ADVICE - Driving on Snow and Ice
Words: Isaac Bober, via PracticalMotoring.com.au
Photos: Supplied
The Australian winter of 2022 arrived earlier and with more intensity than usual, prompting many to make a trip to the ski slopes and enjoy what’s looking to be our best ski season for years. Obviously, the post-COVID freedoms have increased visitor numbers to our alpine regions, too, but with more snow bunnies comes more activity on our roads – including people who have no experience of driving on snow and ice. . .
Snow in Australia isn’t all that common, so instead of trying to make progress through white fluffy snow, it’s more likely you’ll be dealing with icy roads and cold morning starts where the mercury has dropped below zero overnight.
What Gear to Be In
One of the first things you need to know is that it’s not wise to sit in first gear when driving on ice. Some say staying in first gear offers more torque and thus more grip… Let’s knock this one on the head right away.
When you’re trying to pull away in slippery conditions, selecting the lowest gear possible is not a good idea. That’s because low gears provide more torque to the wheels, which can overwhelm the tyre’s grip on a slippery surface and cause the vehicle to slip.
So, selecting a higher gear and nice, even throttle application is generally the best way to pull away on ice. If your vehicle is an automatic, then it may have a ‘snow’ driving mode. Selecting this will see the transmission automatically select a higher gear to try and prevent slip when moving away from a standstill.
If you’re driving an SUV or 4x4 with a snow mode (although sometimes a wet grass mode might be better), make sure your vehicle is in that mode as it will do all the throttle, transmission and traction and stability adjustments for you.
However, what may improve your forward progress from standstill more than any electronic aids in snowy, icy and slippery conditions will involve getting your hands dirty, ie. clearing muck from your tyres and laying down some sort of traction mat, be it a hessian sack or something similar. If you don’t have these, some leaves and branches - if available and you’re desperate – can work, but be aware that broken branches have the potential to cause punctures. The best option is something like Maxtrax, which should be part of your 4x4s kit for any off-road escapades and are recommended if you’re heading into snow country, no matter what sort of vehicle you’re in.
Traction Control
Another thing that heroes suggest you do whenever you get into a car is switch off the traction and stability controls. Don’t ever do this unless your name begins with ‘The’ and ends in ‘Stig’. On an icy road, your car’s electronic traction and stability controls will do a better job than you of keeping your vehicle pointing in the right direction.
That being said, you might want to temporarily switch off the traction and stability controls if you’re trying to get going in deep snow or sloppy mud.
Once, I was in a car with a mate who slammed on the brakes on an icy road – and we simply started sliding. Even though the vehicle had ABS, traction and stability controls, all the driver could do was steer without sliding out of control.
What my mate should have done was, first, anticipate the car ahead of him slowing down (he could see its brake lights in the distance), and second, instead of jumping on the brakes, ease off the throttle and allow engine braking to help slow the car. That way, we would have stayed in much more control than we ultimately were.
Driving on ice (the surface) can be very dangerous and you can easily lose control, even at almost 0km/h. My old man, in a pre-ABS car, locked up the brakes in icy conditions and we slid off the road. He could have cadence braked (which is sort of a manual version of ABS, only it’s not as good), but everything happened so quickly that he didn’t have the chance.
It’s only when you’ve experienced something like this that you fully appreciate just how good modern traction and stability control systems are and what a lifesaver ABS is.
What Speed to Drive At
It’s vital when driving on icy roads that you lower your speed by at least a third of the dry road speed limit and sometimes more. While a road cleared of snow will generally have a frosty look and thus ice on the road will be easy to see, black ice can be virtually impossible to see. It tends to sit in shaded sections of road, so if you’re driving in areas where the temperature drops below zero, whether there’s snow or not, then be very careful.
Driving with Snowchains
If you’re making a trip to the ski fields, then it’s likely you’ll have to fit snow chains to your tyres; you can either hire them or buy them before you head off. If you do buy a set of chains, then make sure you buy the correct ones for your vehicle and tyre/wheel size, then spend some time before you hit the snow practising how to fit them.
Things to Check on the Car
Driving on snow and ice in Australia isn’t a particularly common driving scenario but there are plenty of places in Australia where the mercury drops to below zero overnight, causing black ice to form on roads. Similarly, this can impact things like windscreen wipers, which can stick to your windscreen when frozen - the rubber can rip if you switch on the wipers in this situation.
If you know it’s going to be a particularly cold night, you could consider raising your wipers into their upright position; this also works when you’re in alpine areas and it’s snowing.
And always carry a de-icer to clear ice from your windscreen. In extreme situations, like when you know snow will fall on your car, laying a tarp across the windscreen can help to keep it from becoming icy and blanketed in snow.
Similarly, it could be worth adding an anti-freezing additive to your windscreen washer bottle if you’re spending more than a day in really cold weather. The same is true for your radiator, although there are two different types of anti-freeze. You DON’T want to just use tap water and risk it freezing and then cracking your radiator and associated pipe work as it expands.
Again, even if you’re not driving in snow and ice, a cold snap or even just a cold winter night can impact your car.
Checking your tyres when the temperature is fluctuating from below zero overnight to single figures during the day will cause the air pressure in your tyres to drop considerably, so get in the habit of checking them during cold snaps to ensure they’re running at the right pressure.
What Fuel to Use in Snowy Regions
Now we come to fuel. Petrol won’t freeze until it hits about -50-degrees C, but diesel separates and ‘waxes’ as it freezes. Generally speaking, diesel’s freezing point is around -20-degres C, but you’ll experience problems long before it gets to that temperature. That’s where the Australian Standards come in, specifying the maximum temperatures, by region and month, for fuels sold in Australia.
If you’re heading into alpine areas, then you’ll see ‘Alpine Diesel’ being sold at petrol stations. This has a much lower “cloud point” (the temperature at which paraffin wax in diesel begins to separate and solidify, negatively impacting combustion) than non-alpine diesel, maybe around -7-degrees C.
Where I live, in the Blue Mountains, when winter sets in, we get what’s called “Highland Diesel” which has a cloud point of around -2-degrees C. Additives can lower the cloud point of your 4x4’s diesel even further.
Cold-weather diesel isn’t something a day-tripper to the ski fields needs to worry about, but those playing in the snow for a few days or leaving their 4x4 parked in freezing temperatures overnight should fuel and prepare their vehicle accordingly.