Here in East Yorkshire today we have had some proper snow, enough to make everyone drive at 20mph

So today was my first outing in the snow, 20” wheels and standard Pirelli zeros

Thought I would leave work earlyish to get back before dark, however 2 minutes down the road, TPM right rear, checked and sure enough a piece of flint making the tyre hiss. Anyway it’s just a wheel change, how hard can it be! Bo****ks deployable side steps, find booklet, spend 5 minutes locking steps out - find Allen key to take the 4 bolts out, remove step, so far so good. Now the jack - since when did you have to climb in a boot to get the jack!, and then winding the handle to lift the jack, with the jack trying to jump all over the street, put it in correct place, and slowly lifted the car, works well, but then looked at jack and it was at 25 degrees to the vertical, note to self - check out threads on bottle jacks. Anyway the rest of the change happened without incident, side step thrown in car - tomorrow’s job, hands washed in snow, and time to set off - now it’s dark

Real big snow flakes falling so headlights useless, car feels planted in a straight line, but junctions! As expected - brake and the ABS kicks in, but the RR keeps going, it has a lot of weight behind it and does not want to stop, all braking activities need plenty of pre planning. Pulling out of junctions the back end pushes quite strongly - even in snow mode, setting up some pretty nice 4 wheel drifts. It throws up a lot of road snow at the front so very quickly the headlights and fog lights are covered in thick snow. However no of these are real negatives, I think different tyres would help, and the inside is warm and Towry with all the heaters switched to on

Keep snowing and looking forward to tomorrow to play again, I mean get my puncture repaired

Have you tried Low Ratio in snow. Don't know about in snow but on mud/ gravel it seems to reduce speed without brake being applied.

get the bottle jack!

http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/11/driver-crush...r-6251909/

Didn’t try low ratio, it’s pretty flat around here and there seemed to be no need

Bottle jack is a must

Low ratio will increase your torque at the wheels, which could in theory break the traction of the tyre more easily than if it were in a higher gear. (Pull away in a manual gearbox in snow/ice is supposed to be 2nd so that the torque is reduced).

As for the snow / ice setting ... I'd personally say it works well on ice and slippery surfaces, but isn't so good for powering through deeper snow. The setting likes to kill the power to the wheels when it thinks you're slipping or loosing traction. Which is fine for driving on icy tarmac and thin slippery surfaces. However in deeper snow, there are times when you want to power through the deeper stuff ... and you end up fighting the traction control system. i.e. you ask for more to get the wheels spinning, and the system kills the power cause the wheels are spinning. In those cases the normal setting can be better.

Other thoughts...

Winter tyres ... they really do work notably better in these conditions.

Yes, under braking you feel the weight of the RR ... you have to be much more gentle on the brakes. gently on and slow down gradually is the order of the day. Gently (gingerly even) increase the power on the pedal until you get some braking and just hold it there ... if it kicks in the ABS, gently lift off a little and re-apply. Relying on hitting the pedal and letting the ABS do the work only serves to vastly increase the overall stopping distance. If you can drive in a manner that doesn't kick in the ABS, then that's better ...(but you still have the ABS available).

I was told when doing my blue light driving that modern car brains will try to do everything they can to put the car in the direction that the steering wheel is pointing. I've found this to be the case with the RR when in the ice/snow. For example, imagine you want to turn a sharp left and get a bit of a powerslide as you pull away. (I mean c'mon, its bloody fun right? ) If you bury the throttle on going round to try and kick the rear end out and get that power-slide, you invariably end up trying to apply some opposite lock to bring the car back in line. The car senses this ( i.e. you are steering right, and the car is skidding whilst pointing leftwards.) I've found that the car then kills the power, and hammers the ABS on the front right wheel to try and force grip on that wheel to bring the front back in line. Worth bearing in mind. V8 or else ...

OP

Did you really mean Pirelli Zero tyres rather than " Pirelli Scorpion Verde All-Season " because if you have zeros they will behave like slicks in the snow !

Tyres are the key for ice and snow I think. I have Pirelli scorpion zeros and it was very slidy in some slippery conditions last winter. I also got stuck on some muddy grass with all 4 wheels just spinning - which was embarrassing as it took 2 offroad discos to pull me out

Just always take it easy in the snow/ice as momentum is hard to stop especially without winter tyres whatever the systems the car may have. Simple (Friction based) physics takes over....

Last edited by Gazellio @ Prestige Cars on 1st Dec 2017 9:49am. Edited 1 time in total

^ common sense driving....  ... - .- -.




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Exactly Stan

as above !!

Hi Guys
Check out Blackcircles web site for a good deal on tyres you can get good winter or semi winter tyres that are used by the police in Germany and other scandian cold snowy countries the Nokian have a very good write up, I have bought two sets, I never skimp on tyres, It`s a no brainer because you have 4 wheels spinning thats 4 wheels with no grip.
better still give yourself time?

Before I returned to Land Rover I had an XC90. Spent one winter with just the normal summer Bridgestones on and I struggled to get the car off the drive some mornings.

Next winter I bought a set of Nokians. I think that it was 2010 and we had a lot of snow that winter and the council do not salt or clear the roads to our village. The Nokians totally transformed the car. It drastically reduced stopping distances and I always had grip, even driving up hills.

The crowning moment was when my neighbour called me for a tow to get him up the hill into our village. Now an XC90 doesn’t have a low ratio box or active terrain response. I arrived to help my neighbour who was in his brand new Disco 4 and pulled him up the hill no problem!

The rubber on the 4 corners of your car really is one of the most important things on you vehicle.....

Jim

I've kept the D1 as shooting truck / snow motor. I'm still not convinced that all the electrical gadgetry in the world will beat a mechanically locked 4x4 with AT's on

This is yesterday up in a nearby mountain .General GT's snow and gravel program and is she is unstoppable