🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BzFp62.L44@plato.ds.boeing.com> sml@plato.ds.boeing.com (Stuart Lewis) writes:
>
>Sorry, Mark, if I got a little inflamed.  Like I stated in my
>original post, you have to use common sense in the snow, and some of
>the techniques you cite will get you in trouble.  Don't take my word
>for it - ask any net.transplants who are from real snow country (Montana,
>the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming (me)) how they drive.

I grew up in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That area
gets an average of 220 inches of snow every winter. One winter had
more than 380 inches while I lived there. The roads up there are 
"snow covered and slippery" from about November 15 through the end of April.
I had 10 years experience driving in conditions like that.

My experience in driving on snow and ice agrees with pretty much everything
Stuart Lewis says in his posting. Mark Crispin's theoretical arguments
about weight transfer and contact patches are accurate for pavement,
but don't apply on really slippery surfaces. You CAN'T hit the brakes
or gas hard enough to cause any measurable weight transfer on really
slippery roads; the tires will spin or lock and slide way before they 
can develop enough tractive force to cause weight transfer. The
spinning or sliding tires can't steer or even keep the car going in a
straight line.

When the rear end breaks loose on ice in a rear wheel drive car, you back off
the gas (not necessarily all the way, but enough to remove the excess
tractive force that is causing the wheels to spin). The forward weight
transfer is almost insignificant. If the back end is sliding to the left,
the front of the car seems to be turning to the right, so you turn the
steering wheel to the left so the car is pointed in the direction you 
want to travel, instead of at the ditch. It always seemed so obviously 
natural to me that I could never understand why people have to 
think of it as "turning into the skid".