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by Spixxy on February 15th, 2004

Spixxy

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How good is rear-wheel drive in handling snow and ice?

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  • by david askari on April 2nd, 2005

    david askari

    As far a getting stuck in snow, whether front or rear wheel drive, you have only one wheel spinning (Unless you have positraction which most don, t). But with a rear wheel drive, you can invoke positraction on the fly for getting both wheels to spin and at a slower speed to for better grip. The problem is that the spinning wheel is the one with to traction to begin with, and the stationary one has more grip which is useless since it is not spinning.
    Here is the simple tip for manual or automatic rear wheel drives.
    When once realized you are stuck, we start to push the accelerator do get moving but now invoke temporary positraction to get the wheel with traction that won, t move to move. As you increase your gas pedal, now you pull your emergency brake slowly in the same manner. The spinning and no spinning wheels are slowly braked. But, only the spinning wheel feels the braking and begins to slow and the energy is transfered to the stationary wheel and it starts to spin. There is a period where both wheels will spin and that, s where you have the most traction that will be better suited for getting loose. You will get the hang of it after a few tries.
    You can check this out with your or a kid's rd cars that have differentials like real cars. Grab one wheel while they are spinning (not spinning fast to get hurt though) and the wheel you grab now has the most grip but the other one is spinning in the air. Now slowly stop both rear wheels which would be like the emergency break in all cars (that breaks rears wheels only) and you will feel both wheels trying to break your grip.

    Edited for some Grammar issues

    Comments

    • I don't fully understand differentials but I do know that most of the time when I'm stuck my right wheel and only that wheel spins. Only when I'm stuck on something really slippery do both spin. I'll try the parking brake idea this w

      Jennifer Jason

      by Jennifer Jason on November 3rd, 2006

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