Autos in the winter (Cheyenne, Casper: house, buy, maintenance)

[deadgoon]

Hello all. I am working towards the goal of living in Wyoming. I have lived south of the Mason-Dixon line my entire life and know very little about how to run a car in cold weather. What sort of modifications would I need to make to my car for a Wyoming winter? It's a small sedan (Hyundai Elantra). Do I need chains or special tires? An engine block heater? Special anti-freeze or fuel additives? Anything else? Work from the assumption that I am completely ignorant of this subject.

Thanks in advance for all advice or links you can provide.

[ElkHunter]

There are lots of things to do, but yet, you don't have to do anything. haha

Car's in the US come with antifreeze at the proper mix when you buy them. If you have it serviced, they normally make sure it still meets those specs. 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze will take you through anything.

Block heater. Real handy when it's severly cold. Plug it in when the temp gets down around 10 degrees or colder. Don't do like my neighbor lady, she plugs her vehicle in on the first day of Winter and leaves it plugged in until the First day of Spring. Regardless of temp outside. A block heater will warm up your water and then circulate it throughout the engine. Thus keeping the engine warm, easy to start.

Chains. Best to have a set of chains or cables in the trunk. Not so you can go cruising in the snow, but if you slide off the road or get snowed in somewhere, you can get back out.

Take a look through the threads here. Last winter we put together a list of things one should carry in the winter while traveling. That list is not for when you drive from your house in town, 4 blocks to your work. But more so when you travel a hundred miles between towns.

There's lots of things you can do to your car, to make it "Easier" to get along in the winter. But truth be known, your car, straight from the factory, will do about 99% of what you need to do. The only thing would be tires.

[sunsprit]

A lot of your car need will be determined by where you choose to live in Wyoming.

In most cities/larger towns, your car in standard trim, stored in your garage, and fitted with appropriate tires and proper routine maintenance will do just fine.

However, if you choose to live out in the county areas, or in a remote area, or in a particularly snowy area, your transportation needs may be very different, and you may need to consider a different type of vehicle.

So the real path to answering your question is going to be determined by where you're thinking about locating in Wyoming.

[deadgoon]

Thank you for the responses thus far. My plan is to live in or near Cheyenne, Casper, or Laramie depending mostly of the type of work will be able to find. I don't really plan to live out in the country. What sort of tires would I need since this is something both posters mentioned?

[ElkHunter]

A good all terrain, or all weather tire is about all you need. The three towns you listed all have good snow removal so seldom will you be running in deep snow, but will on occasion.

No real need for "Snow Tires" unless your going to be more rural. Normal summer tires might be a problem on occasion if you get a heavy snow. So a good all weather tire and run it year around. really helps when it's raining in the summer time also.

[Kristynwy]

In a rural area I highly recommend chains, we have a Honda and live in a rural area, and the only way to get out was with chains sometimes...

I highly recommend a block heater, my husband will be putting one in our Honda this summer for this next winter... Although if you get an antifreeze tester and it is maintained properly it will do the job. It did for us, and we got down to -23 this past winter one night..
Now, because we didn't have a block heater in our Honda, every few hours we went out and cranked it and let it run for a few minutes to keep the engine warm on that night it got down to -23...

Our GMC Dually Diesel 6.2 L has a block heater in it. It is a must with Diesels, if we don't have it plugged in when it is below 30, it has a rough time cranking, or won't at all... one time on accident we didn't plug it in one night, and the diesel gelled up and took us like 30 minutes to get ungelled and warm up.. we didn't have any diesel anti-gel stuff on hand is why.. but you can get additives and stuff at Napa or Home Depot...

Now we moved out here with just our Honda and a classic truck of my husband's that is being restored..

If you live in a rural area, I would highly recommend a 4 wheel drive truck. We didn't have a lot of money and got an older one with very low miles aka our GMC and it has been a life saver for us.. For truck tires I highly recommend Cooper ST-C's They have a special chip technology that is supposed to help them not chip due to all terrain and gravel as easily, they are mud tires and can be used on black top also... They are wonderful... Plow's right over snow no problem...

With our Honda in the winter when snow piles up we high centered to much out here also... so a truck with a little bit of clearance also...

[Kristynwy]

I forgot to mention we have cooper Tires on our Honda and they do a really good job so far also..

[MRVphotog]

If you have a vehicle with a carburator you'll need high altitude jets to compensate for the less oxygen you have in the Rockies.

[tekape]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

A good all terrain, or all weather tire is about all you need. The three towns you listed all have good snow removal so seldom will you be running in deep snow, but will on occasion.

No real need for "Snow Tires" unless your going to be more rural. Normal summer tires might be a problem on occasion if you get a heavy snow. So a good all weather tire and run it year around. really helps when it's raining in the summer time also.

Yep, I agree with ElkHunter....all-season tires is really all you need....we have a set of studded tires for our mini-van, but they aren't a necessity (just a nice thing to have sometimes.....he happened to work for a tire company at the time and we got a great deal on them)...two of our neighbors are elderly widows, both drive sedans, neither have special tires for their cars, and both have no problems in the winter.

Welcome to Wyoming

[tekape]

Originally Posted by MRVphotog

If you have a vehicle with a carburator you'll need high altitude jets to compensate for the less oxygen you have in the Rockies.

that's not true of today's modern cars....maybe in a 1950's car, but that is a myth that just doesn't fly in today's world....(sorry!)