8mm Forum: Snow vs Cars.

This is topic Snow vs Cars. in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on March 02, 2018, 02:14 PM:

With all the snow & storms we're having here in the UK, this made me laugh...WARNING! STRONG LANGUAGE!

Guess what folks, 4 wheel drive will not guarantee anything...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuTXUcoGdhw

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 02, 2018, 02:51 PM:

Thats funny Rob...what an idiot. [Smile]

The last time I travelled in heavy snow was here in the South Island and just before the long climb up a mountain I fitted chains. I once went up to the ski field as a parent helper for my sons intermediate school trip. When we arrived at the bottom the bus driver got out then proceeded to drive a couple of his rear wheels to lift the axle onto blocks of wood, then fitted chains to the others. It was quite a climb up on a unsealed and rough ice road, but we made it, and the kids with my help getting them into the ski-gear had a great time up the mountains. That was the last time I ski myself...great day out [Cool]

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on March 02, 2018, 03:00 PM:

Hehe, what a moron, i guess all that shouting and swearing frightened the car and made it go [Big Grin]

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on March 02, 2018, 04:54 PM:

We moved last September from a place near Wilmslow in Cheshire in the UK to Bollington, a mere 8 miles east and my goodness how different the weather is here.

I did used to think people who got stuck in snow, or slid down hills were just daft, but moving here has taught me that only an inch of snow extra, or a cold wind to freeze that snow can cause chaos to average cars.

I've just spent the day filming local news, up to my knees in snow.

Credit to my better half here...snow socks for car tyres are just amazing...seriously, £20.00 from Amazon, wrap on them your wheels..you're away!

If only this guy had some...

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 02, 2018, 06:49 PM:

Reminded me of an Episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil gets stuck with his Mini and gets out, grabs a branch off a tree, and proceeds to give the car " a bloody good thrashing" ! [Big Grin]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on March 03, 2018, 03:48 AM:

Don't forget to carry a decent snow shovel. He could have got out of his trouble in a few minutes with one.

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on March 03, 2018, 08:09 AM:

I got stuck in a snow drift thursday evening.

My youngest asked me too take him out on the moors ( snow tyres ) and we often do and are OK, but it suddenly came very bad and wallop etc.

Had to leave it overnight.

I thought I had done some real damage but its just a drive shaft.

Took my eldest son and I 1 1/2 hours to dig it out.

All part of a bit of real winter !!!

Best Mark.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on March 03, 2018, 12:17 PM:

Gosh, most of us have probably been in that same kind of situation ...

I'm glad that he had his door shut most of the time, I'm betting tha language within that vehicle was, shall we say ... blue?

The funny thing about situations like this is that sometimes a person makes they're situation even worse with each step they take. I'm quite surprised that the person didn't take his anger out on his vehicle. I didn't film it, but i watched a poor gent who felt that, since he was stuck, it was obviously his vehicles fault and not his, so he danced about the vehicle with reckless abandon kicking assorted parts and at one point, as he took his anger out upon his innocent victim, he managed to kick off a portion of the hard plastic on his front bumper, and that just sent him off even more.

Now, the humanitarian in me did want to go down and help the poor lad, but i didn't like the idea of a potential kick from obviously imbalanced individual.

The moral of the story?

Always carry some cat litter! [Smile]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 03, 2018, 04:15 PM:

I remember once nearly getting stuck in a snow storm back in 1974-75. I was with a group of people intending to ski the Tasman Glacier near Mt Cook when the weather closed in. A friend of mine offered me his a car, a MK2 Cortina 1967 to head back to Christchurch. I took his offer and headed of behind a bus driving in its track.

The snow got heaveier and heavier then the engine began to splutter. I looked at the fuel gauge and to my horror it was on the empty NOOOOOOO I thought what a fool. I should have checked [Roll Eyes]

anyway I came to a halt in the middle of now where, miles either way and not a house or car in sight....nothing but lots of snow.

I opened the bonnet.. hood in the US.. and found a chunk of snow on the distributor cap. I removed the cap and the HT cables and tried to dry them of, then using the car heater stuck the distributor and leads as close to the heater as possible. Without the engine running and water flowing it ain't going to do much but it was better than nothing.

I fitted the distributor cap, attached the leads, crossed my fingers and tried to start the engine. It came to life straight away, however the gauge was on the empty, but the engine was running. In the short time I was stopped, so much heavy snow had fallen I was not sure how things were going to work out. The only reference I had were the telegraph poles, so thought if I drive down the middle I should be on the road.

I plowed that old Cortina through deep snow, slipping and sliding for a good half hour or more, until I came to the main road which the snow plows were thankfully clearing. I continued to drive on what should be a empty tank to a small township called Twizel, to the one and only sevice station for miles. Thankfully it was still open so I could fill up. Once on the main road things improved driving wise. I came to a place called "Burke Pass", its one of those places you drive through in seconds, but I stopped at a wee cafe. I went in and this lovely elderly lady told me to sit down, and placed a electric heater next to me to warm up. I then had one of the best cooked breakfast in my life..it was great. I was her only customer, so we chatted about the weather etc. The rest of the trip home was uneventfull, but never forgot how close I was to being stranded, or the wonderfull lady and the cooked breakfast.

Oh! The people I left at The Hermitage at Mt Cook told me later, the road was closed off just after I had left and they were forced to spend the following winter night in front of a large log fine next to the bar [Big Grin]

One thing I learned from that experence is always keep the tank filled to the top, take sleeping bags, wet weather gear, extra warm clothing, tow rope, jumper cables, tools, torch, etc etc...just in case [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 03, 2018, 04:36 PM:

What a wonderful story (and life experience) Graham. Reminds me of the time my wife and I were driving across Death Valley California and the needle was getting closer and closer to the empty mark. Fortunately, just as the car was about to suck on air, a remote filling station came into view. [Smile]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 03, 2018, 11:04 PM:

One of my favorite photos Paul, is this one of a NZ family going on holiday...that's what I call being prepared [Smile]

...its a far cry from that persons attitude in the above video.

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on March 04, 2018, 02:48 AM:

Graham, reminds me of the days as a kid when my dad would (frequently!) get out and manually fix our Cortina Mk 1 at the roadside.

I bought a new car recently and had an issue - the AA guy came out and spent an hour in the drivers seat with...his laptop!!

And fixed it!

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on March 04, 2018, 08:48 PM:

No "laptop" required on those old girls [Big Grin]

The owner gave me permission to take some photos at the last swap meet. I once had three Morris Minors and for simplicity, the Morris Minor could not be beat....it was British engineering at its best..

This photo brought back many memories of the late 1960s when as a apprentice mechanic I worked on quite a few of them..

It would be nice to drive one again. I can just imagine the impatient drivers in there fancy 4WD trying to push me out the way [Big Grin]

Ah! the good old days...in the UK my first car was a Morris Minor 1954 split windscreen, the next one was a 1957 that had a full screen and a bigger engine [Cool]

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