Are all Americans shitty drivers? Chains required on the way to Tahoe..wtf??

We are but that's probably for the best because there was some black dude arguing with the park marshall because he couldnt afford to buy chains to fit on the 22inch dubs he had on his ghetto blazer lol.

I beg to differ, but at the same time, will never be driving a Ford Focus, snow or no snow.

The majority of Californians live in areas where snow does not fall. Most checkpoints are low and shittier weather is definite as you go up. If there was 1 inch where the checkpoint was, I can only imagine how much deeper the final point was. Look at what this dumb bitch did to my truck on dry pavement driving through the mountains. Her 85MPH meets My 55MPH.

almost unstoppable in the snow? ahahahahahahaha you sir are an idiot. what happens when there a four foot drift you have to plow thru to get out of your drive way? or a better example, what if theres ice on the road? your screwed in both scenarios. there IS a reason why they invented 4wd... your ignorance is killing me.

Revy also has nice new roads, and locals, and no so cal drivers. I like driving to big bear in a rented mini van, and seeing all the giant suv's with 30 inch rims coming down the mountain with 2 feet of snow on their hoods and roofs, then talking to cops at the chain hitch stations when they say "Thats nice youre from Canada, I am sure you can drive, but I don't want to do the paperwork when you get smashed off the road by a Californian soccer mom doing 70 down hill, and you die. Just put the chains on son."

in washington people are retarded. they drive like 15 mph under if its raining hard. thats all it does up here just rain and snow rain rain little snow rain. you think people would understand that its just water and it wont make you slid into the fence

Actually it is why they invented winter tires. but whatever.lol

chains, studs, and walnut chips in your tires for extra help. ps, 4wd on ice just means you have four wheels powered by the engine that are still just spinning on the ice.

 this is fun, smiley face for anyone who has ever slid off an icy hiway or road in a rear wheel drive rice rocket!

:)

Probably because no one in Cali has winter tires. There are some places in Canada they wont let you go up unless you have winter tires. Which isn't really a problem because most people have them.

I hope I don't get turned back at whistler this year because I don't have all-terrains or winters on my truck.

pick up aint full of snow. full of compressed bed panel.

By your username you're just a kid so I'll give you a break. I grew up driving rwd and fwd cars on roads and in conditions rare to the US.

Just to give you a quick lesson on driving and physics, 4wd does not help you stop quicker on ice nor does it help you accelerate quicker if you do not have the right tires (eg idiot with a chevy blazer on 22inch wheels). A 4wd (unless it's modded) will not plow any better through a 4 foot drift than a fwd focuse will. The only thing holding the focus back is it's mass and ground clearance but if it's a rental that you don't care about then it's all good. Also chains on your car will not help you get through a 4 foot drift, chains worked great back in the 70s and 80s before traction controls and modern rubber compounds used in tires. With all that being said there is added peace of mind and security when you're driving a 4x4 on winter roads but that doesn't mean a focus can't get you there just as easily. It all comes down to driver ability and experience.

right... im just a kid? and i have NO idea whatsoever how to drive in snow... haha. its not like i have have a cdl and drive semis... and its not like i used to drive a fwd car... and its not like i now own the arguably the best snow driving vehicle ever made... yup, i have no idea what im talking about.

May i ask are you aloud too have studded tires in the us?

yes

Then why dont people have them? In norway anyone smart has studded tires.

up north they are more common, down in mid atlantic and south it's just not worth it for a couple months of lame storms.

I see.

haha what are you seriously trying to say that a focus is as good as a 4x4 in the snow?

I have owned 5 cars in my life. RWD, FWD, AWD and 2 4x4's one was a 4cyl and one is a V8. All of them either had winter tires or all-terrain tires (except for the new truck). Hands down the best two cars in the snow/ice were the little truck and the subaru. The FWD car was OK in the snow, and yes with good driving you could get up a lot of stuff, but it did have it's limitations. The RWD car was always full of sandbags, and again I could surprisingly get up a bunch of stuff with good driving, if you consider having to back up the ski hill road good driving.

