Snow Thread (again)

[trabitom99]

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Tom, I think MY snowcap is broken.
the snow just just seems to gather on top of it!!!

Jani!!!???

What do I do now???

I'm afraid I was cheating I had to clear the snowcap of, erm, snow, to be able to take a picture of it! They should just have called it "original accessory cool bonnet scoop" and be done with it, rather than trying to call it a Volvo safety feature.

Maybe they should have called a front spoiler a "snowplough"

Tom

[mrsoundcraft]

Here's mine. I dont have a snow cap, but in light of the recent criticism of the part I don't think having one would have helped.

volvo.jpg (229.22 KiB) Viewed 3948 times

Happy new year

[jtbo]

Here is article where they predict even colder for you on the island:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weath ... edict.html

Trouble for those who have done -50mm lowering

[nomead]

I still think the snow cap is designed the wrong way around. Fine, now it stops the snow from falling into the air intake vent. But the opening should be towards the rear of the car, and here's why: When you drive around in heavy snowfall, snow will land on the bonnet and after that, when you accelerate, all the snow will start moving again backwards towards the front opening of the snowcap and then it'll all be sucked in. If the heater is on (and at these temperatures it bloody well is) the snow will then instantly melt on the heater matrix and the extra moisture will cloud the windscreen from the inside. Now if the opening were to the rear, the snow would mostly pass the snowcap.

The dry snow that we get here when it's colder than just a bit below zero is quite different. It's made of smaller particles that get blown everywhere. Actually I wonder, was it a Dutch or Swedish Volvo designer that did the snowcap?

[volvosneverdie]

Yeah, its been said before, but a snowcap is in reality quite an effective snow-scoop.
Still looks cool though.

[whiskeyonesix]

What is this.... Snow?

39degrees here today. Having to get up at 7am to do the garden before it gets too hot is no joke - ecpecially with Gods Own Hangover.
Only good side is when you drive anywhere, the car takes like one minute to warm up - if that!

I had one of those air heaters in my garage back in the UK years ago - came in useful when thawing out my landrovers numerous frozen carbs!

[volvosneverdie]

What is this.... Snow?

Its gods punishement to northern hemisphere'rs for the bountys of handsomeness and dancing skills he accidentally bestowed upon them on the 4th day of creation. When he was real high.

[trabitom99]

In the last week, I've driven about 1000kms on snow. More than ever before in fact And I can really see the benefits of RWD, most of the time. One set of wheels does the steering, another puts the power down. However, on motorways which haven't been gritted yet is RWD really so good? I found the rear end kept going in one direction or another. In a FWD car, I'd just ease off the throttle, but in the Volvo I was constantly correcting with the steering wheel too ...

Any good advice from our experienced scandinavian snow drivers ? I've got winter tyres fitted (Vredestein M+S with "snowflake"), but ones which are geared more to wet, Autumn weather - not outright "snow" tyres.

Tom

[SteveP]

I think that's just the thing Tom... the ONLY time FWD is superior is when it snows... lots of weight over the driven wheels.

[jtbo]

With those kind of tires, I would not go far more than 40Mph, even that can be pushing luck when roads are icy.

RWD tells that way that there is little amount of grip, slow down, sure it can be driven lot faster but only when sliding

Get 40-80kg of weight to boot, that will stabilize it a bit and helps with taking off, but seriously with M+S tires, you should not try to drive that 70

My best tip is to go to the tireshop and swap M+S tires to these:

Continental Viking Contact 5

There are photos of some sensible winter tires, which you really need if going to drive over 40Mph in ice and snow:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/rengaslasi/talvirenkaat.htm
Nokian
Continental
Michelin
Gislaved

Almost any of those will do the trick, but there are some horrible 'winter' tires too, for example my Continental viking contact 5 tires did lot better in snow and ice than my Semperit winter tires, and those Semperit tires were studded while these Contis are not studded = legal in your country too and very silent during summer, will give also lower fuel consumption. I have drive around the year with these and around 50 000km, still going strong with 6mm thread left.
I just don't know where to get them, those are perhaps not sold in there, even in here they are not very cheap.

edit: I think twitching tail is good thing, it informs driver to slow down, FWD just goes, but when it is time to stop, there are no any help from less feedback, laws of physics are same and FWD driver which did not know cruelty of ice will need lot more space to stop than RWD driver which got warnings and slowed down

[trabitom99]

Thanks for that ... Friday and today I did some pretty white-knuckle driving

Around town RWD feels great on snow, very predictable, and as you set off the weight goes to the back, giving good traction compared to a FWD car. But in a straight line, at higher speeds it was no fun at all on my "Autumn" tyres ...

Tom

[jtbo]

I don't know how much they tell different tires in driving school, but I post here few links where you can see some difference, Scandinavian winter tires are even lot better, there was no much difference between summer and winter driving in Volvo, however stopping and taking off were harder, compared to summer weather.

All 6 parts, quite good demonstration, but I think still it is bit silly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P03wqClnq-0

Tiretrack.com's advertisement clips, but even they are silly Americans it shows differences somewhat, in reality difference is perhaps even greater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGfvyPtYR0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s

Don't know if those help to see what kind of difference it is between M+S and winter tires, but there are certainly some difference.

[trabitom99]

Interesting vids jtbo, thanks ...

I looked up "Mud and Snow" tyres on Wikipedia, apparently most "All Season" tyres (which are crap on snow, but still road legal in wintery conditions in Germany) have M+S written on them. Dedicated "Winter tyres" have a "mountain/snowflake" icon on them, as well as M + S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_tyr ... plications

Mine (Vredestein Snowtrac) have that snowflake, but I've definitely driven cars (RWD too) with more grip in winter, I'll try the Conti ones next time. Their summer tyres are excellent - I've been very pleased with them in the past ...

Cheers

Tom

[Hell Driver]

Got some snow at last 3 inches so far

[jtbo]

Interesting vids jtbo, thanks ...

I looked up "Mud and Snow" tyres on Wikipedia, apparently most "All Season" tyres (which are crap on snow, but still road legal in wintery conditions in Germany) have M+S written on them. Dedicated "Winter tyres" have a "mountain/snowflake" icon on them, as well as M + S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_tyr ... plications

Mine (Vredestein Snowtrac) have that snowflake, but I've definitely driven cars (RWD too) with more grip in winter, I'll try the Conti ones next time. Their summer tyres are excellent - I've been very pleased with them in the past ...

Cheers

Tom

Conti TS810 is probably similar to your Snowtrac tires (but lot better I presume), with Conti 5 you stop some 30% shorter distances than with TS810 if I remember test correctly
On ice with ABS stopping from 80kph with Conti 5 is over 400 meters, without ABS half from that (200 meters), with studded tires few meters less, however when ice is very smooth studded tires can make bigger difference, but those are illegal over there.

Stopping distance on snow is around 50-60 meters and on tarmac around 35 meters with these tires, so it is something one must keep on mind when driving at winter conditions, stopping distance can easily be 4 to 5 times greater, in worse case 10 times greater than on summer.