Salt on the roads? (Denver, Boulder: insurance, homes, storage)

[LoneWolf72]

Does the state, cities or counties use road salt to melt ice in the winter on CO roads/highways like they do on the east coast and in the midwest? Just wondering if I need to rust proof my SUV.

[bluescreen73]

There isn't any sodium chloride used on the roads here. It's primarily sand and magnesium chloride. Mag chloride isn't as hard on your car as salt, but you'll still wanna run your car through a car wash a few times in the winter.

[snowave]

mag chloride just kills all the trees near the road.

[BigDog811]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

There isn't any sodium chloride used on the roads here. It's primarily sand and magnesium chloride. Mag chloride isn't as hard on your car as salt, but you'll still wanna run your car through a car wash a few times in the winter.

This.


Twenty-nine winters in the Denver metro. Never treated the under carriage of any vehicle. Never had any "cancer" from winter road treatments.

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

There isn't any sodium chloride used on the roads here. It's primarily sand and magnesium chloride. Mag chloride isn't as hard on your car as salt, but you'll still wanna run your car through a car wash a few times in the winter.

Most of the reason they put MgCl2 on the roads is because the extra chloride ion in water solutions lowers the freezing temperature even more than standard NaCl. That extra chloride ion makes it more corrosive too.


That said, most cars are increasingly designed and manufactured to withstand harsh elements. Even with Colorado's harsh sun, hail, MgCl2, and wide swings in temperatures, my four-year-old car still looks mostly new, and I haven't exactly babied it.

OP, depending on the age of your car, it might be worth it. Check with your insurance company even to see if it helps with the premium. More than the road salt, the sand and gravel they scatter on the roads is more likely to damage your car. You're lucky if you can get a windshield to last a year in Colorado without getting cracked before you can even seal off a chip.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

Most of the reason they put MgCl2 on the roads is because the extra chloride ion in water solutions lowers the freezing temperature even more than standard NaCl. That extra chloride ion makes it more corrosive too.


That said, most cars are increasingly designed and manufactured to withstand harsh elements. Even with Colorado's harsh sun, hail, MgCl2, and wide swings in temperatures, my four-year-old car still looks mostly new, and I haven't exactly babied it.

OP, depending on the age of your car, it might be worth it. Check with your insurance company even to see if it helps with the premium. More than the road salt, the sand and gravel they scatter on the roads is more likely to damage your car. You're lucky if you can get a windshield to last a year in Colorado without getting cracked before you can even seal off a chip.

The sand destroys windshields and it doesn’t even take a crack to ruin them. If you do a lot of highway driving, they get pitted to the point where oncoming headlights at night make them light up and look like you’re making the jump to hyperspace in Star Wars.

[reed303]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

The sand destroys windshields and it doesn’t even take a crack to ruin them. If you do a lot of highway driving, they get pitted to the point where oncoming headlights at night make them light up and look like you’re making the jump to hyperspace in Star Wars.

Don't even have to be on the road for sand/gravel damage.

The employee parking lot at the old StorageTek facility in Louisville was notorious for cars being damaged by sand/gravel blown in from US 36 by chinook winds out of the foothills.

Wife's Blazer lost a windshield and driver's window one time.

Homes in Broomfield's Lac Amora area, and Boulder on S. Broadway, facing west have real working window shutters for this reason.

[pikabike]

Cracked windshields are common whether or not sand is used for winter snowmelt mix.

The culprit includes gravel. Plenty of it along the shoulders of paved roads, too. LOTS of it when chipsealing has been done instead of asphalt.

Don’t forget the gravel that gets flung from wheels and ricocheted off of fender liners on the dirt roads.

Don’t tailgate, for starters. But I had a windshield cracked from something that came from a semi that was hundreds of feet ahead. Chips and cracks will be a fact of life in CO.

[maciesmom]

Also be aware that the mag chloride can damage the concrete on your driveway or garage floor.