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I have a steep 300 ft driveway that is often icy during the winter. My wife and I both have heavy vehicles that are AWD so we haven't lost traction driving up when it's icy or has a foot of snow. This weekend we had 1" of snow. Our friend came to visit and she couldn't make it up the driveway in her little Mazda 3. We spent 15 min trying to drive it up the hill, but the little POS kept sliding back down. I don't know if it's because it's FWD or because it weighs 1 ton less than either of our vehicles. How do people with compact FWD cars deal with New England weather? I'm sure it's fine on flat roads, but I can't imagine being stopped uphill at a red light driving one of those things.
Also some advice on how we can invite our friends over during the winter would be appreciated. We have a large flat area with room for 10 cars near our garage, but the problem is getting a compact car up the hill.
Turn it around and it may back up the hill just fine.
The problem may be that when the car goes up hill all the weight transfers to the back wheels. On flat ground the weight distribution is 60/40. Point it up a hill, and it will go to 50/50 or maybe even 40/60. If that's the case turning it around will give you at least 75% on the driving wheels.
are FWD cars limited slip differential ( positraction) ?
I doubt that.
Then having one tire on gravel would do no good as it would sit still while the one on ice just spinned.
some fwd do have lsd from the factory though i'd bet most dont. If the one drive wheel was able to dig in and get traction then seems to me it would propel itself forward. Moot point though as OP doesnt have gravel on the side
Buy many bags of ice melt/salt and spread it on the driveway, ice will be gone, problem solved. I make more money salting lots and driveways then plowing snow.
Here is another trick, though I don't recommend it for inexperienced snow drivers. In a FWD car, to get up a slick uphill driveway, turn the car around at the bottom and back up it. This puts most of the weight of the car on the front wheels. It does work, I did it several times with my FWD car on a badly drifted steep driveway that I used to have, but it's not a trick for the inexperienced.
Buy many bags of ice melt/salt and spread it on the driveway, ice will be gone, problem solved. I make more money salting lots and driveways then plowing snow.
Haha, I hear you. I need to use 2 bags of ice melt just to have an ice-free parking area in front of my garage. Multiply that by 5 for the rest of my driveway and we're talking about $100 worth of salt per storm, not including labor. That's more than I pay to get it plowed!
Haha, I hear you. I need to use 2 bags of ice melt just to have an ice-free parking area in front of my garage. Multiply that by 5 for the rest of my driveway and we're talking about $100 worth of salt per storm, not including labor. That's more than I pay to get it plowed!
Does your plow company have a salter on its truck? Maybe if in advance you know a friend is coming with a car that can't make it up, have the plow people salt it ahead of time. If you salt it yourself, using a fertilizer spreader is the easiest best way to put it down, that way you can also adjust how much product comes out at once.
Does your plow company have a salter on its truck? Maybe if in advance you know a friend is coming with a car that can't make it up, have the plow people salt it ahead of time. If you salt it yourself, using a fertilizer spreader is the easiest best way to put it down, that way you can also adjust how much product comes out at once.
Yes - they said to double the price if I want both plowing and salting. Obviously their salt prices are cheaper than what I can buy in bags since they buy in bulk and labor is an extra 1 minute since they are already at the house for plowing. Great ideas in this thread.
There is one stretch in the middle that is very steep, approximately 20 foot rise over 80 feet.
A 25% grade is significant. I would not expect many 2 wheel drive vehicles to make it in snow without some serious weight. I have a 4000# FWD Eldorado which is a tank in the snow and I don't even think that would make it very easily.
are FWD cars limited slip differential ( positraction) ?
Most all cars sold in the US since 2010 are equipped with Electronic Traction Control. ETC is essentially the electronic equivalent of a limited slip differential. The system can modulate brakes, engine spark timing, and transmission to optimize traction. If one needs to have wheelspin (which is rare), many vehicles with ETC have a button on the dash to turn it off. I've driven vehicles with ETC on wintry roads for over a decade. In all of that time, I can count on my hands the number of times that I've had to disengage the ETC.
Mechanical limited slip differentials (Positraction being one brand name for it) can work well, but they generally require one wheel to be slipping before it will engage. ETC is usually much more sensitive and will engage sooner. For best traction, a LOCKING differential works best, but those are ill-suited for use on the front wheels of a vechicle. On rear wheel drive vehicles or on the rear wheels of a 4WD vehicle, they offer the best traction aid, but they usually cause additional tire wear. The latest innovation is the Electronic Limited Slip Differential (ELSD). This is engaged by the driver in low traction conditions and locks the differential. Most are designed to unlock automatically when the vehicle speed exceeds 20-25 mph. Again, those are suited for rear wheel applications, not the front.
Try driving it up backwards next time so the weight transfer is over the drive wheels.
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