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Re: snowed in !!!
Toni wrote:I managed to do all execpt one job yesterday (Bishop’s Stortford After 5pm. near you Mark) which is rebboked for Sat AM
One drum Job today in Epping, gave up after 1/4 hour trying to get up a side road. Not getting caught again after having to leave the van and walk home 6 miles in the snow just before Christmas 😯I got stuck in a road just off Epping town centre in the February snow fall, not going back that way till this lot has gone.
Re: snowed in !!!
😡 we managed to get a few calls done yesterday only 15 out of 40 though and today looks like it will be the same, the financial cost of loosing so much work is crippling
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Got stuck today in Dartmoor we have decided to only run a limited service untill weather gets better , my LPG combo van is finding it tough !
Re: snowed in !!!
Phidom wrote:Yes, Bulgaria gets a lot of snow but even a poor country like that has much better systems for keeping the roads open than we have here. Snow is simply not accepted as an excuse for not getting to work.
donkeys are built for that kind of weather over there.
😉Re: snowed in !!!
seem to think our vans in the past coped better than the new ones. Maybe its the tyres, designed to run at 100+ mph on the motorway rather than the old vans that struggeld to make it to 70 downhill and had tyres to suite.
Re: snowed in !!!
eastlmark wrote:seem to think our vans in the past coped better than the new ones. Maybe its the tyres, designed to run at 100+ mph on the motorway rather than the old vans that struggeld to make it to 70 downhill and had tyres to suite.
Thats interesting cause I have been sliding all over the place today and was saying pretty much the same thing to my dad today ,got stuck on a driveway this morning ,out came the shovel 10 mins later I was clear .
just been over the park that we back onto to run the dog and there are people sledging with head torches !
Blizzards here again so tommorow could be good .
LawrenceRe: snowed in !!!
Transit Sport van wide tyres traction control, electronic stability program fantastic in the wet but Front wheel drive rubbish on grip on ice must be the tyres.
So I am useing my Shogun 4 X 4 ( it is insured for private and business use ) No problem even towed a customer out of his house and lane 4 IN 1 GRADIANT but no wheel spin.
MAGIC.
Re: snowed in !!!
I got a new van this year and wondered how it would cope, and up to now its been a breeze, compared with the last couple of Transits i had when i worked for Hotpoint they were a nightmare in the snow.
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My van has traction control,ABS and four new tyres and I was all over the place this afternoon and gave it up at 3pm.
Too many numpties on the road to risk my life for. 😡Steve
Re: snowed in !!!
I have to say that my new Volvo V50 is the best of the 8 Volvo’s I have had at coping with the snow.
Front wheel drive with Powershift auto gearbox which is not the old type of automatic torque converter box but similar to the VW/Audi DSG box.
Its essential to disable DSTC (Dynamic Spin & Traction Control) select the manual option and keep it 2nd gear and it has sailed round the past few days. Only got stuck when venturing off the main roads and having to stop at customers houses, always carry a big spade, sorry shovel 😉 in the car at all times.
The one thing that has really got up my nose in the past few days is the number of drivers who are timidly driving along at 15 mph on perfectly clear roads, if they have so little faith in their ability in the snow and ice then stay at home for gods sake. 😈
Jim.
Re: snowed in !!!
Hardly any snow left here but compacted ice everywhere. Lots of side roads are like ice rinks, so route planning is subject to what you find.
My Mercedes Vito gave me a scare today on a long sloping drive to a block of flats. The bottom of the drive was gritted and the top was clear thanks to some sunshine. So I thought I’d take a run at it and all the ABS, traction control and stability electronics would see me alright. Halfway up the icy part the back wheels start to spin and the stability program decides to step in and cut a large chunk of power from the engine in an attempt to stop the wheelspin. I knew that this van had this feature and it had stopped me skidding a few times in the last week, but at this critical moment it was the worst possible thing to happen for it to start meddling with the ‘feel’ of the van – suddenly I felt completely out of control of the vehicle. I was tempted to press the stability control disable button, but it didn’t seem the right time to be experimenting!!
There I am, hanging on halfway up this steep drive; can’t go up, foot to the floor with seemingly no extra response from the engine and can’t go down too fast backwards towards a busy road. Can’t steer and can’t brake…….. 😯 😯
The only alternative was to slam it in reverse and let the engine braking take it down the slope with the odd jab on the brakes. Scary stuff!!
I left the van in the street and it was all I could do to climb the slope on foot.And she was out…….. 😈 😈 I couldn’t believe it!! She rang me about 2 hours later to ask where I was as she was now at home. I have yet to reply……. :angry4:
Steve.
Re: snowed in !!!
Seriously, if you have any kind of dynamic spin or traction control and you know you are approaching possible snow impacted surfaces then its best to disable the DSTC and use your experience and feel for the conditions, I actually enjoy a bit of driving around in the snow, it helps to keep the driving skills honed.
If it really is just ice then even a 4×4 with conventional tyres is useless.
The main roads round here are clear but all of the side roads still have six or more inches of snow on them.
The news reports are as usual completely over the top, going on about ‘the unprecedented conditions’. In 1963 it was like this or worse for three months continuously between December and March.
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My Scud hasn’t got any clever gizmos, just my feet.
I’ve got stuck once so far and it took about 10 minutes to get out of it.
Fun job so far was out on a farm past North Rigton. Phoned customer to sat that I was on my way – turned into farm track to be faced by the back of a large tractor and a bloke holding a chain…. We got there. Fixed it, then he dragged me back down the track. Paid up without any complaints as well – nice.
Chris.
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