I was coming home from work and it just started snowing, there was about a half inch of snow on the ground. I was at a stop light turning left, the light turned green so I went through the intersection about normal speed and started sliding towards the right curb. I slammed on my brakes and turned my wheel all the way to the left hoping to save my front right rim from major impalement. BOOM. hit the curb. It looks like I have a scrape on my rim about 5 inches long and maybe 1/8" deep on the very edge of my rim. My questions are as follows: Do I need to get my suspension looked at? Should I blame the tires for sliding and get new ones? If you have ever curbed a rim going about 15 mph, please give me some advice. Thanks!

 

Yeah, you should have your alignment checked.
Blame the tires? I dunno. What tires do you have?

 

Blame this : I slammed on my brakes and turned my wheel all the way to the left hoping to save my front right rim from major impalement.

You never hit your brakes when you are slidding. And turning the wheel all the way just makes it snow plow. I know people think "Oh I am out of control, I better stop." But the correction for a slidding tire is to get it spinning. A slidding tire has very little braking capacity.

It sounds harsh, but it was driver error.

An even better bet would have been to ride over the curb instead of turning left.

 

^^what he said.... you did it to yourself.

uhm.. and what's with the title of the thread... petition to eliminate curbs? are you serious...?

i'd have your suspension checked and look into better tires for the winter season.

 

What kind of tires are you using?

fwd cars and rwd cars are very different in the snow. i've made a similar mistake when I first started driving a fwd, but luckily for me, nothing bad came of it. Living in WI, read up a little bit on how to drive fwd in the snow. it will be very beneficial for you (i'm not trying to mean, but constructive so this doesn't happen again). People who are inexperienced at driving in the snow make snow driving VERY dangerous.

Unless you REALLY nailed the curb (which i don't think you couldve done if you were mid turn after being stopped at a light in the snow), i'm sure your suspension is fine, but you can visually inspect it if i'd make you sleep better at night. I'm sure its fine

 

QFT.

But it's "sliDing" not "sliDDing"


Speeling > you

 

you did it to yourself.... unfortunatly, i definitely get ur alignment checked

 

What is all of this talk about getting the alignment checked? I've never been to any dealer/tire place/local mech who say they can "check" the alignment. They print out the sheet after the alignment is done to say how much it needed to be adjusted, but they have to put it on the machine to even so call "check it". Maybe the practice changes around different parts of the USA, but in the northeast, you don't get it checked, you either get it done or you don't.....

 

ay I wouldnt be too mad, If you were going a little faster, you could of did serious front suspension damage. Or even broke/cracked the rim.

I understand your ____ed-offness though.

 

Oh yeah sorry about that, I have stock potenza tires with about 27000 on them.

 

there ya go! lol...get new tires. the potenzas are very poorly made tires

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....l=Potenza+RE92

 

So let me get this straight you would have hit the gas and turned into the curb?

 

No, I just wanted to get the right peoples attention.

 

I wouldn't say they are 'poorly made.' They are poor performance tires, but that's not what they were made for. My Potenzas do fairly well in the snow. I don't think the tire is to blame in this situation.

 

Ive been driving in snow since I first started driving, I don't think its that.

Your comment makes me feel a little better.

 

Good point.

 

Wow! that is bad! I know I could/should search, but any tire suggestions.

 

i'm using toyo proxes 4 all-season tires. I (along with many others) think they are awesome tires. Although in WI, i'd consider doing winter tires this time of year. But if you're looking for an all-season - toyo proxes 4 <---great tires!

 

That's not harsh at all. Had it been a parked car, what then? A petition to eliminate parking?
He nees to drive slower, and learn panic maneuvers. Braking hard is the LAST thing you want to do. The second to last thing you want to do is turn full left. Had you been driving a 4wd car or a car with snow tires, you would either end up spinning the other direction in a very fast and uncontrollable speed or understeer hopelessly. A tire losing grip is tire that is overloaded. You want to remove as much load as you can safely do.

Another option is to coast, and gently accelerate to pull the car in the proper direction. If you are talented you can use a combination of e-brake, gentle rotation, and the appropriate amount of gas to recover from the slide.

 

I never said anything about accelerating. But yes, if you had of turned toward the curb, and let off the break, you would have regained traction, and if the car hadnt of stopped by the time you got to the curb you would have just ran over the curb. If you were going as slow as you say, then it wouldnt do any damage. The rim would never have contacted the curb, and there would have been no side pressure on the rim/tire to potentially band something.