Winter Driving Tips – Go Backwards with Front Wheel Drive

October 22, 2009 | Posted by Clair Schwan

Here is one of the weird winter driving tips – on occasion, it’s wise to go backwards with front wheel drive vehicles. Winter driving can be challenging enough without having someone tell you to drive backwards, but that’s exactly what we have here. Okay, what’s this all about?

Admittedly, the idea of driving backwards is a bit odd, but in special circumstances it works better with a front wheel drive vehicle than going forward. The special circumstances are deep snow and going uphill.

For those of us who live with a steep and long driveway, it can be challenging to make it uphill in deep snow. Going backwards with a front wheel drive vehicle can help overcome the difficulty. Here’s why:

• Your drive wheels are lower, so gravity shifts more weight on them for better traction.
• You have to drive more slowly to maintain control of direction, and that tends to promote traction instead of wheel spinning.
• The front wheels of the car are now on compacted snow (thanks to the rear wheels) instead of loose snow, so that provides added traction.
• If you sense you’re going to get “high centered” in deep snow, you can stop and pull forward (downhill) because your drive wheels aren’t in the deep snow yet, so they’ll have better traction, and gravity is in your favor.

So, when winter driving throws a challenge at you like driving up an incline in deep snow, you might get yourself through it by going backwards with your front wheel drive vehicle.

Don’t try this except in situations where your path of travel is relatively straight, there isn’t any traffic to deal with, and there isn’t a ditch or embankment nearby that presents a hazard should you veer off course a bit while trying to drive in a direction that you may not be accustomed to.

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Clair Schwan is an experienced driver in all sorts of weather and road conditions, and lives in a remote area where blizzards and snow drifts are commonplace. His winter driving tips come from his experience and experiments. Overall, he suggests staying off the road when it’s tough going. He has more car driving tips to save you money and grief over at Frugal Living Freedom, a place where people learn to be more frugal and more self sufficient.

Categories: driving, hints and tips | Tags: driving, self reliance, winter driving, winter driving tips | No Comments »