Glad your ok, man. I missed this stuff falling, but can imagine what it was
like for you. Hopefully your girlfriend was impressed with your driving
skills and how you react under pressure;)
And to those who haven't at least seen Andy's webpage (I'm still trying to
see the truck itself :) Andy's got a nice 4x4 with some nice and still
practical mods. So even if you think you've got the tough stuff, remember
that even those plow trucks pull over for safety's sake sometimes...
Driving safe adds horsepower too ;) (anything if it helps)
Mike S.
93 Dak
Andy Levy wrote:
> This weekend, my Dak, my girlfriend and I nearly became one with a
> guardrail - or an oncoming Jeep.
>
> Saturday afternoon, I was driving from Syracuse, NY to Canandaigua with
> my girlfriend for a holiday party with her family. Now, as some of you
> may remember, we had that little storm up here in the Northeast this
> past weekend. However, I checked the local radar online and things
> looked clear. Stupid me, I never looked at the timestamp on the
> upper-left corner; I was looking at a cached version. While there was
> still some snow out here at my place, it got lighter (according to the
> radar) as you moved West (which is the direction we were going). In
> reality, before the Nor'Easter even cleared town, the lake-effect kicked
> into overdrive, bringing snow in over I90 and all over the Rochester to
> Utica corridor.
>
> So, we packed up, prepared to spend the night in Canandaigua, as the
> Thruway (I90) can get nasty in the winter with the lake effect (Mike S.
> and Doug F. can attest to this). Stopped in Syracuse to get to an ATM,
> and the weather was worse than here at my apartment. We figured "well,
> the radar looked better once you get to the Thruway, we'll be fine."
> Besides, it was city streets, and those always get sloppier than the
> main highways, right?
>
> Well, I690 (road out of the city to 90) was even worse. Less than 1/2
> mile visibility, snow blowing all over the road. Once we got on 90, it
> got EVEN WORSE. So, I gave up at exit 40 (just one exit down the road
> after I got on at the 690/90 junction). It just wasn't worth the risk.
>
> The exit lane was completely covered in snow, so I slowed down and
> pulled the 4WD before the lane change. That went fine. The exit ramp
> is one of those big, sweeping ones that curves right, then cuts back to
> the left and crosses over the highway. One on lane, one off lane, very
> wide shoulders and center (no grassy median, divider or rail), rails on
> each side of the roadway. I approached at what I felt was a prudent
> speed for the conditions - well under 35MPH. As I started my turn to
> the left, I felt the Dak get a little loose, but controllable. Or so I
> thought. As soon as I brought it back under control, it swung to the
> other side. And back and forth and back and forth. My mind was racing,
> my heart stopped. The swings kept getting wider, no matter how small I
> tried to make my corrections, then I saw...a Jeep Grand Cherokee coming
> toward me on the ramp! I was trying everything I could think of to
> reign 'er in, and nothing was working!
>
> At which point I uttered but 2 words - "oh shit."
>
> Then my girlfriend grabbed my arm for some strange reason, which
> certainly did nothing to calm me down. I had forgotten she was there -
> I was too busy concentrating primarily on not hitting that Jeep, and
> secondly on not destroying my truck (which I value higher than my own
> life).
>
> Then, by some miracle - I don't know if I hit the right combo of gas,
> brake, and steering, or if I hit a dry patch, or maybe someone was just
> smiling on me, I put it back together just before getting to the bridge
> section. Once I was stabilized, I downshifted and just crawled to the
> tollbooth. The attendant said the storm was state-wide. We took the
> back roads home (Rts. 5 & 20). Took close to 3 hours to make the full
> trip - should have been one hour under normal conditions. Once parked,
> I just slumped over the steering wheel.
>
> I do not EVER want to go through that again. I wonder how much my tires
> contributed to it. Surely "perfect" tires would have slid in this snow
> anyway, but I'm sure I would have regained control much more easily. I
> saw so many people that day driving WAY too fast (60+) because they had
> 4WD and thought they were invincible just because of it. I'd like to
> give them a videotape of the hell I went through to scare them straight.
>
> --
> -andy
>
> http://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/ --- andylevy@bigfoot.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> modesty, n.:
> Being comfortable that others will discover your greatness
> -------------------------------------------------------------
Shop Safely Online Without a Credit Card
http://www.rocketcash.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:58:26 EDT