You maybe don’t want to be doing that if there’s any chance of splashing it on the window. Glass doesn’t take kindly to drastic temperature changes.
I had a fun occurrence today while driving on the interstate. I clean off my car’s windows and lights per routine, but I forgot that there were big chunks of ice stuck under my windshield wipers. So I’m cruising along and this big testosterone-overload dickhead driving a monster truck SUV is tailgating me for about 10 minutes even though I’m pulling 10 over in the middle lane. I tap the windshield wiper level, launching a dinner plate-sized chunk of ice sailing right up over my windshiled and back over the roof of my car, where it SMASHES to pieces on his windshield. He swerves and overcorrects, almost losing control of his vehicle, before finally dropping back about 50 yards. Ha ha! Suck it, you big SUV cromag! Who’s next? 
Somebody always subverts a benign device into a weapon.
I have to point out, once again, that safe following is always to be measured in time, not distance. 2 to 3 seconds is possible to measure when following a car, while feet, meters, and car lengths are not. Also, the change in distance corrects itself as the speed of the leading vehicle changes.
Also, I’m proud to say that my car bears several scratches on the hood and roof from me scraping ice off. I have been known to slap my palm across the car to get the sheet metal to flex enough to release stubborn ice chunks.
For those who are too lazy to sweep their cars, buy a cheap car cover at Walmart. When you pull the cover off as you scramble to get on your way to work, all the snow comes off with it. This also helps put a force field between the evil snow and your precious paint. Even if the ice sticks to the surface, the car cover is flexible and will keep you from having to scrape or whack it loose.
Probably true (and note that I’ve never done this). However, I know several people who do it on a regular basis, apparently with no ill effects.
I am a magnet for this. I’ve been lucky this year because last Wednesday was really the only time we’ve actually had snow or ice (and we got both within a few hours).
Anyway, I’m 27. I’ve lived in Massachusetts my whole life. I’ve been driving since I was 18. I’ve never caused an accident. I don’t tailgate. I don’t speed. I always signal. Basically, I earned my Step 9 (actually, I think it’s 99 now in MA). I’m not one of those people who has a safe driver rating just because I’m good at avoiding cops.
The reason I mention my driving record is this:
In my 9 years of driving, I have had my car attacked by flying sheets of ice a minimum of 1 time each year. Usually, it happens at least once per month from November through March, depending on how long the snow season is. I’ve been lucky. I’ve never lost a windshield. I have however blown out a tire.
My tally so far**:
I have been hit by massive sheets of ice from cars more than one car ahead of me. Usually, I’m the second one back but once I was actually the 4th back. The offending driver had a Hummer. It’s actually very rare that I get hit by someone right in front of me, mainly because even though I don’t tailgate, the ice sheet goes right over my low car.
I have been hit 4 times by cars at least one ahead of me, but in a totally different lane.
I have been hit more than 10 times by MASSIVE ice sheets from commercial vehicles.
I have only ONCE been hit by ice from the car right in front of me, and that was because it was a tiny sports car and actually had less headroom than my car. The ice would have actually had to fly up to miss me. It didn’t. It kinda flowed straight off.
Usually, my windshield isn’t hit. I believe this is because of the types of car I usually drive. Typically, my roof is it. Still cares the shit outta me though.
As for the blown out tire? Huge chunk of ice came flying off a truck which was 3 in front of me. It hit the ground right in front of my front right tire, went under the tire, and hit my back tire - which blew it out. Doesn’t sound very likely does it? What are the odds? Well, in my world, the odds are pretty fucking good.
Anyway, I actually don’t buy cars with an overall height which surpasses that of my shoulders. FTR, I’m only 5’2" at the very top of my little red head. This means that as long as I live in New England, I drive low cars. The low overhead means I’m less likely to be hit in the windshield. The only cars I’ve been in which have had the windshield hit were taller than my shoulder height.
As for how to remove a huge sheet of ice which is stuck to your car? Easy. Plan the fuck ahead.
How often really, does someone in a snow-prone area, wake up surprised to see a massive snow dump? I can’t say it’s ever happend to me. We typcially have warning. Even if I’ve only been told we’re gonna have an inch, with no ice, I still plan ahead and get up early.
My routine:
- Get up
- Put on some clothes
- Go the fuck outside, turn on the goddamn car and turn the heat on HIGH.
- Go back inside and shower, dress, and do other getting ready shit.
- Go back outside to leave for work.
You know what? The vast majority of the time, I just swipe my arm over the top of my car and the whole sheet of ice comes off in one large satisfying crash. The heat from the car’s heating system heats up the inside of the car. This heats up the roof of the car. This loosens the underside of the icefloe. You don’t have to melt the whole fucking thing. You don’t have to chop the whole fucking thing. All you have to do is slightly melt the underside and the whole thing comes right off. I almost never spend more than 10 minutes cleaning off my car. It usually only takes that long when ice isn’t the issue. Snow is a bitch to clear.
Another point, even when I try to plan ahead and end up oversleeping, I consider the safety of others to be far more important than whether or not my boss gets pissed at me for being late. If I wake up late, I call work, ask for a manger and then explain that I overslept and for safety reasons, I will be late as I need to properly clean my car. I have never once in 9 years had a boss get mad at me or write me up for that. I actually had one boss offer to pick me up and drop me off because it would take less time than waiting for me to clear 2’ of snow off my car.
** Please note that my tally isn’t typical. I don’t know anyone who has been hit as many times as I have. But, you can understand why this topic pisses me off. I don’t like adrenaline rushes. They make me feel sick. I especially don’t like getting them while I’m driving at 65MPH.
