Zetorpilot:
I don’t want to give advice as such, but instead I can repeat what was told to me and I have found useful
Here’s what other Finnish drivers have said to me:
Don’t go too slowly up hills or you will get stuck. Difflock / dump air sooner rather than later. You can do these things after you have got stuck, but these measures are way more effective if you’ve looked at the road ahead and set things up properly beforehand.
I’d also like to point out that proper winter tyres help a LOT.
I’ve been stuck on hills several times, but the times when it’s my own zb-king fault are getting fewer and further between these days. Sometimes it’s so slippery here that if you get stuck on a hill, the brakes won’t hold it. That’s quite a lot of motivation to keep it moving forwards
I’m on I-shift’s too by the way. You’ll probably find yourself moving the lever to manual more often than in the summer, although the auto performs amazingly well.
Very good advice there. My biggest problems were normally the person in front or complacency. Keeping momentum is the key.
i try to keep a big enough gap between me n the vehicle in front to allow meto keep moving but some knob in a car will always try to fill the gap up not having a clue why youve left it
renaultman:
My biggest problems were normally the person in front or complacency. Keeping momentum is the key.
That’s exactly it.
The first time I got badly stuck on a hill was when I got stuck behind the proverbial flowery-hat lady in a Nissan Micra. I met her doing about 40kmh, about 3/4 of the way up a hill that I would normally start to get very very nervous on if my speed went below 65 or so. As soon as I saw her, I knew it was pretty much “game over” - no chance of overtaking. Seconds later I was stuck.
It was slippery enough that the handbrake wouldn’t hold, but the emergency brake would. I called the traffic authority, but all the gritting lorries were busy elsewhere, and they said they’d get to me when they could but it wouldn’t be soon. I was there for a good couple of hours before a wheel loader came to work on some roadworks nearby. He dug some sand out from where it had been hiding under a snowbank, laid down a good mat of the stuff, and then pulled me to the crest of the hill with a chain.
There was a long queue of wagons behind me (cars had been able to get past) and one or two that had tried to reverse back down the hill had come to grief somewhat. One lost control of his reverse and re-styled the armco.
pursy:
I think that AStronic and Ishift are for amateur drivers and are absolutely useless in these conditions. Mark
I’ve been on I-shift for the last two winters, five months per year sub arctic conditions. I’ve no complaints, and wouldn’t go back to manual without moaning a lot.
I can’t speak for other autos as I have no experience of them, apart from one or two shifts in a knackered Merc but that doesn’t count.
My method of starting off in ice/snow in an empty manual truck is 4th gear no revs hence very little torque and you have a chance of moving. In an AStronic you cant start of in a high enough gear and you have to rev it slightly to get the clutch to engage hence applying more torque to the rear wheels.We have 2 8w MANs 1 is a manual and 1 AStronic and the auto is absolutely useless empty on ice. Perhaps Ishift is a bit better but they are both based on the same idea of. Friend of mine runs 12 8ws nearly all Volvos and a few are Ishift,guess which ones have struggled to get out of his yard this week. Mark
I had no problems in my Scanny with manual box - weight transfer and diff lock on just took it steady, even with a full load of blocks it dug in pretty well, feel sorry for the trucks that were stuck though.
My only problem was waiting at hills for the cars to get out the way so I could take a run up, had to physically block the road to stop impatient zbs in cars overtaking and promptly getting stuck on the hill, despite telling them to wait
not had any trouble with mine!!
poxf DAF XF with the auto box was no end of trouble yesturday, 4hrs of shoveling to get the pigging thing out!!
i broke traction once and just had to shovel a small amount of snow away, chuck a bit of grit under the wheels and straight out.
go gemtly on the throttle and she will be fine!!
