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Reversing Uphill In Snow


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It's a long time since I've driven a rear-wheel drive car in snow so I was being very careful this morning trying to reverse out of my drive on about 2cm of snow. It didn't go well, so I'd welcome any hints, please, from anyone who is a seasoned veteran manual IS 250 owner.

The drive is on a slight incline. On the first attempt I released the handbrake and slipped the clutch and my nice shiny new IS 250 moved disconcertingly towards the garage door. :ohmy: I then disengaged the traction control and stability control and tried again; backwards movement resulted but with an alarming sideways component and much rear wheel skidding (more sideways that backwards actually). :huh: A third try with just the traction control didn't make much difference to this. In the end I played safe; opened the garage door, drove into the garage and cleared the drive.

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You should not reverse from your drive onto a road. Always drive onto a road. If you have no room to turn in your drive then reverse into it. :driving:

If you do need to reverse uphill just remember that reverse is a very low gear so very very light right foot will usually work.

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I assume she's the ex, as she caught you with the bint in the yellow thong. Or maybe she is the ex and you caught her with the fat bloke with a savage hair problem. Your call!

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Some good advice offered. I get my wife to clear the snow away and defrost the car.

OK tried that; suggested it to my wife last night. Anyone know how to extract a Lexus key fob from the place where the sun don't shine? :tsktsk:

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You should not reverse from your drive onto a road. Always drive onto a road.

I'm intruiged to know your reasoning there, old chap.

If you have no room to turn in your drive then reverse into it.

Hmmm .. reversing into your garage; bet that doesn't happen very often. Not sure I like the idea of reversing down a slippery incline into a narrow gap.

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Last time we had a little snow, I quickly learned that this car will not reverse up my snow covered drive. It will however make nice black spots on the drive as the wheels spin up.

I didnt even try this time when there was a little snow. The only sollution is to sweep away the snow before attempting to reverse out, which is what I did, and got out first time.

Atempting to drive out only results in failure and also compacts the snow making it much more difficult to remove.

Reversing onto the drive will help, you will get a patch of grip as long as the car with which to gain some speed, before hitting the snow. You will also get more grip on the snow.

Having the engine over the drive wheels helps, so you could buy a Porche and reverse onto the drive, or buy a front wheel drive, front engine car and reverse out off the drive.

My advice, buy a stiff brush, maybe a snow shovel incase of deeper snow.

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if you have snow one day per year, buy a pack of sand and cover the driveway with it (and take it with you all the time)

if snow is normal thing, buy winter tires. I have winter set of pirelli sottozero in the thinnest possible version (205/55/16) and I can reverse even 10% hill.

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You should not reverse from your drive onto a road. Always drive onto a road.

I'm intruiged to know your reasoning there, old chap.

If you have no room to turn in your drive then reverse into it.

Hmmm .. reversing into your garage; bet that doesn't happen very often. Not sure I like the idea of reversing down a slippery incline into a narrow gap.

When driving onto a road you will protrude less onto the road before being able to see to see traffic, than when reversing, you can lean forwards to see more. Only exception would be a car will a very long bonnet.

Reversing into a narrow gap is always easier than going forwards, because the wing mirrors can be used to see the gap on each side.

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You should not reverse from your drive onto a road. Always drive onto a road.

I'm intruiged to know your reasoning there, old chap.

If you have no room to turn in your drive then reverse into it.

Hmmm .. reversing into your garage; bet that doesn't happen very often. Not sure I like the idea of reversing down a slippery incline into a narrow gap.

Try looking at the highway code for my reasoning, old chap. 201 below seems to sum it up

The Highway Code

dg_070523.jpg

200-203: Reversing

200

Choose an appropriate place to manoeuvre. If you need to turn your vehicle around, wait until you find a safe place. Try not to reverse or turn round in a busy road; find a quiet side road or drive round a block of side streets.

201

Do not reverse from a side road into a main road. When using a driveway, reverse in and drive out if you can.

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On the first attempt I released the handbrake and slipped the clutch and my nice shiny new IS 250 moved disconcertingly towards the garage door. :ohmy: I then disengaged the traction control and stability control and tried again; backwards movement resulted but with an alarming sideways component and much rear wheel skidding (more sideways that backwards actually). :huh: A third try with just the traction control didn't make much difference to this. In the end I played safe; opened the garage door, drove into the garage and cleared the drive.

Sounds bad but you'd probably have had similar problems trying to drive out front ways in a front wheel drive car, sounds like your driveway was the real problem.

Best to reverse on the drive, then your car is trying to push away from the garage door, not pull itself away from the back.

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