Oh, and to the fucker who hit my car today (he was 3 cars ahead BTW) - It hasn’t snowed since goddamn fucking WEDNESDAY!! It’s now Sunday! Why the hell haven’t you cleaned off your car yet! My car was frozen to my driveway for 2 days after the last snow and I still managed to get it cleared off and road safe before today.
Given that information I have a hard time beleiving you. So which is true non-agressive driving habits or your from MA. Both is blasphemy or something.
Given that you live in Leominster, I can understand why you think this is blasphemy. I am terrified to drive in that area.
I live at the other end of the state. I moved out here from Worcester after I had only been driving for 2 years, so the bad habits didn’t have a chance to set in. We can actually drive pretty well out here (as long as you pretend that Springfield doesn’t exist). However, we’re very close to Connecticut. THOSE people can put all of MA to shame.
This is nutty. :eek: I can’t imagine driving a car covered in snow except for a tiny peephole in the front.
How can you not want to, like, SEE where you’re going on the road?
twitch twitch
And for the record, I’m in the Puget Sound area. We had that going on with the freak snowstorms last month. I noticed that the light snow and slush coming off the other cars would generally freeze to my windshield, which was not fun. The wiper fluid got a workout, it did. Not to mention the seawater on 520.
Unbelievable that people have to be told this.
Look - you’re driving a dangerous vehicle. Tens of thousands of people a year die in car crashes. It’s the #1 killer of people under 35. The least you can do is keep your freaking windows cleared so you can see what the hell you are doing, and get the damned snow and ice off your car before driving it onto a public road with other moving traffic. The stuff is unpredictable. You may have a chunk blow off your hood and obscure your vision at exactly the wrong moment. A clump may slide down your roof and obscure your rear window. The crap will blow off a bit at a time in various lumps and chunks into the traffic behind you.
This isn’t rocket science. It’s plain goddamn sense. Clean your car off. Worried about scratches in your clearcoat? Unless you’re only your way to a car show, boo-fucking-hoo. That’s life in the big city, sparky. Sometimes the clearcoat’s gotta take one for the team - a few little fine scratches in exchange for not killing someone - probably yourself.
grumble mumble stupid soft-on-crime hippies grumble mumble…
Tell me, is it “anti-using-the-lane-next-to-yours chaff” as well?
Any cross breeze makes it possible for that huge ice sheet of material from on top of your car that you were too lazy to clear off to crash into the vehicle of the cars behind and to either the left or right of you, also. Or, if you happen to be making a turn (or on a corner) when the load shifts, there’s no guarantee it’ll go straight back, you asshole.
Skeptical? The other day on the Northern State Parkway, I damn near got killed swerving to avoid the ice sheet that came flying off the top of an SUV located ahead of me and one lane to my left. I don’t know if it was the wind, the fact we were on a curve, or some quirk of the way the ice sheet broke or shifted, but it did not go straight back - it went off at an angle that would have had it intercepting my windshield at 55 miles an hour had I not gotten the fuck out the way and quickly. As it was, I had to swerve violently and damn near lost control of my car because the shoulder was icy as hell.
As it’d been a goodly number of days since the last snowfall in the NY area, that means the fuckwit you’re so snarkily defending hasn’t been arsed to clear off his vehicle for days and days, preferring instead to leave a hazardous condition in place, endangering others.
Recent conversation at work between me and our receptionist, who looks about 18, but is married to a deployed soldier:
Me: Isn’t your Hyundai SUV brand new?
Her (warily): Yeeesssss?
Me: Don’t you think it would be a good idea to clean off your back window and the tail lights before driving to work?
Her (with a moronic smile): Oh, I guess so.
Me: It won’t be new for long at that rate.
Her: tee-hee
Fucking moron.
People who can’t be bothered to clean off the top and windows are bad enough, but those who can’t be bothered to clean off the fucking lights are assholes who expect everyone else to just try to divine when the brakes are applied and then take drastic evasive action to avoid rear-ending them. She NEVER cleans this fucking thing, the lights of which are now covered in road muck.
Lake Washington is a fresh water lake.
I concur with the OP: people who don’t clear the snow off their cars/SUVs are fucktards.
This is just too coincidental. I checked into this rant because of prevalence of this behavior that I witnessed when driving this past Friday. The location? The New Jersey Turnpike. I drove from Boston to Philadelphia; the worst (and I think the only) instances of this behavior were all along the Turnpike, and almost all by vehicles with NJ plates. And this despite the warning signs posted at almost every bridge. To be fair and truthful, the vast majority of the offenders were trucks, but there were enough cars and SUVs to keep things interesting.
I suspect that some people feel that they are too important and that their time is too valuable to worry about other people’s safety.
Actually I’m looking for a link right now because it was recently featured on a newsreport after a woman was nearly killed when a sheet of ice slid off a truck and smashed through her windshield on one of the 400 series expressways near Toronto. The TV footage show serious damage to her windshield that look like someone had lobbed a rock at her car.
The TV report was on about three weeks ago.
Here is one link, but that’s not the story I was looking for.
And from a related story to the one I posted above…
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland have laws requiring drivers to clear snow and ice from their cars and trucks.
Another link about a death from ice going through a windshield, December 2005. You’ll also note she was not “following too close” she was part of oncoming traffic in the next lane.
Was it this one? That’s a slideshow of the news story. The pictures of that poor child… 
Ouch! Poor kid! No, that’s not the one I was thinking of. The story I saw didn’t have such extensive damage to the vehicle and I don’t believe there was a child involved (though I may be mistaken).
520? Lake Washington? OMG there’s snow in Central Florida!!!.
Ohhhhh…nevermind.