Snow driving questions?

1. Practice practice practice! You need proper tires for winter driving! The stock tires are NOT suitable!

2. The Prius does well in snow due to all the systems that look out for you (Traction control, ABS, and VSC) and due to the fact it is a front wheel drive vehicle. But that's with proper tires!

3. My 07 works just fine in snow and on ice. I DO have proper tires (Nokian WR) for winter use. If you are using the stock Goodyear Integrities, don't bother if you have no experience.
You -can- turn off the traction control, but you would probably destroy the HSD if you did. So don't try! It's there to protect the drive system from overspinning. When you try to go the wheels will spin a bit and turn on the TRAC light (sliding car). Just keep the accelerator lightly pressed and it will keep trying and soon enough will go. The latter 05s and up work much better than the earlier cars. But again, you need proper winter tires! On all four wheels.

 

Depending on which tires you have, you may have a problem. The original Goodyear Integrity's are junk on dry pavement and they wear badly. I have a set of Yokohama's now(courtesy of Toyota because of how badly the Integrity's lasted) So I will see how they do. They do have a 100% better overall rating than the Integrity's. As for the traction control, if you are trying to pull a hill from a stop, it will be a problem as it kicks in and stops the wheel spin just when you gain momentum..... then you lose all you gained. And NO it can't be disabled because they say that it would burn out the electric motor by over revving it. Good luck

 

You can't turn the traction control off. Just keep a light foot on the gas and let the traction control do it's thing. Don't floor it.

When driving in snow all your inputs need to be smooth. Be gentle on throttle, brakes and steering. If you start to skid turn the vehicle in the direction of the skid.

Maintain a large safety buffer in front of you. You should have at least 2 car lengths for every 10 mph. (2 car lengths at 10 mph, 10 car lengths at 50 mph)

The stock tires are junk. You should expect appalling traction on wet or snowy roads.

You should purchase snow chains and learn how to put them on before you leave. Some areas will require you to have chains or 4wd.

 

Hi Drunken...,

Hmm. No winter driving experience and heading up a mountain. Hmm. Take lots of blankets, a few days worth of snack style meals, water, and some kinda communications device. A Vary Pistol might also be a good idea. Seriously, going up a mountain is not the place to learn how to drive on snow. Do you have any winter survival training? Do you know how to build a snow hut? The people that can drive in the winter, and up mountains, drive in the winter for half the year. There is no substitute for that level of experience.

The best advice I can give you is if everybody is going slow, and you do not understand why, just do it. Do not second guess these people, just go slow. The problem with going up a mountain is your not going to be with allot of other drivers. And may not have the advantage of their reacting to conditions. If you hit a turn too fast, its going to be a problem. If you drive into a slick spot, and do not have the experience to read the road, its going to be a problem. Experienced winter drivers will spot these things. Sometimes they think they spot these things , and slow down anyway. Then when they get through the area, without a problem they STILL will slow down the next time. Do not assume they do not know what they are doing. They do.

Do not accellerate downhill. Near the bottom of the hill is OK, with the idea that you want good momentum going up the next hill. Try to get good accelleration up hill and crest the hill slowly.

I remeber driving to work one time with a line of cars behind me because it was damn slick. We came around a corner to like 5 cars all spun out and in every which directions. Kinda look like the aftermath of a Nascar accident. We all were able to slowly thread our way around these cars. We did not try to stop, because that can be very tricky on slick surfaces. But we were at creep speed through that accident area. After that all those cars following close were spaced back 100 yards, per car.

Slow down WELL in advance of stop signs and lights. Like 300 yards back, and then creep into the stop at 2 or 3 mph. Sometimes even that is too fast.

If there is a train to your snowboarding location, I would take that.

