Winter Snow Warning

I agree. The Prius is not good on roads that have not been cleared. The snow does not even have to be very deep. If it has been driven on, but isn't packed real hard the TC kicks in and stops the car. Even a pick-up with no weight in the rear will go better because the tires will spin. I live in Montana in a very rural area and mostly, if we don't clear the roads ourselves it doesn't get done. We are always hesitant to start plowing, because each evening the wind will blow the track back in even deeper, so we try to drive as long as possible with out plowing. My Prius has struggled even with studded Nokias, but my other famiuly members with their 2-wd vehicles haven't had any concern.

I really like the car and I have more than made up the difference it costs in the gas savings in this vehicle vs my F150 pickup.

 

We got about 1 foot of snow last night, and it's still coming.

The car was buried past the bottoms of the doors this morning. I shoveled a few feet away from the front bumper but left the driveway(about 100ft) full of snow (the snow plow contractor was nowhere in sight).

I had no trouble getting out (mind you that was after pushing the neighbour's Miata through our shared laneway).

I could feel a lot of snow rubbing up against the underside of the car all along the road, but I had no trouble.

When I dropped the littlest kid off at daycare I had to ram the back end and passenger side into a snow bank to let other cars pass by by. No trouble getting out

That's the first big snowfall for my Prius and my new Toyo tires.

B)

 

Has anyone tried this?


I'm wondering if this is better than other snow chain/belt type of thing.

 

I too experienced the Ontario snowstorm and had no problem with my Classic Prius and my X-Ice tires.. No problems at all going through deep snow, but have to reduce speed turning to avoid understeer..

Surprisingly, absolutely no signs of traction control kicking in- in fact, the car had no qualms about letting the tires spin when starting off at a couple of intersections with really deep snow this morning.. Same when stopping- no TC, although the ABS and EBD did go a few times..

This got me thinking- those people who have gotten stuck with supposedly no power to the wheels- did they also have the VSC option in their vehicles?? I don't know how different the TC in the Classic Prius is from the HSD, but I can't see them having significant functional differences. People have normally blamed getting stuck on TC, but based on my being able to spin my tires, I'm wondering if this is really the case at all.. On the few occasions I've experienced TC in really wet weather, it's always been "pulse-stop-pulse-stop-pulse-stop" for only about a second until the wheels got adequate traction; to stop and do nothing at all simply doesn't sound characteristic of TC.. On the other hand, VSC is supposed to apply brake and control the power distribution, and although it's only supposed to activate on turns, if the brake were applied and the power dialed down, this sounds more likely to be the cause of the car not doing anything at all, so if the people getting stuck all have VSC in common, perhaps VSC (or maybe some weird interaction between TC and VSC), and not TC is the real culprit..

 

I do have VSC. But I'm more inclined to think the Classic has different characteristics than the '04, than to suspect the VSC. I've never gotten stuck, though. What I experience at icy intersections is that I can floor the pedal and it acts as though it was not getting any gas. The car just moves out very very slowly. BUT other cars move out even slower. Without chains or studs nothing can get off to a quick start on ice, and my Prius seems to find the best possible level of power to the wheels, so as to get going as quickly as the conditions allow.

But I've never taken it out in deep snow. I wait for the snowplows. All those years of getting stuck in the Jeep and shovelling for an hour or two taught me my lesson.

Come to think of it, though, I have occasionally heard the VSC alarm under those conditions, so you may have a point.

 

C4 they are two totally different vehicles when it comes to traction control. no and I mean no resembalnce at all. The Classic is almost impossible to have the TC come on and the G2 is almost impossible to keep it from coming on. If your ever out on the left coast PM me and I'll show you one spot where I can make it come on in the G2 anytime of the year, wet dry cold hot. It's a water main cover dip that gets sand in it and on the cast iron lid and it's only 8" in diameter and about a 2" dip but the trac will kick in every time. First time I went thru it trying to merge into traffic and it kicked in we damn near got hit. Another reason I drive a Classic. I now avoid that intersection if at all possible when driving the G2.