Snow Trip

[dodgeGTI]

Hey all,

I'm driving up to the snow in a couple weeks for the first time. What will I need to do to prep my polo for the trip. I'll be leaving it on the mountain for 5 days.

[mikinoz]

Not alot, if you are going to the VIC fields you will need to hire/buy some chains, make sure that they fit your car, more than likely you will not need to use them as the roads are graded.

Apart from that, nothing at all IMHO.

[neil]

Dont go up the mountain to early or leave the mountain early when leaving
for home.
Let the other early morning road users break up the ice.
You dont want to risk putting chains on a lovely VW.

Have seen plenty of guards damaged over the years.

Its also fun to watch people driving by with chains on the rear when
you know its a front wheel drive.

Make sure you take a scrapper for the ice on the windscreen (hot water or
even luke warm water will crack the window) and pull your wippers up to stop
them from sticking. I would imagine you would know that coming from melbourne.

Maybe some firewood and matchers to warm the oil in the sump.
(Its been done before with old greyhound coaches.)
I'm sure others will have more advice.
Neil.

[Mario]

Hey all,

I'm driving up to the snow in a couple weeks for the first time. What will I need to do to prep my polo for the trip. I'll be leaving it on the mountain for 5 days.

.. Its always worth while putting in new antifreeze, the fresher the better and dont skimp on price..., yeh you MUST carry chains even if you dont need them (i drive a 4x4 and i MUST carry chains too, never used them)..... Yeh the scraper is a great idea, i always forget that one... Lift all wipers off the windows when you park (this prevents them from freezing to the glass)... if its going to be sitting there for a week, start and let her run for about 10-15 minutes every 3 days..... this will help burn off any condensation that builds up in the motor.... When you do finally leave to go home, dont be supprised if she runs a little on the rough side (at idle mostly)... this is because of the condensation i mentioned eairlier... it will all burn off within 20-50k's......

In all likliness you wont need to start any "campfires" under the car to warm the oil.... we simply dont get that cold enough and with good oil in the sump it generally doesnt thicken to much... a ten minute warm up will fix that......

Also!!!!!!!!....... please take it easy around the bends... black ice sent me into a ditch (basicly off the side of the mountain).... cost me $600 to get her towed back to sydney (and that was 10 years ago)....

However!!.. its a great drive and i lov doing it... and well, we all know how good the snow can be....(except for last year.....crap)...

have fun ... mario

[dodgeGTI]

Hey all thought I'd let you know that the Polo was awesome in the snow. On the way up the mountain the car started talking to me when the cold air made the air pressure drop in the tyres and then again as the temp hit zero.

5 days later I found the GTI as pictured.

Needless to say the drive home in the cold mountain air was a bit of fun.

[Funkdancer]

I moved to Australia from Norway in 2000.

I was gonna say, as long as you take it easy, should be fine? With the ESP and TCS systems you'll fare a lot better than those without. It'd be good to have the option of studless winter tyres but they're not the hottest thing down here - work extremely well in my home country of Norway though. My brother swears by the EPS @ winter and the difference is just hugely massive.

I managed to ride my FZ50 moped several winters with only putting the front wheel down twice (studded tyres) + 3 times on my MTB pushie (knobby at first, then two years of studded), so it's all about having total respect for cornering abilities - i.e. no G forces allowed at all, plus braking distance (keep a massive amount of distance to the car ahead). Easy does it, treat the wheel and pedals as though something might break if you push anything too hard.

[mitch_gti]

Snow Trip

I loorrrveeee Silver GTI Polo's.

Im starting to think i should have bought one in silver....... :|