Chionophobia: Intense fear of snow

Ummm...... I don't think studded tire or chains are allowed in Chicago where the OP is located.

 

My wife grew up with a dad that claimed winters were a waste of money, she'd lock up all deep freeze and never drive.

Once I got her winters the fear was alleviated.

Any winter tire will reduce the fear of driving. KO2's don't cut it.

Tires like Blizzak, Toyo GSI6, Michelin Xice are all studless and designed with city use in mind.

 

Sorry not familiar with all driving laws around the world.

 

excellent, thank you!!

 

California girl... I'll keep you posted come about February

 

Chicago…. Stay off the roads after the first snow. There will be lots of incidents with unaware drivers. Last time I was in nyc I watched an accord bounce from one side of the 3 lanes to the other off the cement dividers. There was about 2” on the ground. Keep your distance whenever possible.

 

You should buy some long underwear, maybe a long sleeve shirt too.

 

If any doubt just switch into 4wd you will be fine take it easy

 

Best public transit in the midwest, take advantage of that on your snow days

Great advice here but you're in a tough learning environment!

 

Ooohh sorry to hear California. You may grow to love the snow, but you will always hate the extreme cold weather. They don't call it the Windy City for nuthin'.

 

Chicago crime is skyrocketing, lets encourage a young female to take public transport by herself instead of learning to drive in the snow!

lmao

Seriously though just drive slow and realize your weakpoint is your ability to stop.

 

Your weak point is the ability to stop yes, but other driver are the real problem.

 

Also if you do get stuck turn off traction control.

 

The first rule of snow is that it amplifies all mistakes.

Do absolutely everything gently with as little force as necessary to accomplish your goals. You want to accelerate gently, slow down gently, and steer gently (and slowly).

Driving a vehicle is all about maintaining friction with the road, I'm sure you have a feel for what sort of turn you can take at what sort of speed on a dry road, and a wet road. A snowy road is simply a continuance of that loss of friction. If you can take a turn at 40 on dry, you can probably do 25-30 on a wet road. On snow you should be doing 10-15. The same applies to slowing down. If you can stop your truck in 100 feet from x speed dry, and 150 feet wet, you should give yourself 200 feet or more to slow down from x speed in snow.

There's also the fun part where not all snow is created equal. Sometimes it's heavy wet snow, sometimes it's a super dry powder. Sometimes you get an ice crust over wet snow, sometimes you get ice and then a snow layer (which is the absolute worse case scenario in all scenarios). Practice makes perfect but always be gentle.

 

Extra weight in the rear is a must. Sandbags work well but so does anything with weight to it. My personal favorite is snow. You get a good workout shoveling it into the bed and it will self empty once it gets warm enough. Learned that in Nebraska.

 

Can confirm, the sharper corners of kitty litter work way better than sand. The fine sand you get in sandbags tends to slide with ice. Better yet though grab a bag of crushed lava rock and keep it in the truck for easy grip in a bad situation. That's what we do up in Northern British Columbia.

 

best advice here.

I describe it as your grandma is in the passenger seat wearing her Sunday best holding a big bowl of soup and you are driving her to her dancing club.

Winter tires are in no way a bad investment. I typically argue they are not necessary for those below the Great Lakes but they certainly are not bad in anyways, just a high cost

 

Get good winter tires, 4 wheel drive dont mean 4 wheel stop and drive like you've got a bowl of hot water on your lap.

 

You can get big bags of plain clay cat litter for relatively cheap.