DRIVING ON SNOW: OUR 5 SAFETY TIPS

1 February

10 minutes read

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Tip 1: Prepare your journey

Before you hit the road, you can anticipate and prepare your journey by taking a few simple but very useful steps:

Plan your route by mapping out the entire journey. Of course, the GPS will guide you along your route, but having in mind the different stages and the necessary driving time will allow you to plan an appropriate departure time. This gives you peace of mind, which is important for staying focused and driving safely.

Check the traffic conditions before you leave. Check the weather forecast for your journey and traffic information to anticipate any potential disruption. Stay alert as mountain weather changes often and very quickly. Choose the main roads as they are mostly cleared of snow and sand (or salt).

When setting off, make sure you wear dry and comfortable shoes. Try to avoid getting snow into the car: when it melts it will form puddles and the pedals will become slippery.

Tip 2: Overhaul your vehicle

At the start of winter, take the time to service your vehicle so that you are not caught short when you hit the road in snowy conditions. Here are some important things to check:

Replace the various filters and change the oil if necessary.
Check the condition of your windscreen wipers.
Make sure your battery is working properly: cold weather is not your friend if it fails!
Fill up your windscreen washer fluid with antifreeze.

Electric cars are more sensitive to low temperatures, especially in terms of range. This is because, whereas a combustion engine car generates a lot of waste heat, electric vehicle motors convert almost all the energy produced to propel the vehicle without loss. If you are travelling with an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, here are some specific tips to help you maximise battery life:

Make sure you always have about 20% charge level left to warm up the battery when starting.
Charge the battery preferably one hour before departure to benefit from the warmth of the charging system.
When the car is still plugged in, take the opportunity to precondition the battery by heating it from the inside.
During the journey, use seat heating instead of cabin heating, which wastes less energy.

Make sure you always have about 20% charge level left to warm up the battery when starting.
Charge the battery preferably one hour before departure to benefit from the warmth of the charging system.
When the car is still plugged in, take the opportunity to precondition the battery by heating it from the inside.
During the journey, use seat heating instead of cabin heating, which wastes less energy.

Tip 3: Get the right equipment

Before a trip on a snowy route, it is essential to have a minimum of equipment to deal with the weather:

A scraper for ice or a special brush (compulsory equipment according to the Highway Code) and, if necessary, a deicing spray.
A flashlight and warm clothing for night-time cycling.
A waterproof bag to store wet chains or snow socks (this prevents condensation and therefore fogging in the car's interior).
Clamps for recharging the battery.

Before a trip on a snowy route, it is essential to have a minimum of equipment to deal with the weather:

A scraper for ice or a special brush (compulsory equipment according to the Highway Code) and, if necessary, a deicing spray.
A flashlight and warm clothing for night-time cycling.
A waterproof bag to store wet chains or snow socks (this prevents condensation and therefore fogging in the car's interior).
Clamps for recharging the battery.

Chains and snow socks

Chains or snow socks may sometimes be compulsory for driving in the mountains or in the event of heavy snowfall. Depending on the country, legislation sometimes requires all vehicles to be fitted with special equipment for driving on certain parts of the road network.

In any case, for your safety, chains or socks are imperative if you are planning to go to the mountains but do not wish to invest in snow tyres.

Do not choose your chains lightly and consider the following criteria:

Link size: 7 and 9 mm for light vehicles, 13 and 16 mm for medium vehicles, 25 mm for heavy vehicles.
Tyre dimensions: choose models that are compatible with the dimensions on the side of your tyres.

Snow socks are lighter and easier to fit, and are also cheaper. However, they are less reliable and should be reserved for occasional use and on ground with little snow.

Snow tyres

Winter tyres offer incredible safety and are very effective on snow.

For occasional driving, the question does not arise, but if you are a regular visitor to the mountains, having a full set of winter tyres is an investment, but one that will quickly pay off.

Different countries have different laws regarding the obligation to use winter tyres. Some countries require winter tyres for a specific period, others require them under certain climatic conditions or according to a specific signposting, and some countries do not require them at all. To find out more about snow tyre regulations in different countries, click here.

Tip 4: Control your speed

Snow has a low grip coefficient and therefore requires a high degree of safety and anticipation. The main danger remains ice or black ice, which offers almost no grip. Moreover, black ice is sneaky and can be masked on a very light layer of powder.

