Sunday, December 2, 2018

Snowmaggeddon 2?


Boise area two winters ago--but unfortunately it seems like it was barely yesterday--suffered what we now call Snowmaggeddon.  It is beginning to feel that way today.  We knew that we should have put the snow tires on last week.  We put the snow tires in my wife's Jeep and headed to church this morning.  We were going exactly 1 mph down the driveway and still slipping a bit.  Down in the valley, no open tire store could do a tire swap. They were that busy.

Coming back, we slid slightly off the driveway and into the ditch nearby.  After digging snow out from under the wheels, and using some asphalt composition roof strips to get traction, I was able to get the Jeep out enough to park it at our neighbors' place at the base of our driveway.

We neglected to put the reflective markers at the edge of the driveway before the snow fell.  When the Sun reappears on Tuesday, it will not be easy.  I am thinking of using steel tubes, heated with a blowtorch, to drive them into the ground on the edges of the driveway, then reflective tape at the top.

3 comments:

  1. FWIW, I keep Hangkook Dynatrack AT tires on my 4x4 Expedition all the time...They are terrific in snow and ice (I used to live in Ottawa, Ontario...we got snow and ice there), very good on dirt, quiet on the road, and I got about 50,000 miles from the first set.

    Highly recommended....

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  2. I think the snow tires for the Jeep are Bridgestone Blizzaks. The Jaguar has Michelin X-Ices. Both provide spectacular snow and ice grip, with only tolerable noise. The X-Ices are also high-speed rated, for when driving 100 mph on icy roads!

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  3. By rule, regulation, law, (not sure) tire businesses are not allowed to install tires that have a lower speed rating than was originally mounted/rated by the factory. The workaround for this is to bring the wheels in unmounted on the vehicle. (I had to do this when shopping for tires for a car that would run 140mph in good shape, but was no longer capable of hitting 100mph. Very expensive, very delicate. The high speed rating is generally due to a very lightly constructed carcass to keep excessive heat from being generated from flexing.)

    This now also applies if you are putting oversize tires on. This might only apply to tire retailers as a business matter. Some idiot lawyer lost a case about oversize tires causing a multi-million dollar crash, so you have to do the same workaround to get your preferred sizes on.

    BTW, undersize tires are a federal no-no to mount.

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