Fastbird
12-24-2012, 11:40 PM
with the family in the car while driving in the snow. We were heading to my mother-in-laws for dinner, and the road we live on and direction we have to go leads us down a fairly steep hill with a stop sign at the bottom intersecting with a fairly busy country road.
We were in the Pacifica, AWD at least. It was snowing, and it was laying pretty good. I was doing about 20-25 MPH and before the hill crested and started down I started slowing. Well going down the hill, the sheer mass of the Pacifica was too much and as hard as the ABS was working (GOD I hate that feeling/sound) I couldn't maintain slowing. About halfway down I told my wife "We're screwed."
With about 1/4 of the hill to go, a car stopped at the bottom, no one coming up, I figured I'd try to salvage the Pacifica and hit whatever I was going to slide into with the side of it. So I cut the wheels hard to the left (car at the bottom was just moving out at least) and got it progressing towards a full sideways slide, and thankfully, that was enough to get the tires to dig in and bite! I was moving slow enough that I didn't go shooting off, and instead got stopped crossways in the oncoming lane right at the stop sign, breathing a sigh of relief cause there was NO traffic coming either way on the intersecting road. Hop on and make my quick turn, all is well.
I HATE that fucking hill. I had to trudge a mile home when my Celica couldn't get up it in a snowstorm at midnight coming home from work last year. I thought for sure the Pacifica was gonna crack something today.
We were in the Pacifica, AWD at least. It was snowing, and it was laying pretty good. I was doing about 20-25 MPH and before the hill crested and started down I started slowing. Well going down the hill, the sheer mass of the Pacifica was too much and as hard as the ABS was working (GOD I hate that feeling/sound) I couldn't maintain slowing. About halfway down I told my wife "We're screwed."
With about 1/4 of the hill to go, a car stopped at the bottom, no one coming up, I figured I'd try to salvage the Pacifica and hit whatever I was going to slide into with the side of it. So I cut the wheels hard to the left (car at the bottom was just moving out at least) and got it progressing towards a full sideways slide, and thankfully, that was enough to get the tires to dig in and bite! I was moving slow enough that I didn't go shooting off, and instead got stopped crossways in the oncoming lane right at the stop sign, breathing a sigh of relief cause there was NO traffic coming either way on the intersecting road. Hop on and make my quick turn, all is well.
I HATE that fucking hill. I had to trudge a mile home when my Celica couldn't get up it in a snowstorm at midnight coming home from work last year. I thought for sure the Pacifica was gonna crack something today.