Durham Ice Bound

had a nightmare this morning went to durham to sort hubbys passport out and we went to this little car park outside durham city full of snow and no parking places so we had to reverse to turn around to get out and our car got stuck in thick ice it wouldnt budge forward or reverse so i called the AA they were going to come out an hours wait and this very kind lady drove in and lent us her spade, hubby dug the thick ice from the front wheels and eventually we got out, so had to call the AA back to cancel them coming out, i was shaking with worry and this will make you laugh before the lady turned up i was on the ground trying to dig the ice around front wheels with a ice scraper, i got soaked all my knees and it was snowing.
anyway heres pics of my car stuck in the ice

 

What a shame Rosa. Glad you got out OK.
Maybe we're a bit more used to snow and ice but we always carry a spade in the car and a sack to put under the wheels incase it gets stuck on ice.

 

My current car is rear wheel drive, which means it gets stuck on the slightest bit of ice (hardly any weight pushing down on the driven wheels).

Here's a couple of tricks that sometimes work. You may have already tried these so appologies if you already know them.

First trick. It goes against instinct, but sometimes when you get stuck, the instinct is to use more engine power to try to break free. If your wheels are spinning and the ice is deep, you'll just dig in and make it harder to get out. Instead, engage second gear, ignore the throttle pedal completely (but have your right foot ready) and let the clutch come up quite quickly to biting point. The car will lunge forward in its attempt to climb out. It probably won't make it just yet. The instant you feel it losing grip (after a couple of inches) push the clutch straight back down and the car will roll back a couple inches, climbing part way up the back of the indentation your tyres have created. The second it loses its momentum and stops, let the clutch back up again so you kind of half fall half drive back into the indentation, so you get more momentum to climb the front of the indentation. Keep doing this, so you get the car in a steadily increasing rocking motion. Sometimes, after a few cycles of this clutch up and down trick, you build up enough momentum to climb out of the indentation you're stuck in, and then you are on your way.

Second trick. If you can find any grit, old cardboard or whatever, you can push this is far against the driven wheels as you can. This will sometimes gets you enough traction to break free.

Third trick. Let the tyres down to about half their rated pressure. This will allow them to flex into all the little contours of the surface you are stuck in, so you get better grip. Just remember to pump them back up again at the earliest opportunity.

You can combine all these tricks as necessary. I've used them all at one time or another, usually with success after a bit of perseverance. However one time they still weren't enough (a previous car that I sunk on my land), a big winch saved the day that time.

 

hi alice, with the snow going here were i live, i just never thought to put a spade in the car wish i had now never mind evetually got out,
clueless thanks for the tips will write this down and keep it handy for future reference.we did use engine power and the front wheels kept spinning.
thanks jwk it was a frightening experience it would of been worse iff i had of been on my own stuck in that car park with no one around and the worse thing when hubby was digging the ice a guy came behind our car in a 4x4 of course he couldnt get passed our car he didnt even get out to ask iff we were ok he just sat in his 4x4 i went up to him an said we were stuck and he said thats ok and waited till we could get the car off the thick ice.

 

To give him the benefit of the doubt, he may not have had a tow rope or anything with him. I've heard tales of 4x4s pushing stuck vehicles but then there is the danger that he could have bent your car if he'd tried that.

Sadly, equally likely is that he was one of the new generation of 4x4 drivers who choose them not for their superior traction, but just because they are bigger than everyone else's car.

 

Glad you got going in the end Rosa. The same thing happened to us on the hotel car park at Christmas. OH did have a spade and towels but it took ages to get off the car park.:(

 

clueless you could be right mind when we got going he did wave so maybe he didnt have a spade in his 4x4.
jazmine im pleased we got going as we would of sat there for 1 hour waiting for AA and it was snowing that made things worse, dont know why i didnt put a spade in the car as it was in my mind, i had a thick coat and blanket, its an awful experience isnt it, i can well imajine how those people felt that got stranded in their vehicles in the snow overnight. anyway pleased eventually we got that thick ice off in front of our car, my hubby couldnt believe how the car wouldnt budge over the ice or reverse.my hands were shaking maybe it was the cold getting to me.

 

I'll attempt to cheer you up with a little anecdote

Years ago, when I was 16 and in my first job working for a shop that sold electrical appliance, we went out in the van one day to deliver a new TV to a house in the sticks. Snow was already quite thick in town. The lady who we were delivering to lived up in the hills. She had the decency to phone us and tell us the weather up her way was horrendous and she's fully understand if we chose to delay the delivery until things picked up. Despite this warning we set off anyway (obviously I wasn't driving, I was employed as general dog's body and went along to assist). The customer wasn't fibbing. The further from the coast we got, the worse the conditions got but we made it.

We set up the new TV and had the customary cup of tea and biscuits, spending about an hour in the nice warm house, oblivious to the fact that a new blizzard had started just after we'd parked the van. When we left, as we approached the van the driver and I both stopped in shock, unable to believe what we were seeing. The four or five inches of accumulated snow that we'd parked in was now up to the front bumper, as the wind had been blowing it against the van as it fell.

We got in the van, the driver tried everything to get the van out, but it wouldn't budge an inch. I got out and put all of my weight into pushing while he tried to reverse, nothing. The van was most definitely stuck. After half an hour of futile effort, we reach an embarrassing decision. One of us would have to go back to the customer's house, and humbly ask if we could borrow a spade or shovel. Who would that be? The older lad who was in charge, or the 16 year old dog's body (me)? You guessed it. I went back to the house trying to think of a way to admit we were stuck while maintaining some professional integrity. I knocked on the door. It turns out I didn't need to ask anything, the lady opened the door, laughing, and handed me a spade before I had chance to say a word.

I got the job of digging the van out, and took the spade back, and we were on our way. We told the boss when we got back, and he phoned the customer again to thank her personally for "rescuing his lad's", which I thought was quite nice of him.