Yes Karen and I each bought a pair last week. Great for dog walking. Dwight Giles Jr. Wickford RI
On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 1:57 PM, Curt Raymond via Mercedes < mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > We each have several pairs of studded rubber things you put on your shoes. > Work a treat for walking in icy conditions. Last year we were putting out > signs on the snowmobile trails and it was super icy. I had no issues with > my cleats on, everybody else was sliding all over.I lost a pair a couple > weeks ago while hunting, I think I'll buy a pair for each car... > -Curt > > > On Saturday, January 6, 2018, 1:01:14 PM EST, Jim Cathey via Mercedes < > mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > This turned out to be one of the skating rink thaw days that plague our > hill, and Jill managed to make it 50 or so feet down before losing control > (at low speed) and bashing into the ice berm at the side. She walked back > home, leaving the car cocked in the roadway with the flashers on. (Not a > good place, if anybody else were to come by.) We walked back out, and were > barely able to make it down to the car without falling, mostly due to > careful path choices. The car wasn't even badly stuck, but it couldn't go > forward nor backward on the thick glare ice. Further attempts in that line > would only have swung the ass end out further into harm's way. As it was > I'm not sure anybody coming by would be able to miss the car, but traffic > was essentially nonexistent. > > The conditions looked bad, but nothing really worse than many other days in > the past, so I figured that if I could just get unstuck I could probably > get to the bottom of the hill OK. My other option was to try to > deliberately pivot the car around the stuck wheel by gunning it and letting > it swing around so that it was facing backwards down the hill, then back > down. (I have actually done this before, but it's pretty scary. The only > other real option was to call for a tow out, which would have left us very > vulnerable to being part of a wreck during the no-doubt lengthy time it > would have taken a chain-equipped tow truck to arrive.) I decided to try > throwing gravelly chunks of ice from the berm under the tires so that I > could back away from the berm a bit. I had to hang onto the car to > stay upright as I carried gravelly ice to each wheel. Before setting out I > punched the magic "Hill Descent Mode" button, something that we've never > used before, but which is intended for slippery steep downhills off-road. > The conditions certainly qualified! The car grunched and crunched quite a > bit and I was able to back up a bit, then move forward and turn away from > the berm and proceed on downhill. The car seemed fairly unstable, and there > was a real party going on under the hood as the car managed its brakes > independently to keep me creeping under some semblance of control. > > It worked! I was able to reach lower elevations of the hill, where the ice > was much less problematic, whereupon I turned off the Descent switch and > drove normally (for the conditions). At the bottom of the hill I turned > around and gunned it, and rocketed back up the hill as per usual under > these conditions, where forward momentum is a crucial component of getting > past the worst bits. (Hey, it beats walking back!) The car's Dynamic > Stability Control was kicking in a lot, but I was able to get back home > without too much trouble. No harm, no foul. The car was clearly up to the > task, validating its choice in the first place. The Nokian Hakkapeliitta > studded snow tires continue to perform admirably in this, their sixth, > year. > > Lessons for SWMBO in the future, on such days: > > 1) Stay home! > 2) Use the Hill Descent Mode. > > -- Jim > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
