Black Ice? Please Don't Panic!!!!!!

Paperbird

All this talk about how to drive and not one with the right information. At this time of year you should be using winter tyres or at least all season tyres and not summer tyres that give zero grip on ice.

Lum

Strider does have a valid point here. If you actually left that distance 7 cars would quickly fill it up.

This is also true for any other time you follow the correct stopping distance, even a 2s gap in the dry will soon have 3 more cars in it.

Does my head in.

cyclonebri1

ABS is a real problem for drivers with little nous or experience in such conditions.
It's been ingrained into motorists since abs 1st appeared that you slam on the brakes and the computer does the rest:eek: What utter tosh. All that happens then is you go skid roll skid roll skid roll and so on.

The skill is to brake so gently that the abs never has to come in, and if it does get off that pedal and regain control


And as said, keeping to advised stopping distances goes out of the window under such conditions, you can easily quadruple the space you need should the car in front lose control, remember his stopping distance/time is likely to be fairly instant as he's going to hit something that stops him

Strider590

pendulum wrote: »

Sounds like you're recounting a situation you nearly encountered this morning. Why don't you post the video up so we can tell you what you did wrong.

Won't be much to see other than a car 20m ahead of slamming on the brakes and getting it a bit sideways just as I myself hit that ice patch, with me screaming "don't brake you idiot!!!".

It wouldn't really make for exciting entertainment and is a waste of 30mins of my life cutting and editing a video.

Strider590

Here's what happens to braking distances.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TqCokaa4U8

Lum

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

ABS is a real problem for drivers with little nous or experience in such conditions.
It's been ingrained into motorists since abs 1st appeared that you slam on the brakes and the computer does the rest:eek: What utter tosh. All that happens then is you go skid roll skid roll skid roll and so on.

The skill mistake to brake so gently that the abs never has to come in, and if it does get of that pedal and regain control

I'm still in two minds whether to disable the ABS when the snow and ice finally reaches me. It's an easy enough job, just pull the fuse. Can't make up my mind on this one.

Might also disable the 4WD, making it RWD, but that's just for pratting about in empty car parks!

Trebor16

Strider590 wrote: »

At 40mph the following distance is what? 150ft? (giving a nice generous 3s gap as you should in wet conditions) it's said that in ice you need 10x that distance, so that's 1500ft. Do you expect anyone to drive 1/4 of a mile away from the car in front, when they're unaware of any ice on the roads during rush hour traffic at 8am?

I think the distance argument is mute in these conditions, the key is driver education in how to handle the conditions correctly.

It's a 4 second gap in the wet, not 3, and that is a minimum. So at 40 mph that would be a minimum gap of 235 feet.

VfM4meplse

Is there nothing car / tyre manufacturers can do to make motoring in these conditions safer? Do winter tyres really help or lull drivers into a false sense of ecurity? I've had so many near misses, snow and ice now scare me witless!

Strider590

Trebor16 wrote: »

It's a 4 second gap in the wet, not 3, and that is a minimum. So at 40 mph that would be a minimum gap of 235 feet.

Exactly, so that proves my point.... There's no realistic following distance on ice.

235ft x 10 = 0.4451miles

Half a mile following distance is simply never going to happen. Thus driver up front needs educating in the correct actions to take when driving on Ice.

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Is there nothing car / tyre manufacturers can do to make motoring in these conditions safer? Do winter tyres really help or lull drivers into a false sense of ecurity? I've had so many near misses, snow and ice now scare me witless!

No, they really do help A LOT in rain/snow.

But on sheet Ice, the only thing that's gonna save you is spikes tyre's.

The false sense of security crowd, they drive "fashion 4x4's".

Lum

They really do help, though there is the risk of thinking that they're so good you can drive as if it were a summer's day.

For me the biggest surprise was the improvement in braking on ice, however this wasn't a flat sheet of ice like Strider describes.

Here's a comparison of winter vs summer tyres that I posted last year, complete with nice pics of the car in silly amounts of snow.