Prius in the snow

Sounds a bit like driving on wet clay.
On wet clay it helps to lower tyre pressure, does that help on ice or snow?

Please excuse my ignorance, I have never seen snow but I have seen a lot of wet slipery clay.

 

I have an 07 prius. I'm not sure if it was the VSC but when i was making it up a slight inclined offramp from a dead stop from being at a light I could not move at all. I did slip a little but i really had to go out and 'shovel the snow in front of my wheels with my hands.

I bought a shovel as soon as I got home

 

http://www.autosock.com

As I mentioned in an other thread, I have friends who have used this product and they are pleased with it.

 

Excellent points all around. I was impressed with how well the Prius handled in the snow, until I got to the hill right before my house. Traction control kicked in and brought the car to a stop. Then gravity kicked in and I started sliding backwards. That's an uncomfortable feeling, to say the least. I'm going to do a bit of research on this Autosock...

 

My wife drove home to the Boston area from Providence last night, and while it was a harrowing drive, even at avg 15-20 mph, she said the car's handling was fine and she never felt out of control. She said she didn't see a patch of pavement during the 4 hours she spent driving (3:00pm-7:00pm), that I-95 was basically snow-pack the whole way. People were still blowing past her at 40+mph, probably driving 4wd SUVs, thinking they're impervious...

I've driven up ice-packed hills in the Prius, and while the traction control sometimes makes me worry that I'll stop and back-slide, it hasn't happened to me yet. And we still have the stock tires.

The real message here is, use a lot of extra caution driving in slippery conditions in ANY car. Even a 4wd one. If you live on a hill or in a hilly area, snow tires are probably a wise investment. This is my second winter driving around on the Integrities though, and I don't have a complaint.

 

Until I put on the studded Goodyear Nordic - AKA Goodyear Ultra Grip 500 - tires last winter, that was entirely true. Thanks to the tires, on snow less than 4 inches, and on glare ice, the car is unbeatable

http://eu.goodyear.com/home_en/tires/repository/UltraGrip500/index.jsp?page=benefits

If you click on "Profile" a Flash presentation loads.

This is a great tire, but I have to warn the Canadian Prius owners that it is VERY noisy on dry pavement. At speeds of 50-65 km/h they howl like an old design mud tire. However, they work very well

After our blizzard yesterday, I went for a drive in my FJ Cruiser, which has Toyo Open Country G-02 Plus studless snow tires. I left it in 2H and purposely drove one side into large drifts

Even when the FJ came to a stop, giving it gas allowed the Trac to brake the spinning wheel, and the vehicle still tried to plow through the snow. With my Prius, once it bogs down, that's it. It almost feels like the car is straining to move, but any hint of wheelspin and there is no power whatsoever

I was stranded at my hobby farm a couple of times last winter when the car simply couldn't go through drifts or rutted roads. Some folks suggest flooring the gas pedal and leaving it floored, for older drivers who grew up on snowy/icy roads that is counter-intuitive and DANGEROUS

Whether in my FJ or my Prius, I drive very conservatively to match the conditions. Even on studded tires, I never exceed 65 km/h on ice, and never have problems. I have had idiots blow past me on icy roads, only to end up in a ditch a few miles ahead.

I'm heading out soon to spend this weekend at the hobby farm. As usual, I'm taking the FJ.

 

I'm one of those people, and I deliberately tested it on the longest steepest hill in the area with a good 4" of unplowed fresh snow (this is Chicago suburbs remember, so that's about a 5-6% grade for 1/4 mile). I've also driven up steeper (7%?) driveways that were ice-covered skating rinks, but only 40 or 50 feet long.

I think that's something that changed in or during 2006, as my Prius will briefly pulse the tires when slipping, much like ABS it appears. I would see my odometer rise and fall as the tires slipped and spun, then were reined back and gripped for awhile. It was done fast enough that the car never came to a stop. I made it up the test hill if I kept the accelerator in all the time (but not necessarily to the floor), but if I deliberately stopped midway up the hill, I couldn't make it another foot.

If I see a good really icy test (but still safe), I'll be sure to try it out some more, see if I can get it to fail. So far it's operated like a well-behaved normal FWD car.

 

I'd love to get this mod done to my car. Would you please provide documentation or other details that I can give to the dealer to get them to do the mod. I called the dealer. They're looking into it. But other dealers didn't know about this mod (I've asked if this was possible several times and was always told it was not). If this dealer says the same thing, I'd like to show them some proof that you had it done.

Thanks, Frank

 

Hey nerfer,

I can't help wondering which hill you used around here?

No particular reason, just simple curiosity.

 

Try Letting Prius Drive, Instead of You

In that Boston storm, Prius and I passed many 4-wheel drives (Rav-4, etc.) because the drivers seem to be under some delusion that pressing the accelerator harder will somehow force the vehicle to create traction and move through the snow.

But we all know, it is the opposite. Take your foot OFF THE GAS, and let the traction control and skid control work their magic. Prius quietly zipped around countless (clueless) 4-wheelers last night, without the wheels spinning, and in total control.

Yep, on OEM tires, in an '05 Prius. Bottom line... lighten up on the gas, and everything will be fine.

