Snow Driving Tips and Techniques

I'm a desert dweller and I haven't driven in serious snow and ice for about 40 years. We get about an inch of snow maybe two or three times a year and it melts almost instantly. My off-roading is primarily dirt and rock. I'm basically a noob in the snow.

I was watching this video on YouTube about folks sliding on a relatively minor grade in Big Bear, California.



I had trouble determining which vehicles had chains and which didn't—I only saw chains clearly on one pickup.

It appears that the folks that had the wheels turning about 1–2 mph had better luck pulling out of the slide than the folks that had all their wheels locked up. Is there any truth to that? Is it a good idea to keep the wheels moving?

We're planning a trip to Crater Lake in Oregon and I expect lots of snow and ice. We plan on using chains (on the rear only) when needed. I always carry recovery straps, d-rings, etc. too. No winch though. I have a 2020 TRD Off-Road DCLB 4x4.

What are your best snow and ice driving tips?

 

No one would believe me, but not all snow is the same.

 

Look where you want to go.
Also situational awareness goes a long way.. do you see cars braking ahead? Did your wheels spin at the last stop? Does it feel like you have grip or no?

Fooling around in parking lots isn't just for kids. Knowing how to loop your truck under power out of a tight spot would've saved that white chevy from turning into a lump sliding down the hill.

Oh and if you just barely slid to a stop at the bottom of a hill expect the next guy to do the same.

 

When I drive I usully watch two or three cars ahead, or even farther when possible. That's a great driving tip, snow or not.

 

You definitely want to avoid locking up the wheels under braking. Pump them with short, quick pumps. A locked up wheel does nothing for you. Randomly test your traction with a firm, quick press of the brake pedal to see what kind of traction you have if and when you need to brake (when it's safe to do so). Don't follow others closely, drive at a sensible speed, you know...be smart about it and you'll be fine. Sounds like you have some preparations in place. Be safe and enjoy your trip.

 

They say no two flakes are alike..

 

I would.
Powder and below freezing temperature makes for easier going IF the depth isn't great. Packed powder on the road surface WITHOUT deicing chemicals AND with below freezing temp is relatively easy.
Wet, heavy snow is always a problem, both for traction and control.
Slushy snow is the worst (aside from glare ice) - the great the depth, the worse it can be for maintaining control.
Any kind of snow on an icy road surface is slightly worse than just plain ice. 4WD will help you get moving, and with the right driving skills maintain a bit more control (which ain't saying much), BUT stopping will be a challenge no matter what.
REAL snow tires help in most snow conditions until the snow depth starts to provide a lot of resistance to moving.
Chains are a must for extreme conditions BUT also require reduced speed. Again, snow depth can become an issue. Once you've packed enough snow between the ground and your skid plates, you essentially lift the tires off the ground and now you've got no traction. The only way out involves a snow shovel.
EDIT: Rolling wheels offer more control than locked-up wheels. NEVER slam on the brakes - pump rapidly (or let ABS do its job), but ALWAYS allow the wheels to turn. Steering with locked-up front wheels will NOT change your direction. Often with an auto I've found stopping to be more effective by popping it into neutral.
This comes from 54 Winters of New England driving.
I find that it's very often the other idiots on the road that create more problems than the Winter conditions do.

 

there's two kinds of friction: static and dynamic. Static keeps something from moving while it's stopped, dynamic is the resistance to something that is already in motion. Static friction is always a greater force than dynamic, meaning something has more grip when it's not moving.

This is relevant because it's why ABS brakes work so damn well, and it's why locking your tires up on ice is bad. When the tire is rotating normally over a surface, the coefficient of friction in play is the static one. As soon as a tire starts slipping over something like ice, the coefficient is dynamic. Again - dynamic has less grip. So ABS works by constantly trying to bring the tires into Static movement with the ground (by rolling) to increase the friction coefficient, and then pulsing into brake mode (which as soon as it slips will become dynamic).

Ice is no different. In a slide, you want to align your tires in the direction you're headed and not lock them up. This massively increases the friction coefficient. It may not save you from sliding - but it sure helps. And don't spin your tires if you're trying to go uphill. use the crawl control if you have to. Spinning == less friction.

My number one piece of advice and tip for snow driving is do not listen to anyone who says it's easy and don't worry about it if they come from a flat state. Anyone can drive on snow/ice if it's perfectly flat.

Other useful things:
1) Go slower than you think you need to and don't trust the people around you.
2) Always have an exit plan or escape route for any segment of road you are approaching or need to stop on/at.
3) You will have more grip in deeper snow. If you are losing grip, don't drive in the ruts, drive in the deeper snow. The deeper snow provides more resistance to your tire in the front, requiring more energy to rotate, and will also provide friction/grip on the side of the tires which will let you change direction better.
4) 4wd helps you go, it doesn't help you stop. slowly apply brakes and never lock up your tires.
5) Never assume you can stop at a red light on a slope.
6) bring a bag of sand/clay cat litter in the bed. It's great if you do get stuck or if you need to help someone else
7) Add as much weight as you can over the bed. You can fishtail reaaaaaally easily with an unloaded bed.
8) Air down your tires if you need more traction, even a little bit.
9) Never stop on the side of the road unless there's someone many car lengths behind you on the side as well in order to absorb a collision. Also don't stop on offramps. stop on the onramp.
10) Have good de-icer.
11) If you're on the highway, don't be the 'cool person' zooming past everyone in the left lane. Tires generate heat and heat melts snow, the more travelled lane will have less snow/ice than the less travelled lane [/EDITED]. This applies until the snow or ice is too cold/deep to melt. Then that left lane can have more traction (see point 3 above).
12) changing lanes on the highway is an adventure. There's lots of slush and crap between the lanes. Anticipate there will be a speed change, and your truck will want to change direction angle.

