4-25
Driving on Snow or Ice
Most of the time, those places where your tires meet the
road probably have good traction.
However, if there is snow or ice between your tires and
the road, you can have a very slippery situation. You’ll
have a lot less traction or “grip” and will need to be
very careful.
What’s the worst time for this? “Wet ice.” Very cold
snow or ice can be slick and hard to drive on. But wet
ice can be even more trouble because it may offer the
least traction of all. You can get wet ice when it’s about
freezing (32
_
F; 0
_
C) and freezing rain begins to fall.
Try to avoid driving on wet ice until salt and sand crews
can get there.
Whatever the condition
-- smooth ice, packed, blowing
or loose snow
-- drive with caution. Accelerate gently.
Try not to break the fragile traction. If you accelerate
too fast, the drive wheels will spin and polish the surface
under the tires even more.
Unless you have the anti-lock braking system, you’ll
want to brake very gently, too. (If you do have anti
-lock,
see “Anti
-Lock” in the Index. This system improves
your vehicle’s stability when you make a hard stop on a
slippery road.) Whether you have the anti
-lock braking
system or not, you’ll want to begin stopping sooner than
you would on dry pavement. Without anti-lock brakes,
if you feel your vehicle begin to slide, let up on the
brakes a little. Push the brake pedal down steadily to
get the most traction you can.
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