Titan Vs. Ice

Titan-ization · 02-04-2008, 11:07 PM

So the other morning I am leaving work after working a 12hr shift. It was about 18*F outside and there was a little moisture on the ground, not much, but just enough in spots. Sitting at the entrance/exit of the parking lot to the main road, there was a facilities worker gesturing everyone turning into the parking lot to slow down. Seeing that, I knew there must be ice on the roads. I had to make a left turn onto the main road from the parking lot onto a four lane divided road. So, i told myself just go slow on the gas and wait for a big break in traffic so i can take my time getting onto the road. I did just that, going about 5 MPH slowly pulling out onto the main road and starting my gradual left turn after the median. Everything looked to be going fine....until when I went to start to straighten out from the turn, the rear tires caught a patch of ice and the rear end kept its momentum and began to swing around on me. Insticntively, I turned my wheels into the direction of the rear end travel, but it made no difference, tbhe rear was going to swing whether I liked it or not. So i slide around totally perpendicular to the road, hit the center median and see my life flash before my eyes as i thought I was going to cross the center median and go into oncoming traffic. Thank God, there was some freshly laid mulch in the center median that my front wheels sunk into and stopped me from jumping across the median. My rear end continued to slide and hit the curb while my front whells are on the median. Basically at this pioint I have done a 180* turn and am facing oncoming traffic. Once again I was lucky that everyone stopped and I was able to back out of the median and get right with traffic. needless to say i was white-knuckling it all the way home...and the Titan suffered no damage except a hurt ego suffered by the driver...of course the next day i heard all about it by my co-workers, and the 6 inch deep ruts are still in the mulch that stopped my run-a-way Titan that morning.

**Schrute** · 02-05-2008, 12:01 AM

Glad ya had a near miss. Ice sucks!

Titan-ization · 02-05-2008, 12:47 AM

yea, no kidding. Moved here to Virginia from Texas, we rarely saw any ice in Texas. Dealing with this black ice here in Va. is serious stuff.

BigA · 02-05-2008, 03:42 AM

Ice sucks no matter what your driving, I'd rather be driving through a foot of snow then on ice.

Jokers_titan · 02-05-2008, 03:59 AM

Well as a matter of fact I about rolled mine about 5:30 this morning at work, in fact I'm looking at it teetering right now with the right rear on a 3' radiused drain pipe on the side of our drive way. I thought I was going over. I get my graps put on tom and scrap these good for one years. If I would have had the graps I would have made it! Although insurance paying it off due to roll over was a nice though! Glad to see know one got hurt! Keep up the good work!

**anmut** · 02-05-2008, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigA

Ice sucks no matter what your driving, I'd rather be driving through a foot of snow then on ice.

x2 that. I put a rental car in a ditch recently because of black ice. Got it going back and forth at 70mph and before it got to bad and went into a spin I was able to find a good piece of land to plow it into.

Sask Attak · 02-05-2008, 04:43 AM

I found that the Titan has good manners on ice. My city streets are ice/hard packed snow covered for 60% of of the winter and I have no problems in 2wd. Actually, my wife gets mad at me because I toss that big truck sideways around every other corner and have a parking lot that I pull into and 'drift' my truck for about 100' or so. When I want to straighten out I roll my wrist just a bit and it goes straight......f**k I love these trucks, funnest vehicle I've owned.

If anything the Titan is too light in the rearend and just spins too easy...this would be my only complaint about ice.....just my 2 cents.

**HudsonValleyTitan** · 02-05-2008, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titan-ization

So the other morning I am leaving work after working a 12hr shift. It was about 18*F outside and there was a little moisture on the ground, not much, but just enough in spots. Sitting at the entrance/exit of the parking lot to the main road, there was a facilities worker gesturing everyone turning into the parking lot to slow down. Seeing that, I knew there must be ice on the roads. I had to make a left turn onto the main road from the parking lot onto a four lane divided road. So, i told myself just go slow on the gas and wait for a big break in traffic so i can take my time getting onto the road. I did just that, going about 5 MPH slowly pulling out onto the main road and starting my gradual left turn after the median. Everything looked to be going fine....until when I went to start to straighten out from the turn, the rear tires caught a patch of ice and the rear end kept its momentum and began to swing around on me. Insticntively, I turned my wheels into the direction of the rear end travel, but it made no difference, tbhe rear was going to swing whether I liked it or not. So i slide around totally perpendicular to the road, hit the center median and see my life flash before my eyes as i thought I was going to cross the center median and go into oncoming traffic. Thank God, there was some freshly laid mulch in the center median that my front wheels sunk into and stopped me from jumping across the median. My rear end continued to slide and hit the curb while my front whells are on the median. Basically at this pioint I have done a 180* turn and am facing oncoming traffic. Once again I was lucky that everyone stopped and I was able to back out of the median and get right with traffic. needless to say i was white-knuckling it all the way home...and the Titan suffered no damage except a hurt ego suffered by the driver...of course the next day i heard all about it by my co-workers, and the 6 inch deep ruts are still in the mulch that stopped my run-a-way Titan that morning.

Glad all is ok! Sounds like you were going a lot faster than the 5 MPH you claim because there's no way you'd have done a full 180 with just the rears on ice otherwise. But you're not in a warm state anymore so...you'll have to re-learn winter driving. Have to learn somehow. Thankfully, your first lesson was in a parking lot and not on the freeway!

**Blackbeauty** · 02-05-2008, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HudsonValleyTitan

Glad all is ok! Sounds like you were going a lot faster than the 5 MPH you claim because there's no way you'd have done a full 180 with just the rears on ice otherwise. But you're not in a warm state anymore so...you'll have to re-learn winter driving. Have to learn somehow. Thankfully, your first lesson was in a parking lot and not on the freeway!

