Let It Snow - again.

Well, yesterday was another day when I bet you all wish you had bought those winter tires last fall.

Cars slip-sliding all over the place, blocking traffic because they can't get up the hills and ravines that pretty much define the GTA's geography.

Even saw some TTC and GO busses having trouble with traction. Usually with their rear-mounted engines they get enough grip to get them going. The temperature wasn't far from freezing, which means the road surfaces were slipperier than ever.

Partly good luck, partly good management, I happen to have a big four-wheel drive SUV on test this week. A seven billion horsepower twin-turbo SUV, but with all the modern traction aids like Electronic Stability Control, and Continental Cross Contact winter tires, not much was going to stop me.

One thing I have noticed this winter is that more people, maybe starting to get the fact that we live in a climate where it has been snowing every year for, oh, I dunno fifteen thousand years, are 'parking' their windshield wipers 'up', rather than leaving them flat against the windshield.

The obvious advantage is that they don't get buried in subsequent snowfalls, and/or don't freeze to the glass if there's freezing rain or other precipitatory nastiness.

Because once they are stuck, it takes a lot of scraping to unstick them.

And that's never fun.

I have tried various spray-on ice-removing concoctions, but have never found one that worked.

I know some people carry a sturdy sheet of plastic to lay over the windshield; pull that off and the ice comes with it.

Good idea, if you're disciplined enough to remember to bring it, and to use it.

I have also on occasion found myself in a press car that did not have an ice scraper/snow brush in it (my fault for not checking first), and have had to use a credit card.

Glad those cards are still good for something.

Comments

[David White]

I bet you meant WINTER TIRES?

[Sam Brown]

Hi Jim

The only thing that is on the skids over here is the car industry. The government aid package wasn't quite what the industry was looking for, but it has opened the door to the Honda F1 team to consider going forward with its begging bowl.

[Mike T.]

Our cars would all be in the wrecking yard and none of your stuff would matter Jim if it wasn't for the great radio stations telling us every time we get a bit of snow "The police, this morning, are advising everyone to drive according to the conditions!"

We owe the cops and the radio stations a big thank you.

[Jim]

Hi Sam:

Is that THE Sam Brown???

And by 'here' I presume you meant England? What sort of government aid is your industry getting over there? And I didn't hear about Honda looking for funds to keep their F1 team alive - I thought they were done like dinner...

Jim

[Brian Williams]

Switching off the car while the wipers are sweeping, so that they are parked higher on the windshield, is a bad idea. Once the car is restarted, they will automatically try to re-park themselves at the base of the windshield. If they are frozen to the glass, burnout of the wiper motors could occur if the owner does not free them quickly enough.
Raising them off the glass is the best idea, though I still see plenty of people parking them high and not raising them.