Driving in Snow, Cars/Tires (move to, nurse, paid)

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by hoover698

Thanks for the responses. How important is ground clearance? Is something with 5.5" of ground clearance, AWD, & snow tires good enough for 99% of the time?

Ground clearance is gonna be more important than tires if we get a good dumping. I have a Honda Fit and if we get more than 4-5" of snow I work from home. I'll end up stuck trying to get out of the driveway - winter tires or not.

[EastwardBound]

The most important points to consider are keeping your speed low and keeping a sufficient distance from the cars in front of you to allow space to brake and stop. Most accidents in snow happen because of excessive speed and following too closely.

[metalmancpa]

Enough snow here in Boston, and for 11 years my Chrysler 300C AWD Hemi handled it with ease. I prefere Michelins, and that combo with AWD made driving in the snow pretty much a breeze. Now I have a Ram 1500 Big Horn Hemi Crew - put Michelins on that, and this past winter yet another breeze.

[sheerbliss]

I got along fine with front wheel drive and all-weather tires when I lived in Denver. I had a Honda Civic, a Ford Taurus, Ford Tempo, and a Camry. I think the only time I was stranded was in 2003 during a hundred-year snow storm.

I second the recommendation to slow down and leave plenty of room between you and the car ahead of you.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by hoover698

Thanks for the responses. How important is ground clearance? Is something with 5.5" of ground clearance, AWD, & snow tires good enough for 99% of the time?

Not and issue 99% of the time. Especially if you are staying in town. It plan to be in the mountains frequently, clearance becomes more of an issue.

[WyoNewk]

Originally Posted by hoover698

Thanks for the responses. How important is ground clearance? Is something with 5.5" of ground clearance, AWD, & snow tires good enough for 99% of the time?

It depends on where you drive 99% of the time. I drive a Prius that has 5.5" of clearance. Note Stealth's earlier comment about the Prius not having enough clearance. He's right, in my estimation. With excellent snow tires, which mine has every winter, it can plow some fresh powder just fine, but if the snow has settled/melted/refrozen and is still 6" deep, it's better to just avoid it.

So far, (4 winters and 90K miles) I've only been stuck in the Prius once to the point of needing help to get out. That was on some old snow that had crusted over on a long (half mile?) rural driveway. I got into the property, but on the way back out I broke through the crust and discovered about a foot of snow. That packs down to 6 inches pretty hard, and the bottom of it becomes solid ice. My old 4x4 pickup, with a foot of clearance, probably would have gotten through it, but it got stuck too, just in a little deeper packed snow.

Nearly any vehicle can get stuck. It's up to the driver to avoid those situations, and if you're new to driving in winter conditions, a little extra caution would be a good idea.

I grew up and learned to drive in Iowa. When I was 16 I'd pile 4-6 guys in the car, along with the same number of snow shovels, and we'd head out to the country to bust snow drifts on roads that hadn't yet been opened up by the plows. Lots of fun! I'd also go to empty parking lots to "cut donuts" (spin in circles, etc.) when we had a fresh snow. I learned to drive on snow and ice quite early in my driving years, just like many other guys in snow country. I still get stuck now and then. It's not so much the snow and ice as my own poor judgement. That judgement should be better for someone who's been driving for 55 winters, but....

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by EastwardBound

The most important points to consider are keeping your speed low and keeping a sufficient distance from the cars in front of you to allow space to brake and stop. Most accidents in snow happen because of excessive speed and following too closely.

^^This.

I'm old enough that I've driven in snow with a rear-wheel drive car. I was a public health nurse back in Champaign IL and driving all day long in snow. DH still had a RWD when we came out here, drove to work just fine.

[DougStark]

The Denver area tends to pay much less attention to plowing neighborhood streets than the major thoroughfares. I think the strategy is not only a cost savings, but they figure the strong sun and mild days that follow the storm will melt or evaporate the neighborhood streets of snow.

I don't fault them for this strategy, but in those occasional heavy snows, you may have trouble leaving your neighborhood without a 4x4 or AWD vehicle.

By the way, I read somewhere that scientists are testing new alternatives to nasty road salt. One product they're testing is a product made from beets. Has anyone else heard about this? Since Colo grows a lot of beets, it seems like a win-win.

My memories of Denver in the 60s make me recall that they used more sand on slick streets back then (less corrosion on cars, bridges, etc.) I may have read that they scaled back sand spreading because of street sweeping costs in the spring and the dust that cars create when driving over dried sand. Does anyone else remember this?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by DougStark

The Denver area tends to pay much less attention to plowing neighborhood streets than the major thoroughfares. I think the strategy is not only a cost savings, but they figure the strong sun and mild days that follow the storm will melt or evaporate the neighborhood streets of snow.

I don't fault them for this strategy, but in those occasional heavy snows, you may have trouble leaving your neighborhood without a 4x4 or AWD vehicle.

By the way, I read somewhere that scientists are testing new alternatives to nasty road salt. One product they're testing is a product made from beets. Has anyone else heard about this? Since Colo grows a lot of beets, it seems like a win-win.

My memories of Denver in the 60s make me recall that they used more sand on slick streets back then (less corrosion on cars, bridges, etc.) I may have read that they scaled back sand spreading because of street sweeping costs in the spring and the dust that cars create when driving over dried sand. Does anyone else remember this?

I didn't live here back then, but they still don't use a lot of salt. As my dad liked to say (of Pittsburgh where he lived), "They let the guy that put it there take it away". Never heard about the beets. Interesting.

[BabyBoomers2]

We really never had a problem, but both of the vehicles we had, when living there, had snow tires. Our Dodge Ram Pickup had 4-wheel drive and our current Dodge Durango has AWD.

Local news there is always telling people to slow down in snow conditions, but like where we currently live, when dealing with rain slickness, people refuse to listen. We have no problem slowing down, but then again, we are both Seniors and don't drive like we are at Daytona Speedway.