Quote Originally Posted by Karen View Post
Probably a phenomenon you'll never see! Black ice is when water falls as rain but freezes onto the roadway in a way that just looks like the road is wet, not icy. It looks like wet pavement, but is ice, so traction is impossible, and because folks are expecting it, can be deadly when you try to do something like break suddenly. It'll throw you into a spin, and only practiced, experienced drivers can get out of that without crashing.

Indeed! Black ice is really a problem around here because it doesn't have to rain for it to form...fog is enough to turn the roads into an ice skating rink when temps dont get above 30 degrees F. If you absolutely HAVE to drive out on black ice, my hubby (who is a trained professional race and stunt driver ) has some tips:

~ If youre driving a stick shift (manual transmission) start out in second gear after stopping. You have less torque but a LOT better traction. Its also a good idea to keep running one gear higher than normal. Having driven a stick shift over quite a few winters, I can tell ya this helps a LOT.

~For automatics make sure you aren't in overdrive if your car has this feature, it does NOTHING for traction. (something I learned the hard way my first winter on the road lol)

~ 4wd does NOT mean you stop any faster. Having a car with 4wd does NOT mean you are safe from the dangers of ice. Putting the car in 4wd will help you not slip while continuing after a stop but make sure if your vechicle has a 4 hi and a 4 lo setting, that it is in 4 hi. 4 lo is generally for towing and pulling out tree stumps, not for ice!

~when braking on ice, try to use your engine to decelerate more than your breaks. For manual transmissions this means downshifting. You can force downshift on automatics too, just let off the gas and shift down one gear if you can (this takes practice though so you know if youre not overreving your engine, do not try unless you know your car well!)

~Keep a box of sea salt in your car. Salting the area around a parking space and sprinkling some salt on your tires will help get you out of a parking space and give some extra traction on short trips. Parking lots tend to be icier than streets!

~In the winter, try to get over to a truck stop or some other car wash with hot water to spray off your undercarage. It keeps dirt and ice from forming on your breaks and other critical driving components. It also keeps the de-icer that some cities use from rusting and rotting the underside of your car.

Winter can officially GO AWAY as far as Im concerned but since it wont, being safer helps winter pass without too much incident.