 

Hi Jerry,

I suggest you bring the following:

- chains (and extra parts to replace broken links)
- rubber tightening bands if required for your chains
- tools to allow you to install extra parts as needed
- shovel to help dig yourself out of the snow if/when you get stuck
- windshield scraper (and brush on the other end), get a real device with a long arm so that you are not reduced to scraping the windows with a plastic credit card
- gallon of windshield washer fluid, the type that has methanol in it for a lower freezing point than water
- flashlight with fresh batteries in case you have to work on your chains at night
- bag of kitty litter (or sand) to improve traction; Jay's message later in the string reminded me of this

Note that the speed limit when using chains is 25 mph. Make sure you put the chains on the front tires, I am amused to see the occasional vehicle whose hapless driver put chains on the axle not providing power to the car. Take off the chains when the road is not snowy or else they will soon break. If a link breaks, stop immediately to repair or else you may do damage to your front fender or wheel.

Also, you must practice putting on the chains while the car is sitting on your driveway; when you are on the side of the highway struggling to put on the chains while your significant other asks what is taking so long, you will be glad you had the prior experience doing that. You may find it easier to raise the front wheels to install the chains, if so bring a piece of scrap wood to put the jack on since the ground may be soft.

When you park your car in a snowy ski resort parking lot, think about where you are parking and make sure you can exit at the end of the day without a problem in case the ground turns icy during the course of the day as the sun heats up the snow, then the snow turns to ice in the afternoon. Therefore park either on flat terrain or else heading downhill upon departure.

Check your vehicle's condition before leaving on the trip, such as radiator and inverter coolant level, engine oil level, engine and cabin air filters, etc. If your windshield wipers are not perfect replace them now. If your windshield washer fluid is not the antifreeze type, siphon out the old fluid and replace with the correct fluid.

If you count yourself among the Prius owners who love to drive down to one flashing fuel gauge bar before looking for gas, I suggest that you refuel much earlier, like at four bars or more. The reason for this is that emergencies always happen in the winter - a highway may be closed, electricity may be out and the filling stations can't pump, etc. Hence it would be wise to keep a full gas tank where possible.

Good luck and enjoy your first winter drive.

 

As a Canadian, driving in bad winter weather for months, I'd only add to the excellent suggestions already made to leave for your destination early. It is amazing how many people tend to rush, speed to make it to where they want to be only because they did not allow enough time because of poor driving conditions. Inevitably, these are the people who get in accidents and then are EXTREMELY late to their destination. Relax, enjoy your trip and give yourself time to get there. My Prius has four new snow tires and I'm not having any problems to date.

 

Why hasn't anyone come up with a sand distribution unit for the prius? Like a railroad engine would use, we could have a tub of dry sand with tubes leading down to the front wheels. When the driver gets frustrated by the lack of wheel spin, a butten is mashed, a burst of sand is blown down under/infront of the wheel. Perhaps we could even have the car do this automatically...

 

Hi Jerry, I think #2 is redundant
Don't get scared off by some of the replies. No one is born knowing how to drive in snow! I moved from Southern California to Vermont 29 years ago and had never driven in snow prior to the move. I'm still alive and have never hit anything while driving in snow.

There are a lot of good suggestions listed. It is sometimes hard to think about all the 'on the mountain' possibilities if you start in warm and sunny. Plus, depending on the weather, you might not see any snow on the road all the way to the ski area if it hasn't snowed in the last day.

I would add:

1. If you can, when you get to the snow areas, BEFORE heading up to the ski area: Find an un-plowed parking lot and practice. See what happens when you brake, accelerate, turn.
2. I second the motion on 'have gas in the car'. Besides the price of gas likely being a lot higher UP the mountain, you really don't want to run out. Check http://www.gasbuddy.com and find a decent price in the foothills
3. Keep off the brake pedal as much as possible. Slow before the turn with normal 'foot off the brake and accelerator pedal' deceleration.
4. If things get squirrely, NO FAST CHANGES. That means do NOT slam on the brakes, do NOT let off the accelerator abruptly, do NOT make rapid motions with the steering wheel. Any fast change is likely to mean you have LESS control.
5. If you start to slide it is sometimes BEST to GET OFF THE BRAKE PEDAL at least briefly. Doing so allows the front wheels to pull. I know this sounds counter intuitive but there are times that you can get out of a skid this way. My neighbor totaled a car into a railing by 'holding on'. She slid STRAIGHT into it.
6. When turning, start straightening a little earlier than you would on a dry road.
7. Foot OFF the brake when you start a turn. You should be going slow enough to make the turn BEFORE you turn the wheel. The fewer things that are trying to change the motion of the car, the better.
8. "Turn into the skid" can be a confusing instruction. It means if you are skidding to the right, turn the steering wheel to the right even though you WANT the front to go left. What is skidding isn't the FRONT of the car, but the REAR. You need it to stay BEHIND the front, not pass it. Yes, you will be going in a direction you don't like, at least briefly (your foot is off the brake, right??). You will have an intuitive desire to turn the opposite way, to head the car the way you WANT it to go. If you do that: Welcome to your first spin. Hope there is no one and nothing in your path.