On snow, it is therefore important never to speed up, even if the driving sensation and the reactions of your car are good.

Drive your vehicle slowly and smoothly, including braking, steering, accelerating and changing gear
Accelerate smoothly at low revs and shift up as quickly as possible.
Maintain a greater safety distance between your car and the vehicle in front of you.
If the car starts to skid, do not panic. Pull it back gently. Do not let go of the steering wheel or brake suddenly.
Turn on your headlights. If visibility is less than 100 metres, turn on your fog lights. But remember to turn them off when visibility is better again.
If the roads are not sanded, avoid driving in the tracks of other vehicles: packed snow is more slippery than fresh snow.

Tip 5: Learn to stop

If you come across a patch of ice or a mixture of snow and ice, drive smoothly without making sudden movements.
If you have to slow down or stop, use the engine brake first and then the brakes, but with care.
Choose the right trajectory, preferably by putting your wheels in the powder, and be prepared to correct any deviation of your machine quickly.
In case of emergency, you can still use the snow walls on the sides, which are very effective in slowing down a car without damaging it, but beware of the ditches!

Recommendations from an expert: Sylvain Pussier, ice driving champion

"I am a Peugeot agent in the Ain region and, in addition to selling and repairing cars, I am lucky enough to be able to race cars. I have done quite a few championships for the Peugeot brand in promotional formulas and I have specialised in ice racing.

At the beginning, I was a driver for a team and with time, I set up my own team. We designed and built our own car based on a 208. I race every weekend against monuments of motor sport like Sébastien Loeb or Yvan Muller. So we started as an amateur team that became professional and today we have reached a level of performance to compete against the best drivers in the discipline."

The essentials of driving on ice

Tyres

You can have the best driver in the world, but if he doesn't have the right tyres, he won't move forward or he won't be able to turn at the end of the straight. So the most important thing is the tyre and the grip.

We run on studded tyres (250 studs per tyre). As a tyre heats up, it expands and as it expands, it lets the studs out of its housing a little. For us, the difficulty is to make the tyre work in a certain way to create the best grip. Our performance depends to a large extent on the tyres. In my team, we are 14 people and 2 of them are exclusively dedicated to tyres. These people analyse, measure and test the tyres in order to constantly improve performance.

Weight distribution

Weight distribution allows the weight to be centred in the middle of the vehicle to cancel out the effect of inertia. You should know that each time you win a race, you take what is called ballast for the next race. So the first one takes 60 kg, the second one 40 kg and the third one 20 kg. So, if we are ranked in the top three, we have to rework all the settings in the workshop before the next race, depending on the ballast.

We work a lot beforehand to anticipate all this and we also gain valuable experience over time.

Sylvain Pussier's tips for mastering ice driving

You have to know that, whatever happens, it is overspeed that will create the accident. Whether you are on ice, snow or even tarmac, the laws of physics mean that if you drive slowly, if you anticipate things, there will never be an accident. Accidents happen if you drive too fast or if you are not prepared enough, whatever the surface. As far as driving on ice is concerned, even if you have great nails, if you go out, it's because you were too fast compared to what the car can take.

You have to be able to measure the grip and some people have this instinctively, others do not. Hence the importance of starting off slowly.

For driving on snow, the narrower the tyres, the less risk of skidding because the ground surface is smaller. Moreover, old vehicles such as the 2CV or the 4L did not need snow tyres to drive on snow because the original tyres were much narrower than today.

Finally, you should know that in terms of equipment for driving in the snow or on ice, it is better to put nothing on than to put on only 2 tyres. For example, a Peugeot is a front-wheel drive car, so it is the front wheels that drive the car. If you create grip with snow tyres at the front but don't put any at the rear, this is what will happen: the driver will gain confidence when starting off thanks to the grip of the snow tyres at the front. He will accelerate and in the first bend, the rear, which is not equipped with snow tyres, will slip and he will spin out.

If he doesn't have snow tyres, at least he won't start because the car will spin immediately. This situation has the added advantage of making the driver aware of the state of the ground. So the ideal is 4 tyres or nothing.

This happened to me one day when I was returning a customer's car. As a driver of the Andros Trophy as I am, I had grip so I said to myself "it's good, it holds the road". I didn't think that there were only two tyres. At the first corner, I found myself upside down! And there you go, just like that!

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