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Not the best presenter. Telling us things we already know. A friend of a friend has one of those V6 Volks jobbies. No low range and 18 or 19" wheels. Great for towing on black top but FU for anything else.
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Certainly helped my Mk 2 Escort when we lived in the Pennines. I got a couple of bags of sand from the builders merchant.
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My mum would get around OK in the snow in her Mercedes 280 auto with a couple of paving slabs in the boot. That was 30 years ago. She reckoned a third slab would make the car undriveable. At the time my stepdad and I were running Citroen CXs; we knew we would be OK in the snow.
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About 50 years ago I had a test drive in a Jago Jeep. It was so light and prone to wheel spin that a weight in the back would have been a benefit on any surface.
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>> My mum would get around OK in the snow in her Mercedes 280 auto with
>> a couple of paving slabs in the boot. That was 30 years ago. She reckoned
>> a third slab would make the car undriveable. At the time my stepdad and I
>> were running Citroen CXs; we knew we would be OK in the snow.
The CX's braking was improved by weight at the back - enough to ease off the load compensator and allow the rear wheels to contribute.
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sure it helps, a couple bags of road salt and a sack of spuds, would be for me
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Adding weight to the back is one way to overcome loss of traction of course, but it's at least as important to be circumspect about the amount of weight you apply to the pedals, or more accurately, the rate at which you add that weight.
;-)
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I would also have a couple of bags of sand in the back of Peugeot 504s and 505s, if snow was around. This was back in the 70s and 80s. Modern cars would of course have traction control so it may not be so relevant these days.
A Peugeot 205 diesel in the mid 80s was also excellent, a heavy diesel engine over the front wheels, with manual gearbox and sensible tyres got me around in most weather.
Particularly excellent was a Citroen GS. FWD and the handbrake worked on the front wheels, so if one wheel span you could apply the handbrake very slightly to prevent it spinning. A very crude but surprisingly effective limited-slip arrangement. That combined with a very torquey boxer engine, adjustable ride height, narrow tyres and a low overall weight, that car was almost unstoppable in snow as we had in 1981/2. I remember driving up the A4 out of Box to Corsham, passing many abandoned vehicles on the way. In those days only farmers tended to have 4x4s.
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If you could see the amount of ballast the trials boys add over the driving wheels then it must be advantageous. I found the tyres made the most difference.
There's a rule for Production Car Trials now that there must not be a gap of more than 9mm between tread blocks. My Uniroyal Raintyres would fail that. Would be interesting to see how they cope with snow.
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>>My Uniroyal Raintyres would fail that. Would be interesting to see how they cope with snow.
Going by my experience of Rainsport 3, they are phenomenal in standing water and very average in snow.
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I'm the first to admit that I'd never been all that convinced of having any need for winter tyres. But, a couple of years ago I got some which are currently on my Merc E class. This morning, the roads around here were like an ice rink. Hadn't been gritted and black ice everywhere.
Lots of vehicles of all drive configurations were struggling for grip, and in fact there has been a bad accident due to ice not far from here this morning.
On one hill, there were vehicles stuck at the bottom unable to get enough traction to get up it and you could see many drivers getting their cars all crossed up on the bends.
Our RWD Merc on full winters was fine, I could feel that the surface was like glass, but the tyres were finding at least some grip, and we were able to get up the hill that even some 4x4s on (presumably) summer tyres couldn't.
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>> Our RWD Merc on full winters was fine, I could feel that the surface was like glass, but the tyres were finding at least some grip, and we were able to get up the hill that even some 4x4s on (presumably) summer tyres couldn't.
You'll find on fresh and compacted snow they are laughably better than summer tyres.
The compromise is summer grip (dry and wet) isn't as good at the limits, and handling won't be as sharp as the tread blocks deflect a bit more.
I never found Michelin winter tyres wore any faster than summer despite the conventional wisdom of winter tyres being made of cheese.
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Yes, they were good in "proper" snow in the Alps Lygonos, to be honest, I never got around to taking them off last summer, the car wasn't really going far enough to bother.
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I put Avon ZV7s on my E Class, a year or more back.
Being the way I am, I went through all the 'A' graded in the wet tyres. Then the cheapest ones with a name I recognised and paid about £75? a corner, I think.
They have been very good.
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In the 1980's BMW Owner's Manual (much more practical and intelligent than these days) used to recommened putting bags of sand in both rear foorwells rather than the boot to mitigate pendulum effect. I wouldn't be surprised if it states the exact number of kilograms too.
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>>1980's BMW Owner's Manual used to recommened putting bags of sand in both rear foorwells
Were they an optional extra in black waterproof sacks with a BMW logo on them and available for a few £££s at the local glass palace ?
Maybe ask your rear seat passengers to sit on the floor?
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>> In the 1980's BMW Owner's Manual (much more practical and intelligent than these days) used
>> to recommened putting bags of sand in both rear foorwells rather than the boot to
>> mitigate pendulum effect. I wouldn't be surprised if it states the exact number of kilograms
>> too.
I can see the point of that. Adding weight behind the rear axle would effectively make the front lighter. Putting it in the rear passenger footwell, in front of the rear axle, effectively adds a little to the front.
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RWD+snow - does adding weight to the back help? - MD
