037

I was going through some nasty snow yesterday and it seemed that the best way to navitage deep snow was to dump car into one of the lower gears, such as 1 or 2. When in 4th I felt like it didn't have enough power if tires started tracking off course.

I am using Continental DWS all season tires and I've been driving at speeds up to 40mph in deep snow on a desserted 3 lane i78.

Let me know how you handle deep snow in your RL, thanks!

P.S. 3" is deep for me...

tnobori1

I don't do it on a regular basis in my RL, but that is the general rule of thumb. Drop to the lower gears and let the engine, rather than the brakes, control your speed.

Aman

I always thought with SH-AWD, you could just give it a teensy bit of gas and let the computers figure everything else out

christopher1

i am in CT i drove at 5am in todays snow. highway unplowed the only people out there was 4x4 trucks and My RL. i have the cheapest snow tires i could buy on my OEM rims. I could have put a plow on my RL. It wonderful better than my audi ,subrau combined. People if you want to drive the RL in snow and see its amazing SHawd work put snow tires on each winter an smile when it snows 18inch!!! 2005 RL 157,000 mi no problems every!!

mg7726

agreed with christopher, invest in snow tires. my relatives snickered when i got blizzaks on my TSX, but it's lasted me 5 seasons going up to VT and NH in whiteout conditions, not waiting for the plows is 'priceless'.

my other advice, take a winter driving class, they will teach you wonders. there is not a day i complain too much snow.

neuronbob

+3 on snow tires.
Also, yes, lower gears are better, especially 2nd when starting out.

getakey

I'm not in snow country and I'm not sure if this is valid for SH-AWD, but driving in a lower gear does help braking. However, when starting from stop, a higher gear helps prevent wheel spin. So, Bob your recommendation to start in 2nd is actually using a "higher gear".

Ken1997TL

I tend to just keep my cars in 2nd gear in the snow.

037

Conti DWS are technically comparable to a cheap snow tire...they are the best snow handling all season tire.

I guess I didn't miss much because I was in fact going ahead of the plows and passing people in the unplowed lanes.

For whatever reason, my low beams were hitting the snow almost half way across my windshield, I don't know if it's the 8k low beams or some sort of misallignment but it was basically blinding and I couldn't see very far.

Not sure if fogs would help but mine are out of commission for a bit...

getakey

Don't get to cocky, passing is easy, its the stopping part that is hard. I know from experience.

037

wasn't getting cocky, low gears slow down car plenty.

getakey

My comment was only meant to be taken lightly. Wasn't trying to offend

getakey

That said, I've seen your videos

037

what you see is on dry land and speeds well below the cars threshhold.

I do enjoy my car

getakey

understood and I can see you do - which I appreciate
appreciated the videos as well

I think i have steered this way off your orig topic

DandyG23

The deepest I have driven my RL is about 6 inches of fresh snow. I have all season tires on the OEM rims. I have no problems when driving on snow and ice over here in Northern Nevada.

db22

Put it in Manual and start off in second gear. Use the manual tranny for speed and braking. Second best is D3 so you only have the first 3 gears to use.

037 - you have just found out another reason OEM will not use above 5500K. Snow reflects a lot of blue so the less blue you have, the better the real illumination. A similar reason applies to fog lights - lower the color temp for more useable light.

thephantom

I'm in Central Mass. and the snow here tend to get fairly deep whenever we get a storm, like this whole month. I have an OEM-like tires on my RL now (can't remember the name to save my life) and it's been great. I'd keep it in D and just let the car do the rest. However, I'd consider myself an experienced driver as I average about 20,000 miles per year (all time high was 35,000 miles a couple of years ago).

I had snow tires on my 02 TL-S, which was horrible in the snow with ANY All Season tires. The first year I put Blizzaks on it the car was awesome in the snow. The best thing about snow tires is that it actually STOPS when you hit the brakes. I have also used General's Altimax Artic, which was very comparable to the Blizzaks, but much cheaper.

I have toyed with the idea of putting some snow tires on the RL, but I think it'll do just fine without them.

037

there isn't D3 in my car, it's either full auto, sport auto, or full manual.

I was using full manual so I can drop it into 4th when I wasn't sliding or trying to pass anyone to save on gas. I still managed like 15mpg...

Aman

Winter gas blends FTL

Pete2010

I'm going to +1 also on the dedicated snow tires. While the DWS might be the best all-season in the snow, the rubber compound on any all season loses it's grip dramatically below freezing. That and the treads don't allow much snow in for grip. SH-AWD is great, but it won't help if it can't get the grip it needs, and it doesn't help when you need to stop.

