By Bart, an NIT reader from Des Moines and former Mason City resident –
Winter slammed in like the Fridge used to slam into the end zone for the 1985 Bears. Many experienced drivers learned how to get out of being stuck in deep snow, but modern cars are different, and some of those techniques don’t work. Young drivers may rely too much on new systems like traction control or stability control. Whether you have 4 wheel drive, all-wheel drive, traction control, or stability control; knowing this will help get you unstuck.
I live on a steep hill that is the last to be plowed and sometimes days later. It is a dead end street with a loop at the bottom of a large hill. I see people every year drive down and can’t make it back up the steep hill due to ice or deep snow. Today’s modern cars have many features that are fantastic at helping and keeping the driver safe. I must stress that you want to trust these systems and use them as much as possible, but sometimes turning them off can help.
Let’s say you are driving in deep, deep snow. Your car is barely going through it or you keep getting stuck. Hills are even worse. You can only travel 15-20 mph max. On your dash you will see a light come on and off, it usually looks like a car with two wavy lines, just two wavy lines, or sometimes letters. This is your traction control/stability indicator. It tells you your wheels are slipping and the technology on your car is doing everything it can to regain traction. It is telling you that your tires have lost traction, slow down; your goal is to keep the light off. But if you are in deep snow or on a hill and you are stuck or almost stopped. You will want to turn off your traction control/stability control. The standard symbol is the two wavy lines; older cars have VDC, VSC, ESP, ESC, ASR, TRAC, or some other lettering abbreviating the stability or traction control system.
It is important to know how the system works. Traction control systems monitor wheel spin with wheel speed sensors. When you are slipping in the snow, your anti-lock brake (ABS) system pulsates the brakes to slow your spinning wheel down to try to regain traction. All stability control systems have traction control. Some systems will also automatically reduce engine power to the wheels. So if you are in deep snow or spinning up a hill, your car’s systems are slowing you down more and more. When you are in deep snow or you are trying to climb a slick hill, you are going to need momentum, and you don’t want your car braking and taking power away. This is when you turn off the traction control/stability control. Experienced drivers will know that spinning the wheels on ice and snow doesn’t help either, so you will need to gradually give just enough power to try to maintain traction and not let the wheels spin. Spinning wheels will only make it slicker under your tire and increase your chance of getting stuck. Once you are moving again, turn your traction control/stability control back on.
