Might sound stupid but is it a good idea, when traveling downhill on a snowy roads if the car starts to skid down without stopping no matter what, is it a good idea to shift to reverse and accelerate? Or is there any way except avoiding hills? Thanks

 

oh my god NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

if the car is traveling forward and you will put it in reverse there is a big chance that you can kiss your tranny good-bye!!!!

your best bet will be to downshift and break with the engine as well as pumping your brakes instead of slamming on them.

 

man if u shift to reverse while driving forward U gonna kill your car......just shift to 1st or better keep it in 1st all the time while driving downhill.You can also keep on pressing the brake and letting really fast (kinda like pumping them)

Sorry for gramma Im Polish...

 

Oh man I was 2 min to late, well Im a slow typer...

 

Don't pump your breaks. You have ABS

 

i still preffer pumping the breaks over the ABS (as you can tell i am not a fan of ABS )

but the most important thing is that we all agree not to put it in reverse

 

Yeah I used to live in the mountains(in Poland) and when road is really icy ABS doesnt really help.

 

Step on brake and PULL E-BRAKE together until u got the car to stop.

 

The thing is that I can't avoid hills iin my area and every time I try to go donwhill when snowing, the car's mass tends to make my car travel downward no matter what, even with good snow tires or what ever, e-brake, pumping on brakes. Today I luckly stopped by pulling into a soft plowed pile of snow but is there really any methods? Thanks so much.

 

Yes Go down in first gear and only first while keeping your foot slightly on break pedal. Take your time better safe than sorry.

 

Man if u pull your E-brake, while the road is icy, u gonna make couple 360 and end up wrapped around a tree, unless u wanna practice your drifting skills.....

 

Best thing to do is keep the car in a low gear(1st if need be) and creep down the hill if you have to. You wanna avoid the breaks and use a very light touch if you have to use the throttle,its very impt. not to lock the tires up, let them do their job.

The key is you wanna keeps the tires rotating. Whoever said grab the e-brake is clueless. Thats the kind of advice that could get someone killed. If you were to do that, the rear end locks up, therefore it comes around on you. So now your going down the hill backwards with no control at all.

If you don't have alot of experience in the snow, go to a big empty parking lot thats snowed over with no curbs and the like. Then pratice doing fishtails,doughnuts and what not. It will give you a good feel of how your car reacts in bad conditions.

 

That's fine to do if you switched off the ABS, but if you are pumping an ABS car you are only making it worse. Every time you pump you interrupt the calculations that ABS is trying to make to keep the tires rolling. Not good.

 

AS I posted before my house in Poland is quite high in mountains, my EVO 5 ABS didnt do **** when driving downhill, pumping the brakes saved my *** once (there is no ramps in PL)
But best advice is to get a car like wrangler(cheap $5000 or less), with blocking diff.

 

You can't possibly outperform your ABS by pumping your foot in an emergency stop. In fact if you have ABS AND you still try to pump the brakes, the 2 actions will conflict and neither will work as well as intended.

Other 'not so good' advice is to pull your e brake when trying to stop. As mentioned above, pulling your e brake is only going to get you spinning into an instant 180.

What you should be doing to avoid trouble going down hill in snow is to plan ahead. Stay in a low gear (2nd at most), go slow, if you have to stop quickly, hit and hold your brakes. ABS will turn on when you pass the limits of adhesion of your tires. With ABS, if you still aren't stopping fast enough to avoid trouble, you can still turn.

SC~