Saturday, January 05, 2013

1/5/13 placeholder

much to write and blog, but I've cut a fingertip and it makes my whole hand throb. turns out, it's pretty hard to type without an index finger, and actually many other things are greatly complicated too. such a tiny injury wreaking such havoc, spent much of the evening icing it.

(this is on top of a cut on my wrist, another cut on the side of my hand, a burnt right thumb, and still-sensitive fingers from 4 days ago when I froze them trying to dig out of powder. this just hasn't been a good trip for my hands.)

also car got stuck in the driveway again, this time barely 10 feet from the road. any attempt to drive it forward only made it slide back further as the wheels spun. knowing I only had about 2 attempts before it would slide into a snowbank again, I was just barely able to get it out by putting my passenger rubber floormats in front of the rear wheels and wood pieces behind them, and gave it the gentlest forward drive possible. the car fishtailed and wheels spun well past the icy driveway even in 2nd gear, must have been ice in the treads or something. gabriel was instrumental in this rescue by telling me it was the rear wheels that were spinning. such a kid, all 56 pounds of him offered to help push it out!

such great days skiing at sugarbowl! can't believe how much we've all advanced since the first time here.

heading home to the flatlands tomorrow sniffff, I'd rather stay up here in heaven!

ok my achy hand has had enough!

1/5/13

1 comment:

DaVE said...

I can offer only sympathy for your hurt hand, but I do have a suggestion for your traction troubles. There may actually be something wrong with the car that ought to be addressed before your next trip in the snow.

"gabriel was instrumental in this rescue by telling me it was the rear wheels that were spinning."

That is a clue. A key component of Subaru's All Wheel Drive is that the center differential is limited slip (LSD). For your Outback, the rear axle is also LSD, while the front wheels use a traditional "open" differential.

What that means is that if one rear wheel was spinning, the other rear wheel should also have been spinning (because of rear LSD), and - this is important - at least one of the front wheels should have been spinning (because of center LSD). In other words, the front should have helped pull you out even if you had no traction in the back.

If the rear wheels were spinning while the front wheels were not, then it's effectively operating with an open center differential. If that's what's going on, your car will easily get stuck in the snow. When traction is good, it will continue behaving like the gas-guzzling 4WD you're familiar with. But if any tire starts to slip with an open center differential: when traction is best in the back, it will behave like FWD; when traction is best in the front, it will behave like RWD.

Add up: your recent troubles getting stuck, Gabriel's observation, and that area of the drivetrain was just worked on a few months ago. It may be wise to have the shop test that the center differential's limited slip function is working as it should.

Have a safe trip home.