But - to answer your original question, on my 6MT I tend to downshift to 2nd and let the engine slow me down before applying brakes.

037

my original question wasn't about slowing, I just wanted to know how everyone handled "deep" snow when just moving straight as I felt that only the lower gears gave me the power/confidence to be passing people or even just going straight when snow pushes the car to the side based on the grooves from previous vehicles.

mg7726

...and the best answer is, get snow tires for deep snow driving. i have never seen any all-seasons better then snows.

ichi d

snow tires will stop anywhere from 40 to 60% shorter then your best allsesons. (depending on the brand/tire) and awd or 4x4 will not help u stop any faster. and to answer your question i just leave it in D and drive, as i have snow tires on my stock oems 17s. the RL is a beast with snow tires.

037

I might be young but I am aware that 4x4 does not actually improve stopping distances

BluNosr2

A narrower width snow tire really helps, especially with the "tramlining" in deeper snow from the ruts left by other vehicles. Fresh snow is suprisingly grippy - it's when it gets packed down and forms an ice layer underneath that things get interesting.

Mr.Tea

Is less air in the tire better for winter driving or more air? I am using the factory recommended setting in the winter and notice that the car does not slip as much as when i had the 35 PSi all the way around the week before.

037

not real sure about tire pressure. My tires are currently 2psi below recommended "low speed" pressure.

db22

Watch the WRC from Finland. These guys will drive in snow, ice and gravel faster than you or I on a dry road. A few million dollars, custom tires and skill beyond anything you have ever seen.

037

um...I'm sure their life span is still shorter no matter how much skill they got. Plus I'm a few million dollars short...

vtr1000sp2

I switch between an 07 E320 and the 06 RL. Both cars have Michelin Pilot Alpin snows. The Benz may be RWD but the 205 width rubber actually helps A LOT (the RL has 235 width rubber). The only real difference between the 2 cars is acceleration, the RL gets off the line easily despite what's on the ground whereas the Benz may squirm a bit under acceleration. I've found that turning the traction control off for most conditions actually improves the traction (except ice and slush).

Aman

It might improve acceleration, but turning TC won't actually "increase" traction.

BluNosr2

With our first "real" snowstorm the other day (around 16inches) which hit during evening commute hours (my normal 15 minute drive turning into an hour), I will say the RL wiper design is horrible for winter compared to every other car I've owned. The wiper design uses a lot of flex points and insert tension where the insert can move away from the arm housing at several points along its length to allow it to better adhere to the windshield contours...but this means there are too many internal surfaces between the blade and wiper arm housing/holder for snow/ice to build up in ....which meant after leaving a parking garage with a totally bare windshield the gaps between the wiper inserts and wiper arms filled up with snow and ice resulting in both wiper blades visibly being "bent" away from the windshield surface because of the tension of the inserts and rendering them pretty much useless after 20mins or so of driving in heavy snowfall... until I got out, pried the inserts "out" away from the arm housings and chiselled away the ice inside the arm housings under the inserts with my keys. This was with max heat and full front defrost for the entire drive.

Traction was great though with SH-AWD and four proper snow tires - ground clearance could be better though!

neuronbob

That's what I meant. D'oh! Must have been dyslexic that day.

baboya96

My snowdriving technique - Park my car and stay home...
I live in atl, ga. Driving in snow is pretty rare down here so i won't even give it a try!!

gcook

I was driving to tahoe (kirkwood) and nav took me a strange way..anyway went up a road and hit an unplowed road with at least 18" with a slight elevation and it wouldn't go. I couldn't get past it. I don't have snow tires. Luckily I could back up and detour 30 miles to get around it, but it was the first time the car let me down in snow. I literally spun out like most cars you see stuck in snow. I wish I had chains at that point cuz they would have gotten me through to the main road, which was only 3 miles away and completely plowed.

Pan0k

I live in DC area. We get kill by a MAJOR SNOW STORM of under 1 inch!!!!

VQPower37

^ haha ... i know about this 1 inch caused like 10 hr delays

neuronbob

^^^^
Pansies. You guys wouldn't last a winter here in Cleveland. An inch here and they barely even bother to take the snow plows out and sometimes not even the salt (given the bad economy...salt ain't cheap even though we have a fracking salt mine under Lake Erie, WTF?)

You have to know how to drive in snow. I daily drove my RWD, 650 hp (modded) V every day with winter tires and it never, ever got stuck on the road, even in the worst snowstorms.

Pan0k

What's even worse is that recently they pretreated the entire road system days before another "MAJOR SNOW STORM" that we only get a flake.