 

Unfortunately, it's other drivers you need to worry about the most. You can be completely prepared and experienced in driving on snowy, slushy, icy roads only to get taken out by somebody else without warning. Keep your eyes peeled.

 

Don't you mean "... the more travelled lane will have less snow/ice than the less travelled lane."?

 

Couple things to remember when driving on ice, and snow when in 4wd. You have twice the traction than a 2wd vehicle, but 1/2 the ability, or less to slow down in time.
Doesn't hurt to keep some extra weight in the trucks bed either. Also best to have tires with the snowflake symbol.

 

My comments are only a small part of the good advice posted so far.
Aside from the driving skills, 2 VERY good pieces of advice:
- Pay attention to all of the other vehicles within sight, both ahead AND behind, and
- Always have an escape route in mind when things get dicey, and even when they are not.

 

Wow, I was there that day the first half of the video was shot coming back from sledding. I crossed that intersection and remember the crashed white subie there acting like a curling target haha. It was literally like that! Thankfully I made it through unscathed. Only because I had room to back up at the red light. Saw a chick in a rubicon sliding down the hill right at me. I reversed at the last second so she crashed into another stuck car instead lol. That day was madness

 

It looks like there must have been some ice under that snow.

 

Absolutely true. There's three types:
Western snow which has low water content (powder) and not real slick
Eastern snow which has high water content (wet snow) and slick as shit
Snow covered Ice and that is slickest of all.

OP, if your wheels are not turning you have zero control of your vehicle. Wheels have to be turning to steer.
Go slow but keep going.
Last tip... turn off VSC so when starting from a standstill, your truck won't retard throttle when it detects wheel slip.

 

Oh I believe you. I've driven through over a foot of snow many times in Colorado which was much easier than 1" here in GA.


Snow isn't bad. I only watched the 1st few minutes of the video but most of what I saw was ice. A light 1-2" of snow will get compacted and essentially become ice which is what that looked like. If you have 3-4" or more it is actually easier. Air temperature matters too. If you're right at 32 or even a bit warmer the snow partially melts and you end up with a film of water on the ice. Spinning tires, or locking them up heats up the rubber which melts the snow too which means a film or water between tires and snow. Either way not good.

If it is well below freezing and your tires are cold they really stick. They even stick pretty well to ice. That is part of the reason it is easier to drive in snow in northern areas than the rare snow in the south. Often the surface of roads here are pretty warm when the snow starts. That means you get melting and re-freezing into ice much more quickly.

 

As a native Texan who is learning to drive in winter conditions in Colorado I found this meme to be legitimately helpful.



Slow, deliberate and methodical driving is what I think of.

 

4x4 helps you get started in the snow. It doesn't help you stop in snow.

Give extra following distance, lots of extra braking distance, and don't lock your brakes. Hit them gently.

 

Wheel speed affects your ability to steer in the direction you want to go. Stopping the wheel spin makes you go where momentum will take you. You need to lightly press the brake and the gas peddles. In addition, I will say that I have not seen any light trucks or cars that can safely go over 40mph on the flat snow-covered roads here in northwest Indiana.

 

Looks like the conditions in that video were ideal to make super slick compacted snow. Doesn't look like there was ice under the snow, the snow was just packed down to make a very slick surface which can happen (maybe even some freezing/unfreezing/freezing cycles of the snow on the top surface). When temperatures hover around freezing you can often get the worst road conditions.

In general snow on snow traction isn't bad. A decent set of tires will pick up a bit of snow providing adequate traction with snow on the road.

As others have said the most dangerous part of winter driving are the other drivers, especially the assholes that tailgate you. Just drive very defensively.

Assuming you have a Tacoma with selectable 4wd, 4wd does help with braking. Very common for people to say 4x4 doesn't help with braking (this is true if center diff is open). The locked center diff evens out how much braking the front and rear wheels provide. If in 2wd, almost all the braking is done with the front wheels which can quickly lose traction in some conditions. With that being said it is still best to drive well under speed limits and make sure to have plenty of stopping distance.

Snow/winter driving is mostly something you have to get a feel for so practice where you can but also know that conditions differ greatly. Slow, intentional movements are needed to maintain traction.

Lastly, intersections and particularly stop sign and stop light intersections tend to be the most slippery areas. Car exhaust has a decent amount of moisture in it which will freeze on the road surface. Snow also tends to get packed down at these locations because of slow speeds vs. highways where snow is blown off the road by the cars moving fast.