Immersion Heater -keep warm in the ice and snow!

Too many people who don't know how to drive in this sort of weather.
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I think I'll include myself in this category .I've been driving for 40 years but have not had the practice of driving on snow /ice some of our other contributors have. Frankly it scares me when you brake and the car speeds up
We all did Fleet Driver Assessment at my last place and I asked for skidpan training and never got it. Consequently I got away with staying indoors when the weather got bad
 
Getting used to slippery conditions I found to be a lot of fun. Any RWD car would do, as long as there was a vacant car park or other open space nearby for me to sneak into (usually after dark or on a Sunday) and mess around until I got the feel of how the car behaved when pushed a bit, how the surface could be worked with, until I felt confident about braking, pumping pedals and the rest of it. Not to mention a bit of drifting... Recommended in the absence of skid pans, in earnest :D
 
Plenty of handbrake turns, donuts etc in the works carpark this week, I'm usually last out so no chance of hitting anybody else ! :LOL:
 
Depends what you mean by "better", if you mean more fun, then yes RWD is better, but if you just want to get there then I recon FWD is better, more weight over the drive wheels, narrow-ish tyres with good tread are also essential. A lot of the cars I've seen struggling have had next to no tread. I'd love to get a set of rally style mud & snow tyres for this time of year, make life much easier.
 
Frosted up windscreens aside I was always lead to believe it was better to drive off under gentle load than to warm the engine by idling. However there seem to be an equal number of people convinced that it vitally important to warm the engine before departing.

It is amazing how easily modern fuel injected cars start despite the bitterly cold temperature at the moment. Our 02 Seat Leon has started first piston up even at -15Centigrade. However it still takes about 20 minutes to scrape all the ice off the windows inside AND out!

Not tried the P6, that is tucked up in a relatively warm garage until the weather improves, if I was really keen i'd be taking the opportunity to play with cold start mapping but I seem to have developed an unhealthy interest in coal!
 
Re: Immersion Heater -and snow tyres!

Hi
The Quebec government has made snow tyres on all 4 wheels a legal requirement for the period 15 December to 15 March .Mud and snow [M+S]tyres are not acceptable
The cops enforce the legislation , particularly after any accident.The insurance companies simply refuse to pay up if you don't have 4 good snow tyres fitted.
Modern snow tyres make a huge difference to winter driving . The key is in the rubber compounds used . The tires are soft and flexible at low temperatures [-15C today here !!]and are reasonably long lasting under winter conditions . My last set did 4 winters and still had a reasonable amount of tread. However they wear rapidly at above +10C and don't take kindly to being taken on and off the rims . Most peple have a set of sexy summer alloy rims and summer tyres and a spare set of steel rims with their snow tyres mounted on them.
Our daily driver is a Subaru Forester which has intelligent full time 4 wheel drive, ABS brakes , and starts instantaneously after sitting all night at - 30C . It's a sort of well built , faultless mini Land Rover, without a low range gear box.
Cheers
RVW
 
In terms of modern cars starting easily in this weather, we started Pete's 827 today, been sat on my drive for a couple of months, not started since before christmas and has the battery disconnected.

Scraped about 8 inches of snow off it to get the bonnet open, stuck the battery lead back on, turned the key and it fired straight up, and idled perfectly, absolutely superb engine.
 
Of course fuel injection does help, but the thin oil in my opinion is what makes such a big difference.

Try running all those moderns in 20W50 and i am sure they will struggle also.
 
I agree. I've given Baby Rover a sump full of classic 20/50 on the grounds that it doesn't have a cat and I'd rather change the oil frequently (no detergent) and have ZDDP to help. Cranking is now painful, and it has also been taking a noticeable time to get oil to the cam followers in this weather. Not a success.

Chris
 
Mine came with one fitted - I think it is the proper Rover one. It works very well (and I plan to be giving it a good work-out this next year, as I'm moving from sunny SC to the slightly colder climes of Buffalo-Niagara NY).
 
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