 

I may purchase that Autosock. It seems like it would do the trick and take up very little space and weight to carry around 24/7.

My only concern is whether CalTrans will allow me to pass when they are running chain control checkpoints. I'm off to do some research on that.

 

According to the Autosock web site, autococks are not legal when chains are required by law.

 

Thanks Daniel.

I did some searching on the web and it seems CalTrans has been putting on/attending demonstrations on AutoSocks and according to these articles the outlook is favorable. Maybe they will chnage the rules for this item of at least have workers on the frontline that understand the product and will let me pass.

It is said that Autosocks do not cut through deep snow very well but that is to be expected.

 

As someone commented, either in this thread or the other one, autosocks look like they would smooth out the tire surface, negating the effect of good snow-tire treads. They'd probably stick to slippery surfaces, but leave you stranded in soft snow.

I'd say if ice is your concern, they might help. But if deep snow is your concern, they'd be worse than plain tires.

There's also a kind of belt (plastic, I think) that can be strapped onto tires in an emergency. I'd think that would be a better choice.

 

So far I haven't had any problems with Pearl on snow or ice. I've tripped the traction control, VSC, and antilock, both deliberately and accidentally. Every time I trip traction control the car shuts down for 1/2 second or so, then retries, always getting going after one to three tries. If I'm really gentle I can get going on ice without tripping traction control at all. Every time I get going at least as fast as any other car on the road. Perhaps the latest calibration of the traction control is the reason (Pearl is a 2007)? Perhaps the fact I have proper tires (Nokian WR). They make a big difference! I now have experience in very cold and wet cold situations.

As far as tire pressure is concerned, according to most tire manufacturers and my own experience, you want -more- tire pressure in snow. This allows the tread to clear properly of snow. In snow you want to sink into it so you get the added traction of the sidewalls and the sides of the tread.

Same for mud. In mud you start the wheels turning and then turn the front steering left and right a bit to increase sidewall traction. This will cause the vehicle to slowly creep forward. For AWD, 4WD and FWD of course - without the Prius traction control. This will not work with RWD.

In sand, there is no way to stop sinking in once you start so you want to "float" on top. For this you lower tire pressure - a lot! If you put in too much power and start to spin a tire it will sink and you'll be stuck, searching for "sand boards" and a jack!

 

Chicago Hills

SW area of Lake County, a quiet residential road near Rand (12) and Quentin where I wasn't in anyone's way:
www.topozone.com

Now that I look at the topographic map, it's a 6.5% grade for nearly 1/8th mile (200 meters). A little steeper but not as long as I had thought. Long enough to get a good idea though, particularly if you first come to a stop at the bottom.

It's surprising I know, but there are a few decent hills in the Chicago area. Signal Hill Road, north of Barrington, is another good hilly road. Taking 59 north of Army Trail Road I remember seeing some hills, but I can't remember exactly where they were, maybe 4 miles north?

 

Re: Prius in the snow - Mustang Hill...

Hi All,

Here is a hill where Mustang's always fail to climb south bound during heavy snow. The Lisle Police usually just give em their own lane, and 4 or 5 will be in a line slid off to the right, as the lead car tries over and over to get up this hill.

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.7879&lon=-88.09108&datum=nad83&layer=DRG

The last time I was there during a heavy snow, my Tempo made it up and over, but it was iffy the last 100 yards.

 

I bought my 2007 Prius in late june of this year and have been reading everything I could about tires. I have the touring model and was worried about how the 19" turanza's would handle on snow and ice. We don't get a lot of snow and ice here but we do get some. I was thinking about changing to the Nokian Wr's and will most likely do that when these wear out.

This morning I had a chance to try the Turanza's on mostly ice, since it snowed some yesterday and what was on the streets and roads today had turned to packed snow and ice. The ice was one to two inches thick. I drove about 35 miles round trip and the tires handled pretty well.

The Turanza's did pretty good, there was some times going up hill that the traction control would turn on and you could see the yellow warning on the dash area, but it was only seconds at a time. At one point going up a steep hill the car did slow down some but kept going until it made it to the top, with just steady pressure on the gas pedal.

Over all I am satisfied that the stock tires on the tourning model do good enough to keep until they need to be replaced at some future point. They most likely would not do if we got a lot of snow, but in that case I will leave it parked in the garage. I post this just in case there is someone else that has been wondering about the Turanza's.

 

topkick, are you sure you didn't mean 16" instead of 19"? The Bridgestones on the Canadian model, and probably the US as well, seem to be the EL400, which are rated very poorly in the TireRack survey, especially compared to the number two Turanza LS-T. Also, 195/55/16 seems unusual, in that many of the more popular and highly-rated tires are not available in this size.

 

You are exactly right! Mia Culpa! I got it wrong. I did mean 16 inch and not 19 inch. Reguardless of how they are rated at TireRack I had no trouble with them on ice and packed snow. So I will keep them until they need to be replaced. I see that the Nokian Wr's have the 195/55R16 and maybe by the time I am ready for tires they will have the Nokian WRG2's in that size.

Thanks for the correction. (I tried to put a smiley face here, but they don't seem to work for me)