The Eifel region of Germany had some snowfall around here this evening and unlike the states they stop taking care of the roads about 7 pm. I do not get off work until 2 am. So you can imagine all the compacted snow turned to ice and the snow on top of it. Luckily, I ordered snow tires but they will not be in until Thursday so I get to drive with summer tires on it.

Anyway, had a couple of slips and DTC kicked in and hooked me up. I didn't drive like normal either. Reduced speed to 1/4 of the norm. I fell safer and more secure everyday. Just thought I would share that out to people who do not go in the snow that often.

 

Great...
Now I really don't want to fly back home...

 

Thanks for insight. It seems that if you don't plan on driving regularly in the snow (i.e., not more than once or twice a year), it may not be necessary to get winter tires.

 

It allways depends on how good your driving skills are...
I drove on summer tires with a rear wheel drive (three persons in car with a total weight of 2.2 tons) up to Hochsoelden in Austria. It was blank ice on the road and chains mandatory...
I made it on summer tires without chains...
But...
You should have winter tires once the temperature falls to 3?C or 35?F...
It does give you a better grip.

 

I unfortunatly have to drive in the snow more then that. Duty calls and I have to do it. So I will be driving in it everynight until it stops. Suppossed to snow for 2 more days. I am not that telented in teh snow ecspecially on Summer tires and I would rather drive 40 km's home then to try to be Badass and reck my car to look like a dumbass. Wrecks in the winter is how we Americans boost the German economy.

 

wow..thanks to share your experience.

be safe !

 

This weekend I changed from summer to wintertires and on monday the temperature suddenly dropped from 9 degrees celsius to 1.5 to 3 degrees celsius over here. Looks like Andy545 had a good gutfeeling about this.

I'm very happy with the wintertires I feel much safer and I my comfort is three times better then with the summertires.

 

Righton man!!

Just got off from a night duty, it was snowing in my area!!
Those Conti WinterContacts were great. Good grip in the car park which had fresh snow, some slush on the local roads and wet on the highway. No aquaplanning or
problems. I went up to 130km on the highway, was stable like a rock!!
Nevertheless, this was just a small test to check how good they were. Most of the time, in this type of weather, I take it real easy and safe...

Objective accomplished!!

 

Good to hear it all works out for you

Cool that you guys are already getting snow.. This side of the country is only very cold at the moment..

 

As You all might know in Finland we have snow cover about four to six months in a year. Sometimes -35C and up north -40C. Winter tyres are mandatory from Dec to March and many people prefer spikes. Me too.

Last winter when I drove my car from Finland I noticed that when DTC makes it's own thing and I do my thing it's rather dangerous. When DTC kicks in driver should not try to correct slides. If You want to corner, DTC should always be off.

It's same thing with modern jet fighters with they "fly by wire" systems. System comes heavily unstable when computer and "flyboy" both try to get plane back to controll. Swedish Jas Grippen dropped down few years back just because of this. Middle of Stockholm where it was giving aerial show.

Is electronics always blessing?

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