DIYbanter - View Single Post - For those of you in the south that got heavy snow accumulations

basilisk[_2_]

On 01/29/2014 03:59 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 15:28:32 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 1/29/2014 2:37 PM, basilisk wrote:
...

I have never seen an ice dam form in AL. usually or snow events last for
10 hours or so and melt completely in a day or so.

If we have a mini ice age, I'll heed your warning.

What most southerners could really benefit from is rudimentary
driving lessons, for instance yesterday there was a little over an inch
on the roads, it's cold enough that it is a dry blowing snow over some
pack ice on the roads. People drove in the ditches by the tens of
thousands. I don't understand it.

I don't claim any great driving skill but I managed to drive 150 plus
miles in the same mess without any problems. (in a two wheel drive pickup)

The primary problem is they simply won't slow down sufficiently enough
to even have a half-chance when they do lose it when either

a) somebody in front loses it,
b) they try to pass on icy lane and lose it,
c) they try to stop themselves

I found exactly the opposite, yesterday. People were so scared they
wouldn't move. They drove too *slow* (as in stopped) and the snow
under them turned to ice. There wasn't a chance to blow lanes clear
of pack the snow before it turned to ice. People stopped at the
bottom of hills. They're probably still there.

Yep, got behind one going so slow that there was no way they were going
to make it over the next hill, I found a nice place to pull over and
waited until they were out of the picture before going on.

The other big problem is that there are no Winter tires here (myself
included) and many are running slicks.

I do have good mud/snow tires, it helps.

Then there are the truly stupid, like the guy that did a 3-point
U-turn in front of me, into a driveway that was declined about 5' in
40'. Of course he was driving a 2WD pickup with no weight in the
back. I was also driving a pickup (no weight) but I have good tires
and was smart enough to pick the next driveway (flat). Some bozo
couldn't even manage that driveway and drove over the person's lawn to
get out.

as the primary instigators.

I'm always simply amazed at how many UPS drivers seem no better,
nationwide. They must be in the OTR race for rollovers and landing in
medians/ditches by an order of magnitude or more compared the rest of
the national carrier brands...

Their trucks don't looks especially good for snow; top and front
heavy, with RWD.

We had just a couple of inches Monday night that left a fairly slick
surface on the blacktop bypass around town Tuesday. I'd run to town for
the mail after shoveling the walks off and doing chores and was about
plowed over by an oversize load guy while in the turn lane to make the
turn on our road waiting for oncoming. I was getting ready to head on
straight and hit the ditch behind the other guy when he did finally
manage to straighten it out but wasn't but a few lengths behind me when
he did...again, nothing but idiocy of trying to drive 50 in 30 mph
conditions. There were enough tracks that even his load rig started
swinging from one to another and when he tried to shut 'er down he did
it too quickly...very easy to see what was happening; not much of
anywhere to go w/ the other one coming over the hill from the south.

I tell people that the "shoulder is your friend" but here there are
many places there is no shoulder, only a 20' drop to the woods below.

None here either, only on the interstates, not even the US highways have
usable shoulders.

basilisk