How do you handle downhill in snow?
 

Earlier in the year, we almost clipped a passing car on way out the house so thought to post here and see how others are handling downhill slides?
:)
Our driveway (sleddingway?) is fairly steep - more than a full floor going up, at 90 degrees to the street, and the bottom somewhat hidden by bushes and trees.
Hence Snow/Ice is alway a fun affair coming down and trying to take it gently, to say the least. Car slides are sometimes hard to control. The "slippery" setting on Dynamic selector doesn't help and the ABS doesn't help. I've tried the DSR, and that didn't seem to make any difference. We have the off-road+ package, but not sure if any those settings could help either.

In any case, we switched to the Nokian Hakkapeliitta a few weeks ago, so let's see how this goes now. We have snow coming back today :)

Slowwww. If the surface is glare ice no tire or fancy mechanical contraption is going to fix it other than studs and, even studs have their limits. Use CaCl or MgCl to rapidly create holes in the ice and improve traction. If you cant walk on it, neither can your car.

You will notice the a difference with the Nokians. Winter tires are not the end all be all but you sure do stop a heck of a lot sooner. I use Blizzaks on all of my vehicles, regardless of the drivetrain.

I think he was using another brand. Nokian makes reportedly very good snow tires but the fact is that among the michelin, blizzaks and nokian the differences are more in flavor than a huge difference among them. Its like comparing bimmers and MBs.
Of coures MB's are vastly better than BMW's :slap::D

Ooohhhh... I see what you're trying to do there... This is honestly one of the biggest sources of contention in my house (playfully of course). My wife absolutely hates iDrive. To her, COMAND is perfect, seat buttons on the door are perfect, and MB just builds a better car.

I took the initial post as in he was sliding w/ the OEM tires but had just gotten the Nokians and was waiting for the next snowfall to see how they do.

Winter tires should do much much better than the standard all season.

Slowly. Nobody has snow tires here in California (well except maybe a few who live in the mountains) so everyone slides when the roads get icy. The only thing you can really do (besides waiting for storms to pass) is to drive slowly with plenty of stopping distance. A couple of years ago we were coming down I-80 West during a storm (prior to owning a 450) and watched an SUV behind us go into a slide. I thought he was going to hit the median (or my car) for sure but somehow he managed to stop facing oncoming traffic after spinning around 180. I told my wife the road was going to close now.

yes, you are correct. The sliding condition was with the OEM tires.

- guys I DO salt :) good caCL etc. and you can see the black driveway surface going down, though there might be a bit of fresh snow around. Its not like I take the car out and start driving downhill :)

- yes I do take it slooowly - but after around halfway point, it cannot always fully stop - all you can do is brake and try to hold it there. But sometimes it will slide and keep sliding, albeit slowly. It will stop when the front wheels hit level ground (street) , where they encounter freshly dumped snow by the ploughs.

- Oh yes Rt 80 in the west - I used to live in NorCal and remember the mandatory snow chains going through the Sierras into Reno. Snow could hit you without much warning. I actually drove 80 all the way East to NY once :zoom:

Now that I have put on the Nokians, I am still waiting to "test" :D but we haven't had real snow in a while.

Here's about halfway down. There are many such driveways (some taller and steeper), around town and in the region and I always wonder how everyone's doing

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...e679e4efa5.jpg

Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn. - Better off Dead

put the car in Neutral when going down the hill. It keeps the engine from pushing you. I have found in the past that it is easier to stop a manual shift car than one with auto when approaching a stop light or intersection.