Driving Techniques

[stockk5]

I am new to off-roading and today i kinda got myself into a scary situation, i was going down a trail, and i knew this one part of the trail had a decent size ditch right on the inside of the turn, the trail curved downhill and had some snow on it, i knew it would be a lil tricky but i got near the ditch and my rear end started sliding in, i wasnt on the gas before i went into it but as soon as i started sliding i hit the gas and turned hard and got outta it cuz i felt as if i went all the way in i would of tipped over. i was wondering if anyone has tips or advice for situations like that to control sliding off camber and any other semi-tricky situations on trails, less gas? more gas? no brake? brake? Any tips in decending, and off camber or climbing and off-camber would definitly be helpful!

 

[rjfguitar]

It's kind of hard to give tips on driving because every situation is slightly different. For your situation that you just had I guess it could depend on traction. IF you start to slide getting on it could just make you slide faster, or if you have traction, grab and pull you away like what happened. As far as decending I would use my engine to help keep speeds under control, just downshift into low and take it easy down hills.

 

[Can Can]

I have limited wheeling experience, but I drive on ice and snow about 6 months of the year. Basically, the best way to avoid losing control on slippery downhill roads is to stay off the brakes and use as much engine braking as possible. One of our steepest gravel roads gets super icy during the winter, and even light braking causes the front brakes to lock up and severely reduces steerability. I've gotten used to sticking her into 4 lo and 1st and just creeping down the hill......

 

[xtrmjoe]

I push in the e-brake in some to compensate for the front brake bias on slippery steep down hill sittuations. I would much rather have the back lock up so I can still steer. If the front locks you wont be able to steer, and on down hill situations, well most sittuations anyway, the fronts will lock first. I just get the lowest gear possibile and hold the e brake relese out while I push the pedal in. In automatics you can use reverse and feather the gas to slow sown as well, very tricky though practice this before you try it on the trail.

 

[Pookster]

A spotter helps a lot too. A lot of things LOOK and FEEL very scary from inside the cab, but the spotter will be able to tell you whether or not it really is.

 

[dyeager535]

If I'm not mistaken, the last thing in the world you want when going downhill is the rear wheels locking up. If the rear starts to slide, it will pivot on the front axle and you will end up backwards, if you can stop the vehicle from continuing out of control.

My cousins have a LOT more experience in snow/ice driving than I do, and they drive *much* quicker than I feel comfortable with in the same situations. Experience is hard to make up for.

Last year, I watched both of them go through a steep downhill covered in ice with no problems, while I and another vehicle spun out in the same place. I believe his spinout was caused by applying the brakes. However, in my case, I wasn't on the brakes, and was in 4low/low. About 2MPH.

I *have a feeling* that had I more tire/vehicle speed I probably wouldn't have spun around. My theory is that if the vehicle weight is great enough, and the surface slick enough, compression braking will STILL allow the tires to slide because the compression isn't letting them rotate fast enough, if that makes sense. Gravity is pulling the vehicle anyways, if that pull exceeds how fast the tires are wanting to turn, you will start to slide. My tires are AT's, both of their trucks have less agressive tires, which also probably helped, (more tire contact) but a spinout in my case *shouldn't* have happened, according to what you are told by most that know how to drive.

Typically, keeping vehicle speed down, off the brake, foot near the accelerator, and keeping as many tires as possible on "fresh" snow, or dirt, will keep you from having problems. Sometimes the best thing to do will be to hit the gas as you did, sometimes the best is to stand on the brake and hope stuff piles up against the tires, which is what stopped me from doing a complete 180. (after hitting the gas to keep from going off the opposite side of the road) Even with the ice, sliding sideways allowed the tires to gouge enough material to come to a stop.