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Tire Traction

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The Myth

THIS MYTH WAS FEATURED IN...
Episode Title: Special 12: Snow Special

Original air date:6/20/2007
Myth Title: Tire Traction


Myth Description: Driving backwards on ice will give you more traction.


MythBusters on the bust: ----


Hypothesis: ----


Procedure/Experimental Design: ----


Results: ----


Conclusion: ----


Busted or Not Busted: ---- Busted/Plausible/Confirmed
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Your Scientific Method

Did the MythBusters get it right? How would you have busted this myth differently? Share your experiment design for how you would prove/disprove this myth:

  • Actually, there is a way to at least partially confirm the myth: that's driving up a slippery hill. This gives you more weight on the front axle which means more traction with a FWD. As a matter of fact, this is a known trick if you got a steep driveway and happen to dwell in parts where you don't have to travel far to test some snow myths ;) Oh yeah, and driving backwards on the even surface was the only way I ever managed to get my FWD car into the 360 degrees spin (don't try this at home guys, it was a closed course and pro^H^H^H amateur ice racer)

    Also, I'm wondering, why the garage test did yield better traction when reversing... The only idea is that the car had directional tires designed to have better grip for braking than acceleration.

    -andy


  • for an FWD car axactely true ...turn around and turn it into an RWD ....


  • The driving test was just playing, I don't know why this is done on the show. Number of cones hit? And different drivers? The real way to test it would have been much more controlled.

Varibles not tested include: Vehicle drives, Front, Rear, 4x4. type of tires. Alll season radial, Actual snow tires, direction tread tires, studded tires , With the typical California highway tire on a typical california car as a control. Also road surface and actual conditions. Black ice, new fallen snow, compacted snow . I suspect that this myth is a 50+ years old from the days of may pop tires on one wheel drive / rear drive cars. And has little applicability to modern real world conditions. Check with the folks in Donner pass for more information I expect the have some ideas.


Just a thought, but the angle of the vehicle in the lab test could have affected the outcome. With the front of the car on the ice and the chain on the back of the car hooked to the truck the front of the car is not really affected. However when the the car was tested in reverse the chain was hooked to the forklift which is lower than the truck as a result the chain is pulling down. this could put more weight on to the front tires resulting in the appearance of better traction. I think if the car had been level and the angle of the chain was the same between front and back the results would have been the same.
I think the basis of this myth may lie in some vehicles being geared lower in reverse. 		, compressed/ packed snow . I suspect this myth is 50 years

See Also

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Threads

Anonymous  (Get credit for your thread)
Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
Odempsey Better Traction in Reverse 0 Oct 22 2007, 1:59 AM EDT by Odempsey
Thread started: Oct 22 2007, 1:59 AM EDT  Watch
The reason why the front wheel drive car achieved better traction in reverse is because of weight transfer. A front wheel drive will transfer a portion of the cars static weight to the rear wheels when driven forwards. In reverse static weght is transfered to the front wheels. with more weight on the front wheels, more traction was available.
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