[SGVLUG] OT: Snow

[Dustin]

On Wed, 16 Nov 2005, Chris Smith wrote:

> Well, there are tricks for dealing with lower temperatures too.
> Calcium based salts will get you a bit rather (and do a bit more road
> damage),

Doesn't matter much at 40 below. :-)  Yeah, you can use sand, but not that 
easily in a state with a couple of people per square mile.

> So, I think this is where we might be seeing things differently.
> Certainly, out here along the rockies, you can easily run in to
> situations where chains are an absolute requirements, but along the
> Canadian shield and Appalachian chains, it tends to be necessary far
> less often if you have snow tires and clue one about driving in snow.

Hmm.  I'd say if the area is flat, civilized enough to be ploughed and
near services, and you rarely get a few feet dropped all at once in a
blizzard, you should never need chains.  If at least one of those isn't
true, then frankly I wouldn't let a child of mine drive around with
chains.  They're an insurance policy you hope not to use, kind of like a
spare tire.

Chicago certainly qualifies for the first two cases, but maybe not the
third (I seem to recall their annual precipitation is much higher than out
where we were on the great plains/Eastern Rockies).  In Montana, I
wouldn't think it was entirely safe without them, because you can wait a
*long* time for help some places.  We get little enough precipitation that 
you're not likely to be pushing snow, which really reduces the need for 
chains, but still....

I spun my car into the interstate median somewhere between Miles City and
Glendive (you've never heard of them, and that's the point) one night
(black ice plus being young and foolish enough to think I could hold it at
35 the whole way, IIRC).  Pulled the right rear tire off the rim.  Even
there on the only interstate around there was a good chance I would sit
for quite a while before help came.  I had a full-sized spare, which
helped, but even though the snow was below the axle and the median was
pretty gently sloped, there was no way I'd have gotten it out of there
without a lot of traction aid.

Sand might have done it.  Thankfully, I didn't have to solve the problem
myself because I got lucky and a cop came by about the time I got the tire
changed.

> In the flat areas they are even less necessary. In Ontario you need to
> go at least as far north as Ottawa (the snowiest and second coldest
> capital in the world until the Cold War ended and created a bunch of
> frozen fiefdoms) to hear people talking about chains with any kind of
> frequency.

Hmm.  I'd guess if you go out of town that isn't so true.  I imagine
Canadian cowboys are just as prepared to deal with anything themselves as
Montana cowboys are.

I guess it depends on what level of safety and self-sufficiency you're
willing to accept.  To be honest, I wanted to have a handyman jack for 
mud, I just never had the money to buy one when I was in high school.  
Paranoia is your friend (works in software too).

Dustin