BlindPirate said:I enjoy driving on snow and ice as long as I can see where I am going. Living in the country I find the blizzard thing stressful and difficult to drive in.
I can understand that. Whiteouts aren't fun. On the other hand there rarely are other cars out in the really bad ones.
I was joking frenchy. Just had a mental image of a school bus drifting hanging it's back end out to dry with those kids, well you know the type that always tries to grab the back row, cheering and egging the driver on. (Not that you would purposely drive in a manner like that with kids aboard)
In reply to Apexcarver :
Thanks. No you're right. Taking precious cargo to and from school my heads on a swivel looking to avoid potential dangers.
Although I have hung the 40 footers out once in a while before any kids are on the bus. Some of the winding roads around the lake just beg for that treatment. ;-)
In reply to frenchyd :
I taught my sons on an icy pond in a Saab 99. Good times and no accidents.
Learned to love quattros in the snow when I had switchable locks on the center diff or center and rear diff. Taught my son about traction with a S10 pickup, drifting in 2WD then turning on 4WD and no drift just go. Right now between a prius and 2wd silverado I am staying inside doing this!
frenchyd said:Antihero said:We keep getting freezing rain here on top of ice and hard pack.
Fun is not had
Start driving on frozen lakes ( make sure the ice is thick enough first) you'll quickly get the touch and since the middle of the lake tends to be devoid of obstacles you can make plenty of mistakes and learn the feeling of control while sliding.
If the highway was like a frozen lake and I was the only one on it, fun would be had.
But the no fun part comes from other people on the same road, usually going too fast with poor tires
It's a good thing you're not doing this on a perfectly dry race track in a Crown Vic with safety equipment on... That would be WAYYY worse.
In reply to frenchyd :
Sounds like fun!
My wife told me that Minnetonka got something like 11.5" of snow yesterday. I guess she still has alerts set-up from all the trips I've made to MN.
We had 6" of sand on the beach yesterday..does that count 
In reply to RX Reven' :
You win! I'm officially envious.
Antihero said:frenchyd said:Antihero said:We keep getting freezing rain here on top of ice and hard pack.
Fun is not had
Start driving on frozen lakes ( make sure the ice is thick enough first) you'll quickly get the touch and since the middle of the lake tends to be devoid of obstacles you can make plenty of mistakes and learn the feeling of control while sliding.
If the highway was like a frozen lake and I was the only one on it, fun would be had.
But the no fun part comes from other people on the same road, usually going too fast with poor tires
The nice thing is snow/ ice makes bad drivers really look bad, so easy to spot.
During heavy snow etc. traffic is extremely light and with 6 lanes and wide shoulders it's so easy to avoid them.
But Lane discipline isn't their strength.
So you move over a couple of lanes to be as far away from them as possible when you go by. 1/4 mile up the road you spot another but in the fast lane going maybe 20-25. So you pull over to the slow lane to go by.
Frenchi, that's funny. My brother drives school bus in Minneapolis. Every time there is a school bus driver shooting I have to call him and find out if that was him. This wasn't you was it?
Minneapolis school bus driver shot in the head while students on board
frenchyd said:Antihero said:frenchyd said:Antihero said:We keep getting freezing rain here on top of ice and hard pack.
Fun is not had
Start driving on frozen lakes ( make sure the ice is thick enough first) you'll quickly get the touch and since the middle of the lake tends to be devoid of obstacles you can make plenty of mistakes and learn the feeling of control while sliding.
If the highway was like a frozen lake and I was the only one on it, fun would be had.
But the no fun part comes from other people on the same road, usually going too fast with poor tires
The nice thing is snow/ ice makes bad drivers really look bad, so easy to spot.
During heavy snow etc. traffic is extremely light and with 6 lanes and wide shoulders it's so easy to avoid them.
But Lane discipline isn't their strength.
So you move over a couple of lanes to be as far away from them as possible when you go by. 1/4 mile up the road you spot another but in the fast lane going maybe 20-25. So you pull over to the slow lane to go by.
There is no place within 2 hours of me that isn't a 2 lane road, although lane discipline is still a problem
In reply to Antihero :
Do you mean like when there are two cars heading at you, in both lanes?
VolvoHeretic said:In reply to Antihero :
Do you mean like when there are two cars heading at you, in both lanes?
Oh yeah, one usually somewhat sideways trying to pass the other.
My neighborhood has a 1/4 mile 10% grade at the entrance. I've seen a car parked in the road installing chains while a second car is throwing chain sparks and failing to pass them in the oncoming lane.
Funny you should mention the buses Frenchy. Back when I was driving them, I would go to a secluded spot with my bus, and "knock the rust off". That little bit of practice helped in case of surprises on the road.
