I live in Seattle and recently my mini clubman would not go up a steep hill. It was raining and the roadway was wet. The tires just spun and spun and I could not get up the hill. I have winter tires on. There are quite a few hills in Seattle and of course it rains in winter

 

Drive a stick shift much?

 

That's not very nice or helpful!

First of all I'm assuming it's a stick? Did you try a second gear start?

 

Well...
A few things don't make sense...
"Winter tires" in Seattle.... Snow tires are TERRIBLE in the rain...they grip like heck in the snow or to ice...in the wet...not so much...
A skillful stick driver knows how to slip a clutch a bit, or do a second gear start...or maybe back up and get a running start on a greasy patch of pavement....
Sometimes knowing a drivers skill level can be useful...
And this as an introductory post...let's just say....er...odd.

 

If you ever have to go up a steep hill with insufficient traction, in a front-wheel drive car you will do much better in reverse, when the gradient of the hill is pushing the car's weight onto the driving wheels.

Of course, you may look stupid - but then whether that matters depends on how much you want to go up the hill.

Here's an icy 1:6 (I think that's measured as 16% in the US) that my Mini went up in reverse last winter.



In a Roadster this was not at all easy, since the rear vision is so poor that I couldn't see where the bends in the road were!

 

Yes I've always driven stick

 

Good to know, at the time I could not do a running start since it was rush hour. Is there a better tire for the wet pavement with the temperature around 40'C

 

Generally I say it with run with what you brought....
Which winter tires? As it it colder, they should get a bit better ..
Modern "multicellular" rubber traction snow tires like blizzacks shine in the snow and cold, but their weak point is wet/rainy days....that having been said, snows can be a HUGE help as it gets fridged...just never thought of Seattle as a SUBZERO area....(you say 40° C?! That is er..104°f) Issue is s temp goes above maybe 50° F, they can feel "greasy" and slick..guess if you spend lots of time up in the mountains it is a compromise...
Did the traction control (dsc, asc+t, etc) flash at you? I'm thinking you might have found an oily spot that was slicker than snot, and the stress of rushhour traffic...maybe got a bit anxious and gave it a bit too much HP...
Hopefully did not come off as brash with the first comment, but sometimes we get first time stick drivers who think they can floor it in first gear anytime and wonder why they do a burnout on dry, never mind wet.....
Let's face it...the mini has a HP to weight ratio that is good enough, it is easy to get into trouble with your right foot...

 

40°c = 104° f....
Misspoke I hope...

 

No problem about the comment. I have been driving a stick for 27 years and I have noticed that newer front wheel drives can get in trouble on slippery inclines so I have always dropped down to 2nd gear and problem solved.
Yes I meant 40'F, while it does not snow often here the roads can get slick and they typically don't use salt so I want more grip.
The only other thing that I can think of that you mentioned is the DSC. Would it be helpful to switch it off? There are a lot of hills in Seattle.
Is there a better all season than the ones I got with the car. Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Make sure your rear brakes are not binding... In my case the parking brake cable seized and under low traction conditions the drag in the rear wheels made it difficult to get going...

 

Which tires?
Sounds like the OEM all-season runflats?

 

The OEMs are Continentals, the winter tires are Michelins.

 

Probably just time to take tread depth measurements.....and if tires are older than 6 yrs and still some tread left, also time for new set. ps; The rear tires on a clubman are notorious for cupping, poor tread wear needing rotation every 5-6K miles.

 

Maybe a dumb question, but are these brand new winters? Possibly just haven't scrubbed off the mold release compound yet?

I definitely find that winter tires are not great in the wet - I live just north of you in Victoria - but I've never had trouble with wheel spin or gotten stuck on an incline, even with hardcore Snow and Ice tires.

 

I wouldn't accuse the winter tires just yet. Good winter tires have excellent wet pavement traction. This is helped with their soft compound, blocked tread design, and multiple sipes that can shed a lot of water and also create a lot of edges to bite into the ice or pavement. The flip side is poorer performance on the dry because these same blocks move and make the tire "twitchy" under breaking and cornering.

 

I was amazed to hear the suggestion that winter tyres might be the problem as my experience is that their wet traction and braking grip is superb. But maybe this depends on what sort of winters are being used.

Here in Britain using winters is rare as freezing conditions are equally rare, so we use 'continental' winters optimised for around 0C, which provide stunning wet grip - at least in traction/braking, as their wet cornering grip is pretty mediocre. Doubtless some forum members are in North American places with extreme winter conditions, like Scandinavian/Arctic countries where different winter tyres are used. Are they poor on wet pavement?

 

Typical winter tire in the USA...sorry about the formatting...info from tire rack....

 

 

I call BS on this thread.

There no way any car with any tires would not make it up a hill, unless the road was ice/snow covered, or the engine was busted.

The claim that a MINI would spin tires in vain attempt to gain traction for an uphill climb makes no sense. Competently driven, it would make it on summer, all-season, or snow tires.

a

 

An oily spot (no car not even a mini ever drips oil right?!),add water, ANY tire, and an aggressive acclertion attempt, and tires would spin...
Plausable, yes....
Folks want a reason for threads...so some are overblown...and like all things internet, over thought by neards everyelwhere...
Never has such simple stuff been made so hard as internet forums!!
But we still get to have fun...
Just like BS'ing in a bar....lol.

 

I'm going to test this out tomorrow. We are having rain here in Northern NJ and on my way to work there is a very steep hill with a traffic light and I usually get stuck right at the light. I have my brand new winter tires on (Blizzak LM-60) and I want to see if I can replicate the situation.

I'll connect my dash cam so I can get some footage.

 

Tried it out this morning. Started gently from the light on the steep incline in some light rain and 45 degree (F) weather. One of the tires did spin a bit but nothing that interfered with getting going. Once I started moving, I gave the car about half-throttle and the front wheels spun for a good second. Again, nothing that stopped my momentum. I wonder if it would be a lot worse if it was heavy rain.

Anyways, I do have footage of it but it doesn't really show much since my dash cam's microphone is kind of poopy and FWD car doesn't give any drama during wheelspin so there's not much to see or hear but I can upload it if somebody really wants to see.

I'm going to try this test out again next time we have some heavy rain and see what happens.

 

My driveway is very steep and when there are small branches or pine needles, and the driveway is wet the front wheels of my Clubman will spin trying to go up the driveway. Clean and wet is no problem. Currently running maximum performance summer tires.

 

I think the close to even weight split of the MINI, and it's short wheel base is great for handling on nice dry pavement, but it stinks for uphill traction on slippery pavement.

Take something like a front wheel drive Honda Civic...they have a much larger percentage of weight on the front of the car where the drive wheels are.