Whoops

[arceye]

You may recall I fixed up a Jeep not so long ago, It was proving to be a good car but someone offered me sufficient money to persuade me to part with it.
It has only been a couple of weeks since the grand old bus left me, but I received a photo this morning.





Take care on icy roads chaps.

That is a long straight stretch there so not even enthusiastic cornering can be blamed. Poor Jeep.

[JPB]

Oh dear!
That might yet be back on the road though as it doesn't appear to have rolled completely over, just flipped onto its side, in which case it'll be grand with a new door mirror and some polish. I'm surprised to see so few skitey bits, we're under a good 17/64" of fresh white stuff this morning and I'm about 297 miles south of your place, staying in, keeping the pipes on and working from home via the magic of Skype.
Had the Jeep gone any distance on its side or did it just clip the dykeside and gently fall over where it lies? I'm not going to be surprised when you tell us that they put it back on the ground, checked/topped up as required its fluids, then drove it home.
I am of course hoping that nobody was hurt in there, please tell us that the only thing bruised was the driver's pride.

[tractorman]

^^^ WHS ^^^

Apart from the fact that our 1 1/2" of snow has all but disappeared now!

One small mercy: it wasn't you that had the mishap. I fear 4x4s are too top heavy for icy conditions: I've often been stuck behind them as they slither all over the place where I could easily get an extra 20MPH (on wide straight roads) if I could get past safely! Where I say and extra 20MPH, I still wouldn't be doing 30!

I've often said (and will do again!) that the best car I've ever had for winter driving was the old Maxi! I had 165 tyres on mine and, when it was a 1500, it was great - not too much power and slightly higher than Father's 1750, that had 155 tyres. I remember one winter, Father went to his Maxi one winter morning (somewhere between 1980 and 1982)and it wouldn't start. I soon found out the cause and asked if he'd been through a snow drift the night before - he had and the snow was packed tightly around the engine - behind the splash shield too! The "modern" Golfs are OK, but ESP is a real pain in the bum - you know that you are skidding before the warning light comes on and the car goes mad in its efforts to have all four wheels rotating at the same speed.

Mind you, drifting the little tractor up the hill to the house in packed snow and ice was quite enjoyable...

[arceye]

Only personal damage would be to the Driver's pride there John, I'm assuming he travelled a little way like that as I'm told he's swapped it for something to stay mobile, and considering a few of the old Landrovers he has had I don't see a scrape or two putting him off the road, next time I see him in person I'll get the tale.

Tractorman, I'm no longer surprised that a fair proportion of those who come croppers in wintry weather are those in 4x4's, as my dad, a keen landrover man always told me, it doesn't matter how many wheels drive if you are trying to stop with all four on ice.

[JPB]

..I'm no longer surprised that a fair proportion of those who come croppers in wintry weather are those in 4x4's, as my dad, a keen landrover man always told me, it doesn't matter how many wheels drive if you are trying to stop with all four on ice.

Ain't that the truth! Some owners of 4x4s assume that they're invincible, the results are amusing except when someone does get hurt as a result of this blind faith in the 4x4 badge!

@Tractorman: Another vote for the Maxi as a means of getting about in snow, and the Peugeot 305 GLD Estate - C77LTN - every bit as good on its skinny (155x14) Michelins.
Maxi HL/Maxi "1 1/2" & Maxi 2 HLS came with 165s as standard but I always found that the single carb models on their 155s felt better, possibly because the sidewalls would be that wee bit stiffer on the same rim width though they were all very capable and a taxi firm down in Rothbury used old maxis for the rural school runs as recently as three years ago, when the last one finally died as its gearbox lost all forward motion and parts would have taken too long to source. They replaced that with a 4wd Renault Kangoo. Older Renault 12s, R4s and of course A series Citroëns are also incredibly able in the winter conditions.

None of that means that I would turn down a good Jeep, an old Range Rover, an early Land Cruiser or - best of the lot - an old shape Panda 4x4 as a winter car. These tiny Fiats moved the goalposts by means of their amazing abilities in the rough yet they're virtually as economical and lively as the front wheel drive models and their ride quality is no worse.
I should be singing the praises of the original Subaru Justy as I found these marvellous too but when I was with IM, the dealerships used to see the cars coming for gearbox overhauls under warranty as a result of weak synchromesh on second and third. The older purchasers simply adopted the habit of double declutching and the 'boxes had no other vices so they'd run forever in that state, but most buyers took the cars in for repair and because of the complex nature of the car's 4wd system, taking the gearbox out was a day's work and even then, we knew that we'd see it again after another year or so, to have the procedure repeated.

[kevin]

4x4 pandas were awesome, shame they rotted away so quickly.
My wife is currently looking at the new version as a replacement for her Fiat 500 which is also very good in the snow (until the depth of snow overcomes the clearance of the car and it beaches out). the new panda gets quite decent reviews and may just be enough for the occasional snow issues we encounter.

Kev

[rich.]

have you tried to buy it back?
we had snow a few years ago & a lot of expensive 4wds went into the ditch.. i was running my iveco & transit at the time & never had any trouble apart from having to overtake nervous nellies on to keep my momentum up to go up the hills... i wont mention what happened to my escort

[gazza82]

Had the 2.5 Jeep Cherokee for over 4 years (selectable 4 wheel drive) and used in in 4x4 mode three times: once in a field at a football tournament (about 100 yards), once on a short hill in black ice (about 200 yards) and once along Inch Bay in Ireland .. about 1 mile up and back .. had over 60K on clock when it was sold on.

Oh and Inch Bay was the week before it went!!! So I hope the new owner washed it down properly with the salt and sand!!!


And the LSD on those was like putty. The dealers response when it went back the third time for a noisy, clonking diff was "we'll strip out the lsd" ... Err, no .. you'll fix it please!

[tractorman]

One of our near neighbours works for the local Jaguar dealers and brings various new cars home (possibly demonstrators). I think it was an XF last weekend. His neighbour said the bloke had set off in the snow at less than walking pace to go down the slight hill to the "main" road. After I talked to the "gossip" and walked home, I saw the skid marks where he'd set off after reversing off his drive and realised why he was so "scared"!

To be fair though, I did tell the "gossip" that I don't use the throttle when going down the hill in icy conditions (the ESP goes mad on the Golf) and that, even if the Jag has a much more advanced system, once a car skids on ice/packed snow, there's not a lot you can do about it.

[GHT]

That is a long straight stretch there so not even enthusiastic cornering can be blamed.

So pleased that only pride was injured, well that and the Jeep, but when all is said and done, it wasn't you in the car.
I did worry about the title of the thread though, there was me thinking that the Arceyes were expecting a happy event in nine months time.
Many of my mates have a little: "whoops," in a car seat of their pride and joy.