If I ever meet a Yankee who doesn't complain"You Southerners can't drive in the snow"

[Guest Letereat!]

The best way to learn to drive in the snow is to go out an play in it. Back when I was in high school, on snow days me and my buddies would go out driving all day. Never an accident. But, as was mentioned, there are a couple of factors at hand. A real snows are few and far between. We just don't get enough practice. So, when we get a snow I always make time to do a few donuts in the church parking lot, as few slides, etc. Then it all starts to come back.

Yep, same here, my favorite was a VW bug. So light it would plow through several inches and you could whail on it for hours and have more fun than 5 years of summers.

I was a lineman at the Island Home airport in the early 90s. I Got the unbeliveable furtune to be the lone man on duty one graveyard shift when we got 5-8 inches. I could not contain the compulsion to get in the crew car (91 ford tarus) and take it for a "test drive". Before I was finished I was hauling ass down the 3500 hundred ft runway near full speed and hammering the emergency break,or just stomping the pedal and spinning 150 degrees and then jamming the gas to the floor, ripping down the taxiway and cranking the wheel at 50 and 60 miles an hour for the most helllllatiously gratifying power slide in the history of the universe, I could have died that mourning and lived fulfilled. Luckily it snowed enough to "cover my tracks".

[daddyo]

We all know a Southerner's worst fear is a Yankee pulln a Uhaul!

My worst fear on the highway is a female driving an SUV while talking on her phone!!!

[peejman]

Driving the the snow is easy. Trouble is, the snow here turns to ice after the first day. Today being the perfect example of that.

Yesterday I had no trouble getting to work. The roads were snowy, but there was plenty of traction. Then it warmed up to near 32 deg during the day then dropped to near 20 over-night. This morning, ice everywhere. Roads are slicker'n monkey snot.

And just remember, while 4x4 may help you go, it does nothing to help you stop.

[Photoguy67]

Oh, I'm quite convinced that most people on the road have no idea how to drive. And that's irrelevant to where they are, where they grew up, or what the current weather happens to be.

+100

[Defender]

:)P.S. to learn to drive in the snow....one must drive in the snow. Go to an empty parking lot with 2-3+ inches and push it till you slide and spin, then back off till you don't. then progress to packed snow on an empty street get up to 10 or 20 and stomp the brakes, take some slow turns etc. You will quickly learn to NEVER stomp the breaks and just take it slow and make no sudden maneuvers. IF you dont end up in the ditch first or wrapped around a parking lot light pole.

Good advice. I'm from TN but when in the military lived all over and have driven in the snow in Europe, way up nside the Arctic Circle of northern Greenland, upstate New York, Michigan's Upper Penninsula...and I have to say that caution and practice are key. I've driven both 2WD and 4WD in snow and its the same...just take it easy and watch out for the other guy who aint!

[Defender]

My worst fear on the highway is a female driving an SUV while talking on her phone!!!

while looking in the rear view while applying makeup to her face, lol.

[Defender]

Yep, same here, my favorite was a VW bug. So light it would plow through several inches and you could whail on it for hours and have more fun than 5 years of summers.

I was a lineman at the Island Home airport in the early 90s. I Got the unbeliveable furtune to be the lone man on duty one graveyard shift when we got 5-8 inches. I could not contain the compulsion to get in the crew car (91 ford tarus) and take it for a "test drive". Before I was finished I was hauling ass down the 3500 hundred ft runway near full speed and hammering the emergency break,or just stomping the pedal and spinning 150 degrees and then jamming the gas to the floor, ripping down the taxiway and cranking the wheel at 50 and 60 miles an hour for the most helllllatiously gratifying power slide in the history of the universe, I could have died that mourning and lived fulfilled. Luckily it snowed enough to "cover my tracks".

Thats what I did at Thule Air Base in Greenland, lol, in a 4wd Chevy Surburban with filled sandbags in the back, lol. It's one sure way to learn the vehicles capabilities as well as your own!

[Guest Guy N. Cognito]

It's funny...people will admit to a bunch of personal failings, but I've yet to run into someone who will admit to being a bad driver or having a bad sense of humor. Every state I've lived in, the residents looooooved to claim how people from other states couldn't drive. Reconcile that, if you can.

Near as I can tell, every state has plenty of drivers who get around like a one night stand in Haiti*, regardless of road conditions, and plenty of folks who aren't funny. Neither cold, nor rain, nor everything else that the postman fears changes this, and it doesn't have any effect on their senses of humor either.

*If you didn't get it, they're Unsafe F****.

Ain't that the truth.

When a Northerner tells me that people down here can't drive in the snow, I agree with them. When it only snows once or twice a year, it's difficult to get proficient at driving in it.

To me, the biggest risk of driving in the snow around here is the handful of rednecks in 4x4 that think that they can handle the snow at any speed, and the people who are completely unwilling to admit that they might not be as good at driving in the snow as they think.

[Guest Letereat!]

Thats what I did at Thule Air Base in Greenland, lol, in a 4wd Chevy Surburban with filled sandbags in the back, lol. It's one sure way to learn the vehicles capabilities as well as your own!

Seven hundred some odd miles north of the Arctic Circle yea?! That would certainly be a stellar practice area for some snow "test driving".

We Dubbed it that in High school and if the driver declared he was entering "test drive" mode, it meant, put your seatbelt on now, grab the oh S*** handel if you got one... and hold on! It is amazing none of us died, there were many crashes and countless "how in the F*** did we not launch here or wipe out there" moments, two wheels around the curve in a Volvo station wagon,were gonna die full blown teenage maddness. Mostly on dry roads, snow came during the college years. Im convinced im a better driver for it.

Edited January 13, 2011 by Letereat!

[Red9MM]

We all know a Southerner's worst fear is a Yankee pulln a Uhaul!

+1