Falken FK451s Don't Work in Snow

[Jon Pennington]

Last night was scary; about 1.5" of sleet accumulated on roads.
Speedometer read 35 MPH, was in 3rd gear.  Rarely EVER got to 35 MPH; was
moving along more like 15-20.  Much of this was also spent with the
steering wheel at 1/4- to 1/2-turn off-center just to keep the car moving
in a straight line.

ABS system faulted on me twice in the 12-mile drive due to the ABSURD
disparity between Front and Rear wheel sensor speeds, so the ABS would not
function.  The fix for this was to wait for a flat spot in the road, let
car coast, turn key to OFF position, restart.  Then ABS functioning
resumed.

Today, I spent 20 minutes fighting a hill that was covered in packed snow.
 The hill won.  I travelled 400-500 yards the wrong direction (divided
road) just to get back to the base of the hill, then drove 15 miles out of
my way to get to work.  Gotta' love how "flat" the Great Plains are, huh?

I just got back to my desk at work after flipping my front tires
left-to-right.  Pretty quick work if you use the scissor jack to pick up
the engine crossmember and use a 12v impact wrench to pull the lugs and
get them started before torquing.  I had heard on an autocrossing list
once that this was an "old trick" for owners of directional tires; I
didn't put much faith in it until my hill-fighting experience today when I
noticed that I was gripping better in Reverse than any forward gear.  When
the snow clears, I'll flip them the other way for safety.

I spent all afternoon looking for a set of Altima 15" wheels in Kansas
City, which don't seem to exist.  If y'all know an Altima owner ('93-01)
who just invested in some Dubs and wants to let the old steelies go, for
cheap, lemme know.

--
-=|JP|=-        "Stays Fresh Longer!"

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