Your attention please, Snow Demons: Enough is enough.

[Mighty_Girl]

:: points to location ::

What is this “cold” that you all speak about?

[Nametag]

@MacTech

if it’s the generic blue (or purple) stuff, yes, it’s freezing, the bottle claims it’s good to -20F, but it’s not, i’ve actually had the blue stuff freeze solid in my resivoir on days when it’s only 10F out

not to plug a particular product, but Rain-X makes an orange fluid that’s good to -30F and will not freeze up, i use the blue stuff in the spring/summer/fall, and the orange Rain-X stuff in the winter, so far it’s the only stuff i’ve used that doesn’t freeze

I used to work for a company that made the washer fluid for submarine periscopes – “Headwindow Washer Fluid,” I think. The spec was that it wouldn’t freeze at -20°C (I think) – we had to run the test with dry ice from the fish market.

[BMalion]

I don’t feel truly alive unless I breath in and my nose gunk freezes.

I love winter.

Welcome to Ohio, Lsura, Youngstown isn’t it? watch out for that turnpike traffic. Some of those drivers are LUNATICS.

[Telemark]

@Elza B

Errr…I drive a 2003 Kia Rio (give me a break, I moved back to VA from NYC and it was all I could afford). It’s surprisingly a decent little car in the snow.

We really don’t have the money for snow tires right now, but I’d rather get them than not have them and have it snow really terribly.

Two snow tires will give one end of your car extra traction, both accelerating and stopping. If you put them on the fronts only, you will accelerate better since they are on the drive wheels but while stopping you may have a tendency to swap ends. If you put them on the back end you won’t gain anything in acceleration but your stopping will be straight.

If you can’t get 4 snow tires, I’d put the best traction on the back end.

[Telemark]

@Muffin

And free-heel is best. Damn, summer and fall lasted too long.

Nine months of winter, three months of lousy sledding.

Heel-free or die! How many pinheads do we have here on the Dope?

[Muffin]

@Nametag

I used to work for a company that made the washer fluid for submarine periscopes – “Headwindow Washer Fluid,” I think. The spec was that it wouldn’t freeze at -20°C (I think) – we had to run the test with dry ice from the fish market.

Don’t 'cha just love it when it forms an instant sheen of frost/ice when you are driving down the highway and squirt your windshield?

Here’s some stuff that works at -45C. http://www.petro-canada.ca/eng/prodserv/fuels/8681.htm

[Anaamika]

@Excalibre

You know, I think I’ll just buy myself my own bottle of sunscreen. I won’t be needing that one anymore.

I may have said this to you, but I lived outside of Detroit for a good long time when I was a kid. It had this to say for it: at least it was dependable.

What? You just got snow from October through April.

[Anaamika]

@Mighty_Girl

:: points to location ::

What is this “cold” that you all speak about?

:goes incoherent with rage and jealousy, continues beating Astroboy:

[CanvasShoes]

Ppppfffffffftttt!!

Southerners. Whining at a little zero degree weather.

[MacTech]

@Telemark

Two snow tires will give one end of your car extra traction, both accelerating and stopping. If you put them on the fronts only, you will accelerate better since they are on the drive wheels but while stopping you may have a tendency to swap ends. If you put them on the back end you won’t gain anything in acceleration but your stopping will be straight.

If you can’t get 4 snow tires, I’d put the best traction on the back end.

agreed, if you only can afford 2 snows, they go on the back end even if you’re front wheel drive

still, i’d see if you can find a Cooper dealer in your area, we New Englanders are notoriously frugal (pronounced “cheap” ) and the Coopers are a great deal, i paid about $40 a tire for my 175-65R-14’s, and i’d imagine your Rio takes even smaller (read, cheaper) tires, you might be able to get them for around (pulling numbers out of the air here…) $35/tire or so

only drawback of the WeatherMaster ST/2 is that it’s only a 2 season tire, higher end tires like the Hakkas or Blizzak’s typically give you around 3 seasons, but are a lot more expensive ($75+ per tire), the Coopers save you money in the short term, but you end up replacing them more often, for me that’s a fair trade-off

another advantage of snows is they extend the life of your street tires, as you’re not using them for 4-6 months (depending on how long Winter hangs around)

here’s the link to the Cooper page and a closeup of the tread pattern

[MacTech]

@Telemark

Two snow tires will give one end of your car extra traction, both accelerating and stopping. If you put them on the fronts only, you will accelerate better since they are on the drive wheels but while stopping you may have a tendency to swap ends. If you put them on the back end you won’t gain anything in acceleration but your stopping will be straight.

If you can’t get 4 snow tires, I’d put the best traction on the back end.

agreed, if you only can afford 2 snows, they go on the back end even if you’re front wheel drive

still, i’d see if you can find a Cooper dealer in your area, we New Englanders are notoriously frugal (pronounced “cheap” ) and the Coopers are a great deal, i paid about $40 a tire for my 175-65R-14’s, i just checked the Kia website and that’s the same size tires your car takes

only drawback of the WeatherMaster ST/2 is that it’s only a 2 season tire, higher end tires like the Hakkas or Blizzak’s typically give you around 3 seasons, but are a lot more expensive ($75+ per tire), the Coopers save you money in the short term, but you end up replacing them more often, for me that’s a fair trade-off

another advantage of snows is they extend the life of your street tires, as you’re not using them for 4-6 months (depending on how long Winter hangs around)

here’s the link to the Cooper page and a closeup of the tread pattern

[Elza_B]

Damn, guys. I come to crow about my amazing snow-driving abilities and come out with all kinds of advice about snow tires! This is why I love the Dope!

I discovered last night that my pop may have gotten me snow tires (or a gift certificate to get them) - so I’ll find out in a few days if that’s the case. If not, we’ll be putting them on ourselves. Thanks for the recommendations of where to look!

E.

[Lsura]

@Elza B

Lsura, I don’t know if you’re closer to Cleveland or closer to Akron, but if you’re closer to Akron, you’re welcome to try to hitch a ride with me. I come up from Canton to Akron for work, and it’s not a bad little drive. Unfortunately, there’s no public transportation that I can take - SARTA only drives around Canton.

E.

Thanks for the offer, but I’m over in Youngstown - and I work here in town too, so it’s not a long commute. On the days that I don’t want to drive into work, WRTA can get me there.
And it only took me a few days to make it back to this thread (ok, it was a vanity search).

[Little_Plastic_Ninja]

@Muffin

Don’t 'cha just love it when it forms an instant sheen of frost/ice when you are driving down the highway and squirt your windshield?]

THAT HAPPENED TO ME!!! :eek:

Luckily while I was just in my apartment parkinglot, unluckily when I was running late for work. There was some gunk on the windshield and yeah, it was cold outside but I didn’t even THINK of freezing windshield wiper fluid. Squirt. Instant blindness. “GAH!” I shouted.

Ended up just turning the windshield defogger/froster and working the wipers. It worked, eventually, but I was scowling for a few minutes.