Really, REALLY pay attention to the "Assume they know what they are doing if you find traffic moving slower than you think is necessary" comment. On the flip side, if YOU are not comfortable going as fast as others on the road, slow down until YOU are comfortable. This is one case where it really is ALL ABOUT YOU. Just because there are other people on the road does NOT mean they

1. Know what the he11 they are doing
2. Aren't complete idiots you will pass later after they go off the road.

Your tires don't review any better than the OEM tires on the Prius Touring, don't get over confident just because you aren't on Integrity tires

 

These were popular for awhile on transit buses, school buses, delivery trucks, etc. They are remarkably unreliable and difficult to maintain.

That said, it would also be a good idea to have a small tub, say no more than 5 kg, of fine playground sand for winter use. Say you bog down on an icy incline, you can get out, sprinkle some of the sand for the front wheels, and maybe get going again

Every since I put modern studded winter tires on my Prius, it has great ice traction. Deep snow is still a problem, anything over a foot, especially drifted and "packed" snow, forget about it

 

Cables are OK; when you buy them don't forget to also purchase spare parts. Currently in south Lake Tahoe, its been snowing most of the day.

 

3. Technically, it's possible if you know how to enter the diagnostics menu. However, don't, I repeat, Don't, I repeat DON'T do it! Never do it!!!

The electric motor is such high torque and the hybrid system is delicate enough that if the tires are spinning and the wheels suddenly catch (which is what happens when driving in snow) then it can rip your hybrid drive apart, leaving you with a sleek, $26,000 Prius paperweight that your insurance company won't fix (because it was your own dang fault).

The Prius comes with traction control standard not because Toyota thinks it's a feature everyone should have, but because it's a necessity to not destroy their hybrid system.

That said, I live at 7000 ft. elevation in Colorado and it snows here all the time (there's still a good patch in my front yard right now). I have some pointers for you.

The good news is that the Prius is a pretty solid car in the snow as long as you have decent tires (I believe you have an all-season tire which should be fine if they have a lot of tread left). The traction control helps you get started and even helps you stop (you'll feel each tire braking individually if you start to lose traction). You still need to follow some guidelines, however.

The #1 rule for driving in the snow is don't let yourself have any g-force! On dry roads, you might take a corner a little tight so your car leans, or you might come to a stop such that you feel your body thrown forward slightly. You can't do that on snow.

In very bad conditions, you want to start coming to a stop half a block early so by the time you arrive at the sign/light/obsticle you are just finishing a gentle progressively slow roll with minimal momentum.

Same for turns. Make sure that you are going slow enough (5 MPH, maybe less) that there's no sideways g-force in the turn. Not even slightly.

If you're going to a ski resort, however, chances are that the road will be plowed and sanded much of the way, which makes for a much more pleasant, less dangerous journey.

With sanded roads, you don't have to go to the extremes mentioned above, but try to follow roughly the same principles.

Other less crucial tips would be to learn how to drive if you start fishtailing. In all seriousness, a racing simulator like "Sega Rally" that lets you initiate then recover from drifts will teach you what you need to know.

Basically, you have to steer into the turn, but not overcompensate or brake, as that will leave you fishtailing more in the opposite direction or even leave you spinning out.

Also, if you get stuck in the snow, be careful about keeping your car on while the exaust pipe is covered. The exaust will come into the cabin and there have been people in Colorado who died because they got stranded, and left their car on with the windows up.

There's only a remote chance you'll need that tidbit of information, but it could save your life if it happens.