Stick shifting in the snow

Jan 28, 2011 01:28

Recent weather events have reminded me of one specific tremendous advantage traditional manual transmissions have over automatics: They make the rocking technique easy ( Read more... )

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artstorm January 28 2011, 06:40:41 UTC
rocking the car is how i got out of laura's parking lot on new years.

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redbouncytigger January 28 2011, 15:57:19 UTC
the rocking technique does work on automatics pretty well, but i cant say how much better it works on a manual.

i try not to use it too much. i was always of the opinion its not good on the car, but yeah, we have to use it sometimes on julie's car in the "parking lot". in the driveway our cars love to roll down the hill but sometimes you have to rock a little if you stop and want to continue up the driveway.

i have to say, i remember 4 cylinders as being awful in the snow, getting stuck on the smallest bit of ice, but the 6 cylinder blue monster could charge through deep snow. our current japanese cars seem to be about average.

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pythonista January 31 2011, 02:20:15 UTC
I could see it being not good for an automatic, if you are not shifting out of drive on the backswings. Transmissions don't like being in gear and moving in the direction opposite to what the gear is designed for. The clutch pedal on a manual makes it easy to get out of "drive" and into "neutral" for the backswings.

That said, I wouldn't expect it to be particularly bad even for automatics.

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