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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
will have a lot less traction, or grip, and will need to be
very careful.
What is 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
is 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.
Traction control improves your ability to accelerate when
driving on a slippery road. Even though your vehicle has
a traction control system, you will want to slow down and
adjust your driving to the road conditions. Under certain
conditions, you may want to turn the traction control
system off, such as when driving through deep snow and
loose gravel, to help maintain vehicle motion at lower
speeds. See Traction Control System (TCS) on page 4-8.
Unless you have the anti-lock braking system, you will
want to brake very gently, too. If you do have anti-lock
brakes, see Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) on
page 4-6. 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 will 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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