Wanted your opinion on a disagreement I had with my friend.

Assuming you have manual transmission, he says the best way to stop in the snow to always downshift. He says that downshifting is better than applying the brakes.

I disagree but don't want to post my reasoning so as to not "sway" any opinions.

Thoughts?

 

Not necessarily. Case in point, today I was coming off an offramp and downshifted to 2nd from 4th and the car fishtailed a bit. Had I simply eased on the brakes I would have been fine.

 

^Exactly. Like NSXNEXT said, it's not because you downshift that your car necessarily slows down. This most likely helps more the automatic transmissions with the sports modes(+ -)..it's more effective on that than it is on a traditional manual transmission. Applying the brakes gradually and smoothly is still imho the best and safest way to come to a stop. Downshifting is not better by any means. I used to do little tests like that and my car would just rev high than eventually losing revs to come to a stop.

 

in a manual it is better, IMO, to keep it in gear (a lower one) and apply the brakes lightly while letting the engine brake as well

 

What is he actually arguing? the principle and concept of using either the brakes or the tranny to slow down is the same whether it be in the snow or the nice dry asphalt...to slow down the car. The only difference is which is easier to control. And that is usually up to the car and/or the driver. I include the car because assuming it is a manual tranny, if someone is familiar with their clutch and car, the braking force from the engine/tranny can be used to control the amount of braking force applied. With brakes, it takes less familiarity to "modulate" the braking force.

With that said and driving in snow and the amount of care required, real brakes FTW simply because it is much less critical to "get right".

 

Completely agree. This is not an 'either or' situation. You do both, and modulate both brakes and transmission braking.

If you downshift into too low a gear, you can lock the fronts and kill the engine...which is definitely not recommended. With just brakes, you can either lock them up or take too long to stop....not recommended either.

Stopping in snow effectively is a technique that requires a combination of all the available inputs; brakes, transmission braking, and throttle believe it or not. One is not better than the other.

-Mirror

 

I foresee this being a long ass thread.

 

Heeltoe ftw

If you're going down a steep hill you need to do both.

 

I like a combo of engine braking and the brakes when in the snow. But only a one gear reduction at a time, not that 4th to 2nd, that is too much.

 

Especially when someone mentions it's cheaper to replace the brakes then it is to replace the clutch...

I use both... with a bias to one or the other depending on the situation...

I don't like to downshift w/ my CL 6spd in icy or snowy conditions. Since the car can break loose... Using the brakes, and letting the ABS kick in when necessary when coming to a stop for example... and only downshifting one gear at a time.

 

i like to use a parachute






normally i would use both engine and brakes

 

I like to use both.

 

to all of the above

 

Appreciate all the feedback. When he first said that he downshifts and not use the brake, all i can think of is in some situations, you can lock up the front (FWD) tires and lose control.

After some more discussion, it seems like he also uses the brake when he downshifts which is what I do. It was a pretty funny argument. At one point he said that I didn't know how to drive in the snow and to remind him never to get in my car when it's snowing out. In any case, I now have $20 that I didn't have before!

Again, thanks for the feedback!

 

get snow tires and use common sense

 

in my car in the snow i normally will use my regular break to slow myself down from a higher speed. however if i'm on noon paved, icy and up on hills, i will tend to downshift using the tranny to break as well as my own brakes. this is so i can still brake efficiently without having to apply a lot of pressure to the front brakes of the car and having the tires lock up and the abs kick on and me just sliding. <- this happend to me the other day when it was snowing bc i used to much brake, half hour later with more snow on the same hill. i used the tranny and brakes and i did not slide through like i did before. mind u i was doing maybe 10mph if that.

for everyday driving, i use the brakes, never use the tranny to slow the car down unless if i'm playing around ith it, but even at that i only do it at slow speeds.