With freshly fallen snow, one sound you will almost always hear in your neighborhood is the spinning wheels of motorists trying to get unstuck from the snow. There are two basic car misconceptions that cause people to continually spin their wheels, sometimes for hours, when they’re stuck in either snow or mud.
These are:
The car is a magnificent piece of mechanical technology that places hundreds of horsepower at your command. Surely that raw power will get you out of your fix, right? Wrong. It won’t help much when there’s little traction between your wheel and the snow. The harder you press the accelerator, the more torque the engine applies to the wheels. More torque on the wheels means you need more traction to get the car moving, and snow simply doesn’t have enough of it.
The trick is doing the opposite: apply as little power as possible. This will transmit very little torque to the wheels and therefore you won’t need that much traction to get your car moving.
Dogged persistence is an important trait but that must be balanced with working smarter instead of harder. If what you’re doing isn’t working, stop, reassess, and try something else. This seems trite, but it works for all of life’s problems and it’s surprising how few people understand this. Instead of gunning your engine and spinning your wheels over and over, try these alternative techniques to get unstuck from snow or mud:
Don’t forget that you can use these tips together when getting out of a difficult situation. For more information or if you have any car and tire needs,
contact us.
Paul Campanella's Auto & Tire Center