The Snow Driving Uphill In Reverse Debacle: Myth or Fact?

sam.scherer
Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:12:05 +0000
Driving/Drivers

I live on top of a steep hill, and during the most recent snow storm here I got stuck about 5 times, causing a 3/4 mile trip to take about 3 hours.

I have a front wheel drive car. On the final section of incline, there was only about 1/2 inch of snow, but I could not get up the hill, and the car kept sliding backwards and to the side, nearly putting me off the road. Somehow in the back of my mind I remembered someone saying that if you put a front wheel drive car in reverse, it will shift the center of mass over the front wheels. Sure enough this worked, although just barely. I have directional tires, but even in the reverse direction, the difference was obvious.

A friend of mine says that the mass is not really shifted in this situation, and I’m inclined to agree. When carrying a couch down stairs the weight does not very noticeably shift to the bottom. My best guess is that the phenomenon has to do with the pre-defined weight distribution of the vehicle. Since the engine is behind the front wheels on most FWD cars (except maybe a saab 900) putting the car in reverse allows us to have that center of weight in front of rather than behind the front wheels.

So what does everyone think? What are the physics behind all of this, and did I really benefit from going up in reverse?

34 posts - 21 participants