne. I had a mid sized car reserved at the old DIA airport. Avis tried to up sell me to a SUV. It's snowing, they said. It was indeed! You'll get stuck. You won't get through the pass they said. I resisted and ended up with a big old Caddy because there were no midsized cars left. That baby just plowed through the snow like nobody's business. We drove it to A basin and to Vail - just threw 3 or 4 pairs of skis in the trunk and cruised no problem.
One buddy even borrowed it to take his girl out for dinner.
Great ride!
kingslug
Well-known member
Too bad mine got 6 MPG...8 downhill
WWF-VT
Well-known member
FWIW - it took my son close to 5 hours to go from Stowe to Burlington on Sunday night. Over 20 cars off the road on 89 after Exit 11 in Richmond
Some car magazine article I read in a shop a month or so ago. They were comparing several models of snow tires vs all seasons on a couple different vehicles. The overall data averaged out to about 30% improvement on various tests for snows vs all seasons over a few different car models
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Maybe this? https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a3111/can-all-season-tires-really-handle-the-snow/
This article seem ridiculous, only 5-20% performance gain.
Actually, this Tire Rack video seems right on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s
Pretty significant difference seen in stopping and cornering on ice (only conditioni tested).
abc
Well-known member
That's the point!
"Overall" performance may be better "slightly". But it's on the marginal situation snow tires performance edge comes in handy. In fact, that's the ONLY time you really need it.
If the car with snow tire stops 5 feet shorter, and there's a tree 4 and 1/2 feet away. The "performance difference" is 100%
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