Bought my first car this week!

[Electronic M]

I have not been behind the wheel on any slip trips yet but I've been passenger on a few so far...The first snows of the year have been bad enough that I've seen both of my folks, who are normally fairly good winter drivers, do some mild sliding and wheel spinning.

ggregg: What you mention is similar to a good part of my worry about lake driving. There are a lot of ice fishermen around here, and the possibility of hitting an abandoned fishin hole at any speed don't seem too appealing to me.

If this year goes like last year (I hope not) I might have my own personal ice patch to play with anyway. Our drive way slopes towards the house from the street to just over a car length away from the garage where it levels out. Last year I was too busy to run the snow blower, and the folks never picked up the slack. Eventually the snow packed down to become a big sheet of ice. I can remember being in the passenger seat as my dad had his Accord in reverse and revved pretty good while we were sliding forward at a good pace...That finally convinced them to salt ONCE. A college buddy visited in his plow truck and had to engage the 4 wheel drive to get out around then too.
Scarier than that is the hill our road runs up the face of. It is about 3-6 stories tall over 1-2 blocks, the grade varies along it, it is not always kept deiced, at the bottom it turns sharply, and there is only a persons yard between said curve and Pewaukee lake...

For rear ballast I might grab some of the unused bags of top soil the folks leave outside every winter (provided they have not frozen to the ground yet) after buying too much every spring. I don't want to try any softener salt as I have seen what it does to metal things in the softener room, and to a lesser extent my basement storage adjacent to it .

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I have not been behind the wheel on any slip trips yet but I've been passenger on a few so far...The first snows of the year have been bad enough that I've seen both of my folks, who are normally fairly good winter drivers, do some mild sliding and wheel spinning.

ggregg: What you mention is similar to a good part of my worry about lake driving. There are a lot of ice fishermen around here, and the possibility of hitting an abandoned fishin hole at any speed don't seem too appealing to me.

If this year goes like last year (I hope not) I might have my own personal ice patch to play with anyway. Our drive way slopes towards the house from the street to just over a car length away from the garage where it levels out. Last year I was too busy to run the snow blower, and the folks never picked up the slack. Eventually the snow packed down to become a big sheet of ice. I can remember being in the passenger seat as my dad had his Accord in reverse and revved pretty good while we were sliding forward at a good pace...That finally convinced them to salt ONCE. A college buddy visited in his plow truck and had to engage the 4 wheel drive to get out around then too.
Scarier than that is the hill our road runs up the face of. It is about 3-6 stories tall over 1-2 blocks, the grade varies along it, it is not always kept deiced, at the bottom it turns sharply, and there is only a persons yard between said curve and Pewaukee lake...

For rear ballast I might grab some of the unused bags of top soil the folks leave outside every winter (provided they have not frozen to the ground yet) after buying too much every spring. I don't want to try any softener salt as I have seen what it does to metal things in the softener room, and to a lesser extent my basement storage adjacent to it .

I leave my softener salt in the garage, unopened, until use.
I hate rust-bucket radios and chassis.