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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.
How steep is the driveway? I can drive my FWD car (a Prius) with stock all-season tires up a 7%-8% grade in very slick conditions without problem. I suspect that lack of winter driving experience may be the problem with your friend. If the FWD driver plans on encountering slick roads often, then running on dedicated winter tires will really help. My experience has been that a FWD car with traction control and dedicated winter tires will perform nearly as well as an AWD or 4WD as long as the snow depth on the road is not greater than the minimum ground clearance of the vehicle. For the record, I have been driving in adverse winter conditions in the Rockies for over 40 years--an area where dealing with slick roads on steep grades is common.
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.
Put a 55 gallon drum full of gravel out there by the steep part. Toss on driveway as needed.
How steep is steep? There shouldn't be any reason the car can't get up a regular road grade type of incline even in the snow. Assuming we aren't talking an extreme grade and assuming that the car had tires in good shape; the first thing I would do is make sure the traction control is off as that will hurt you climbing the grade. Outside of that, some gravel or kitty litter is going to be the only way to get over tough spots.
I recommend four decent snow tires on any vehicle in the New England winter. Studded tires are only needed where ice is common. All four tires should be the same to avoid hazardous handling in slippery conditions.
Your friend probably had worn down 4 season tires on her car. I have found the quality and tread design of the tire is more important than the type of vehicle - AWD, FWD or 4WD.
I recommend four decent snow tires on any vehicle in the New England winter. Studded tires are only needed where ice is common. All four tires should be the same to avoid hazardous handling in slippery conditions.
Your friend probably had worn down 4 season tires on her car. I have found the quality and tread design of the tire is more important than the type of vehicle - AWD, FWD or 4WD.
There is one stretch in the middle that is very steep, approximately 20 foot rise over 80 feet. Her wheels start spinning out during this stretch, then her car literally slides backwards about 10 feet. I happened to notice she had low profile Bridgestone Potenzas, but I didn't see the tread depth. I think you guys are right - her tires were probably bald. I did get into her car and tried myself without any luck, but it has a standard transmission so I couldn't control the wheel speed as precisely as I would've liked considering I had never driven it before.
I will look into getting a drum of gravel, but I fear it will get pricey since my plow guy will clear most of the gravel along with the snow every time he comes.
You could put down some kind of melting material just at the steepest section, although that will get pricey too if you need it often.
In the case of this one car, I suspect the tires more than anything. I have an uphill grade to my driveway and drive a light FWD car. The tires aren't too low profile on my old car, only 55 section on 15" wheel. And only 195 wide, which isn't too too wide. (Many tires these days are a little wider than that; narrower and taller is better for snow.) I can get stuck, but not in 1". Although, here's another thing, if you have already packed the snow with your own cars, it will make it that much harder for another car to get up.
The weight is by far a secondary factor. Most of the weight in a FWD is over the drive wheels anyway, usually about 60% or so.
Probably the tires were fairly low on tread. Even pretty hard compound all seasons should not get stuck in 1" of snow. The Potenzas are likely pretty bad in snow in general, but if they were new they probably would have had enough tread to get through that little bit.
With a stick, you want the highest gear possible without stalling, in my experience. Lugging the engine more is preferable as long as you don't lose your forward momentum. There's a reason that even automatic transmissions are sometimes programmed to start in 2nd gear in winter. If going fast enough through there you might even be able to keep in 3rd, but at least 2nd.
A variety of factors at play. An additional one is again even if it was only this car that packed down the snow, it still would make it more difficult for subsequent tries having already packed it down before. Packed snow is a whole different thing to drive on vs fresh snow in the driveway. Here perhaps is where the lighter weight of a smaller vehicle comes more into play.
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