Frenchy posts this..
Bus tips over in waconia close to where he lives.
makes you think..
Stay safe Frenchy
VolvoHeretic said:Frenchi, that's funny. My brother drives school bus in Minneapolis. Every time there is a school bus driver shooting I have to call him and find out if that was him. This wasn't you was it?
Minneapolis school bus driver shot in the head while students on board
That's one of the reasons my Boss stopped working for the Hopkins school district.
Going into North Minneapolis had done serious damage to some of our drivers.
Mothers(?!!!) climbed on one of our buses and beat the hell out of one driver ( concussion, black eyes, broken ribs, and broken nose) because he kept to the schedule rather than wait until the mothers decided to send their children out.
He was a big strong guy. Several female drivers tried to reason with the mothers but they wanted the bus to come when then were ready not on schedule.
8-9 year old kids threatened my life because I made them sit down while the bus was in motion.
Snows on all of our cars have been one of the best decisions I have made, in fact my wife said yesterday that she would not feel comfortable drive around without them. Its funny how few people really understand the benefit of cold weather/snow tires. When our third kid was born we needed a bigger vehicle and my wife was dead set against a mini van. I had settled on getting a R class Merc, they were unloved so cheapish and plenty large enough for three kids. I took the wife to one of the local Mercedes dealers to test drive one, no intention of buying that exact one just wanted to have the wife drive one to make sure she was OK with it. It was winter time and there was some snow on the ground and during the drive I mentioned getting a set of wheels and snows for it. The sales guy in the back seat spoke up and said that the car was all wheel drive and didn't need snow tires, my wife looked at me and rolled her eyes.
Fueled by Caffeine said:Frenchy posts this..
Bus tips over in waconia close to where he lives.
makes you think..
Stay safe Frenchy
It can happen all to easily with white outs or even just a lack of familiarity with the roads. Given the average turn over with school bus drivers. Some districts have more than75% turn over annually.
School bus Drivers tests are more about familiarity with procedures and policies than actual driving skills. About the most complex thing to do is not drive over the curbs. If I remember correctly it's about 10 hours behind the wheel and you're ready to test. I think it took 3 days to complete that.
Once you have a Class B. It's very easy to go to work for more than twice the money as a delivery driver.
Stay at home mothers can bring their children with them and drive routes so they don't need day care. Retired people too old to get another job are the prime source of employees.
Aaron_King said:Snows on all of our cars have been one of the best decisions I have made, in fact my wife said yesterday that she would not feel comfortable drive around without them. Its funny how few people really understand the benefit of cold weather/snow tires. When our third kid was born we needed a bigger vehicle and my wife was dead set against a mini van. I had settled on getting a R class Merc, they were unloved so cheapish and plenty large enough for three kids. I took the wife to one of the local Mercedes dealers to test drive one, no intention of buying that exact one just wanted to have the wife drive one to make sure she was OK with it. It was winter time and there was some snow on the ground and during the drive I mentioned getting a set of wheels and snows for it. The sales guy in the back seat spoke up and said that the car was all wheel drive and didn't need snow tires, my wife looked at me and rolled her eyes.
Absolutely. But it's amazing how few people really understand that.
I started snow season without snow tires, just 4wd and all seasons. It sucked bad. Couldn't make it up the driveway. Today I came up the driveway through 6" of slush. I would estimate our driveway over 25%
Aaron_King said:Snows on all of our cars have been one of the best decisions I have made, in fact my wife said yesterday that she would not feel comfortable drive around without them. Its funny how few people really understand the benefit of cold weather/snow tires. When our third kid was born we needed a bigger vehicle and my wife was dead set against a mini van. I had settled on getting a R class Merc, they were unloved so cheapish and plenty large enough for three kids. I took the wife to one of the local Mercedes dealers to test drive one, no intention of buying that exact one just wanted to have the wife drive one to make sure she was OK with it. It was winter time and there was some snow on the ground and during the drive I mentioned getting a set of wheels and snows for it. The sales guy in the back seat spoke up and said that the car was all wheel drive and didn't need snow tires, my wife looked at me and rolled her eyes.
I remember a Subaru commercial from ~10 years ago talking about how Subaru's AWD means you don't need snow tires anymore. That made me angry...
Honestly, the only people I know that don't pretty much insist on snow tires are people who have never driven on them (or only have experience with snow tires from 40+ years ago).
I like driving in snow, but hate all the people around me with no clue how to drive in it. One person is flying by at 70mph while the next has the hazards on at 10mph.....
Dont get me started on what the road salt is doing to my car.....
me too, the worse the conditions the more fun. My wife snapped at me the other day because I have been unconsciously Scandinavian flicking the minivan everywhere.
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