NSW, Australia - Alpine Driving

[kengima]

Hi guys

happy new 2014 CX-5 GT owner and baby member on this forum (so please be gentle! )

I'm going to the NSW alpine region in a few weeks for some skiing (Perisher/Thredbo). The National Parks website says: "Your radiator needs effective antifreeze. Snow chains help ensure your safety and are compulsory on 2WD vehicles and recommended for 4WD"

Does anyone have any tips on preparing for the conditions?

Is antifreeze a must? I've been to the snows many times over the years but have never bothered with antifreeze.

Does anyone have experience with a 4WD CX-5 (auto) in the snows on regular tyres? Would you recommend chains? I definitely won't be fitting snow tyres for just a weekend trip and it never snows in Sydney!

The only things I usually do are to leave the wipers up, park in neutral and drive in low gears in certain conditions (eg. on black ice), although I'm not sure if any of that would be an issue with this car.

Thanks ahead

 

[paris1]

I can't answer your chain question, but all modern vehicles (like for decades!) come from the factory with antifreeze, so you have no worries there.

 

[MikeM.]

Does anyone have experience with a 4WD CX-5 (auto) in the snows on regular tyres? Would you recommend chains?

It's impossible to answer that question without knowing what the weather will be like and what kind of roads you will be on (steepness of grades, etc.).

I know my local mountains occasionally get nasty enough to completely incapacitate 4x4's and AWD's stupid enough to get caught out there wearing all season or AT tires and no chains. These same conditions are handled like child's play in my CX-5 with studless winter radials, no chains.

Safe bet is to follow the recommendations provided by those who are familiar with the road and have chains available even though conditions might not get bad enough to need to use them.

 

[kengima]

"I know my local mountains occasionally get nasty enough to completely incapacitate 4x4's and AWD's stupid enough to get caught out there wearing all season or AT tires and no chains. These same conditions are handled like child's play in my CX-5 with studless winter radials, no chains."


The hairy part (relatively speaking) is usually only in the National Park to the two ski resorts which are on sealed asphalt. Drive is about 30 minutes (but only because of the amount of traffic of other skiers) so perhaps 20kms/13miles? Not particularly steep, fairly gradual incline, with some medium sweeping bends (no hairpins) and mostly two laned with the odd overtaking/passing lane.

Once in a while there'll be light to medium snow on the roads but they're either cleared by the rangers or turned into slush by all the cars. So that, black ice, the occasional animal and other (inexperienced) drivers are the only real hazards.

Sounds like if conditions aren't extreme, the CX-5's AWD and winter radials are pretty good.