I beg to differ.. Not being argumentative... just stating fact. I had a nasty experience Saturday night on ice as well... After installing the PRG parts, the BIL & I decided to take the back way over the mountain - a dirt road - to have some fun. About 1/3 up the mountain, it was icy, but no problem for the truck. But about 2/3 up the mountain, at the steepest part, it was a glassy sheet of ice! Truck lost traction and slid to a stop going uphill on a one-lane dirt road......upward embankment on the far right side..... precipitous dropoff on the near left side....just outside my driver's door. When the truck stopped, it slid backwards about 10 feet and the rear headed for the dropoff. Scared the schit out of me... We got out, checked over the situation, and decided to swing the truck around. A quick drop into R, a blip of the gas, hard on the brakes, cut the wheel, and the front did a 180° like nobody's business... ON DIRT!!!! From there, I had the BIL crawl the truck down the hill while I guarded the front passenger's fender. I walked alongside the truck, pushing on the fender to keep it from going over the side into all the trees on the dropoff. Crazy as that sounds, not only was this the safer side since there was some broken snowy crap on that side to give me footing and give the truck a bit of traction, but the other side was a glazed sheet of ice near the embankment and the truck would have just slid down out of control. And another thing... you'd be surprised how easy it is to push a 5500 lb truck around when it's completely on ice....

That said, glad all turned out well for both of us... Ice is no fun to drive on... especially not on hills!!!!

**roy365** · 02-05-2008, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sask Attak

I found that the Titan has good manners on ice. My city streets are ice/hard packed snow covered for 60% of of the winter and I have no problems in 2wd. Actually, my wife gets mad at me because I toss that big truck sideways around every other corner and have a parking lot that I pull into and 'drift' my truck for about 100' or so. When I want to straighten out I roll my wrist just a bit and it goes straight......f**k I love these trucks, funnest vehicle I've owned.

If anything the Titan is too light in the rearend and just spins too easy...this would be my only complaint about ice.....just my 2 cents.

I want to see your drifting expertese!!!!!

**HudsonValleyTitan** · 02-05-2008, 07:45 AM

He was in a flat parking lot with just the rear on ice....kinda hard to do a 180 spin...although possible, not likely at only 5 MPH was my point. Ice can be a real *****...especially if you're not used to it. Want to REALLY try your slippery driving skills? I was once flagged throuigh an area where an oil tanker truck had overturned and the oil wasn't cleaned up yet. Talk about having to get a full grasp on your winter driving skills...this was in August! I wasn't in my truck but geez....it may as well been wet, smooth ice.

4wheelpeel · 02-05-2008, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty

I beg to differ.. Not being argumentative... just stating fact. I had a nasty experience Saturday night on ice as well... After installing the PRG parts, the BIL & I decided to take the back way over the mountain - a dirt road - to have some fun. About 1/3 up the mountain, it was icy, but no problem for the truck. But about 2/3 up the mountain, at the steepest part, it was a glassy sheet of ice! Truck lost traction and slid to a stop going uphill on a one-lane dirt road......upward embankment on the far right side..... precipitous dropoff on the near left side....just outside my driver's door. When the truck stopped, it slid backwards about 10 feet and the rear headed for the dropoff. Scared the schit out of me... We got out, checked over the situation, and decided to swing the truck around. A quick drop into R, a blip of the gas, hard on the brakes, cut the wheel, and the front did a 180° like nobody's business... ON DIRT!!!! From there, I had the BIL crawl the truck down the hill while I guarded the front passenger's fender. I walked alongside the truck, pushing on the fender to keep it from going over the side into all the trees on the dropoff. Crazy as that sounds, not only was this the safer side since there was some broken snowy crap on that side to give me footing and give the truck a bit of traction, but the other side was a glazed sheet of ice near the embankment and the truck would have just slid down out of control. And another thing... you'd be surprised how easy it is to push a 5500 lb truck around when it's completely on ice....

That said, glad all turned out well for both of us... Ice is no fun to drive on... especially not on hills!!!!

That is one crazy azz story! I will agree I would say 2ft of snow is better than 1/2 in of ice. You cant do anything on it. 4wd or not.

TriKKy · 02-05-2008, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schrute

Glad ya had a near miss. Ice sucks!

As George Carlin says, this expression makes no sense. It was a near HIT. An accident is a near miss. BOOM, oh look, they nearly missed.

Yeah ice is some freaky stuff. When we got some earlier this year I was coming down a hill and I had to stop right at the bottom, so I put it in 1st and was trying to make sure I didn't hit the brakes so hard they would lock up but it happened anyway and I ended up skidding right into the middle of the road. Luckily the people on the road saw this happening and stopped.

**Blackbeauty** · 02-05-2008, 08:04 AM

That's the whole thing about defensive driving... sometimes, it's not in the power of the victim to control the vehicle. Others need to stay aware and keep an eye out for someone else who may not be able to control their vehicle or the current situation they find themselves in. Just driving along and minding your own business is FAR from good enough to stay out of trouble these days....

alaska_titan · 02-05-2008, 08:19 AM

My commute to work in Anchorage is about 20 miles. In AK the painted lines on the road all but completely disappear sometime around halloween. couple that with the snow/ice combo that builds up between lanes and it makes for a dangerous situation when you try to change lanes.

Most of the highway is coated with a sheen of black ice (it's why I've got studded tires and 250lbs of sand bags in the bed). The funny thing is Alaskan drivers are absolutely f-ing crazy. You can be doing 55-60mph, which for the conditions feels almost too fast, and other drivers will be blowing past you like you're sitting still! So I feel your pain brother...our temps have been unseasonably cold of late. Daytime highs have been in the -10 to 0 range and the lows in the -15 to -22 range. I can't wait for summer...