I'm gonna give you a quick lesson in physics here. The reason you move when you are driving is because of the static friction between your tires and the road, if too much force is applied your tires will slip. The maximum force you can apply depends on both the amount of weight the tire is supporting, and how good the tires are/how slippery the road is. To go up something like a hill, you need to exert enough force to oppose the force of gravity. In a car driving with 2 wheels, all of that force must be applied to 50% less tire area than a car driving with 4 wheels. A FWD car is better than a RWD because it has more weight to help improve the friction. If all other things are the same though, there will be a point where the amount of force that the friction can apply, is not enough to move you up the hill, and any more force applied by the engine will just cause your wheels to spin. If that total amount of force can be spread to 4 tires though, then the force of friction that each tire has to apply is decreased. (OK that's not really good physics the way I explained it but is nevertheless true to some extent)

That's why AWD kicks so much ass, it allows most of the power to be where you want it (the front) but still allow some to move the back wheels when you need it. It's no secret that the best system for off-road or snow is a 4WD vehicle, but for the majority of people (who have no idea how a car works) AWD is actually going to benefit them more IMO.

Which vehicle is that? Kind of subjective. Are you one of the guys on 'ice road truckers'?  Hey everyone, i think this guy is a pro ice road semi truck driver.

My car is pretty incredible at driving in snow, I bet my car can beat what ever you have up, so fuck off.

I'm not trying to turn this thread into a pissing match, were all just a bunch of skiiers looking for sick snow. My point was that you don't need chains on a fwd focus with all season tires. Some cars are better than other in the snow, my personal vehicle is a land rover with studded winter tires but one of the most fun to drive vehicles I've ever driven in the winter was a 1986 Toyota MR2 with winter tires. You could throw the car sideways with ease and control the slide the entire way because of the winters. With the engine in the back you always had tons of traction as well, that was an awesome car haha.

If Cali is anything like VT, it is incredibly humerous (and terrifying) watching people from the the major metro areas of the east come up during a storm and struggle to make it up a slight incline in their cars with shitty all-seasons.

Can't drive for shit in crappy weather.

Thats funny last time I went to Tahoe I probably should have put chains on but no one made me.

Hey fuck off you smelly foreigners saying American's suck at driving because you saw a driver in America being bad at driving. I can guarantee your country has drivers just as bad, but if you really don't think so then get the fuck outta here and go home where you are safe.

People always say drivers from a certain state or country are terrible and it is so goddamn stupid. There are bad drivers EVERYWHERE.

Oh and I just looked up some stats on car accident deaths/year

Canada: ~30,000 out of ~33 million population

United States: ~45,000 out of ~300 million population



and that is fucked up how many people die in both countries

cuz the chain monkeys need business too....

To be fair though there are factors that affect driving ability. I for one know that when I got my license it was an easy 15 minute test that I barely passed, and I had no idea how to drive when I got it. Supposedly in England its like an hour long test. Also America doesn't really enforce/have the passing on the left law, which IMO makes freeways much more dangerous. Cause you have people like me doing 90mph having to swerve in and out of traffic because there are a bunch of assholes in the fast lane going 60mph.

No, but anyone who drives up into the Mountains of Co. later then October without snow tires on should be shot and pissed on.  There is nothing worse than being stuck behind a log jam of dipshits who stalled trying to go over the pass without snows on.  It doesn't matter how great a driver you are or even whether you have 4 wheel or not.  When drivers start spinning their wheels, it gets slick enough that once you lose momentum, you're done if you don't have tires with good grip. 

The chain law, at least in Colorado, applies mostly to semis.  These guys will usually try to go for it without chaining up.  It only takes one semi slipping back to close I-70 for hours.  Obviously I have some pretty strong opinions on this, because I don't enjoy sleeping in my car overnight anymore.  I think there should be an insane fine of like $50,000 if you try to go over one of the passes without snows or chains and get stuck when the chain law was in effect. 

Thus endeth the sermon.  Can I get an amen?