Quote:
Originally Posted by David Beale
You need to have similar traction on all four wheels. Especially you do NOT want lower traction on the rear wheels. You will spin and not be able to see or avoid whatever you are spinning into!
I "threw away" the nearly new stock Goodyear Integrities last October, and put on Nokian WR "real" all season tires. I had no problems this winter. In fact, last weekend we had a blizzard. I drove on a 70 km/hr or 45 miles per hour highway and didn't slip once. That can't be said for many other drivers - passed by one clutch of 10 cars that slid together in a cluster and another full sized PU that spun into the median. Even the new Blazer ahead of me would spin up his rear wheels and slide sideways 2-3 ft every time he started. MORONS! He had 4WD and didn't even bother to engage it, hence was sliding on the ice/snow! All this in just two miles of road!
This drive DID drop my mileage average, of course.  But not because of the Nokians. They didn't decrease the cars' mileage at all. It's was the short trip. |
"MORONS.."
NOT...!!!!
It is NEVER a good idea to have the system in 4WD while traveling along the highway. Almost all 4WD systems disable ABS in 4WD mode, plus when you enter a turn/curve you DO NOT want engine drive torque or any level of compression braking on those front wheels. Too easily, 'way to easy, to miss the curve due to understearing, "plowing", and end up in the "borrow pit".
Now, if you simply CANNOT get up and going initially in only RWD mode, that's an entirely different matter. And keep in mind that the blazer, unlike your FWD hybrid, could easily maintain directional control, and obviously did, with a "controlled" level of REAR wheelspin/slip.
With RWD there is an argument, a fairly good one and a SOUND one, for getting the vehicle slightly "sideways" on the slippery stuff for gaining initial speed vs "straight-ahead".
Traveling "Sideways" those rear "driving" tires actually have more "bite" on a snow covered roadbed.