….. The council round here (Probably Guildford) have absolutely nothing left.

How do I know this? Because they've just palced and order with us for 600t of sharp sand to spread on the roads instead!

Oops.

Lucky you! (as a business, not a motorist) 🙂
Would laugh if it was behind that huge pile of road salt that they didn't expect you to have 🙂

i enjoy watching the chaos ….woman in my office got stuck in 2 foot of snow – in a real 4×4 with snow tires . i stifled my laughter

woman in my office got stuck in 2 foot of snow – in a real 4×4 with snow tires . i stifled my laughter

You mean 2 inches surely? Not much would get through 2 foot 🙂

for 600t of sharp sand to spread on the roads

Won't people get punctures? 8)

😆

landy seemed to manage ….as did the jcb forklift that towed the woman out …but my laughter was more at her driving into it and keeping going till stuck oh and her idea of 2 foot …

its about 7 inches ….whats her husband telling her

Where does all this salt go after the thaw? Eek!

It mosty dissovlves and gets washed away into the drains, streams and rivers………

….and then the flooding begins

Where does all this salt go after the thaw? Eek!

Winter road salting is the reason the sea is salty – fact.

And the rest of it is on my bike.

Grrr I had to ride in on the road for the first time in 7 years.

Car drivers don't know how cushy they have it. – only took me an extra 15 minutes.

Lived in Germany for years and they allegedly don't use salt as it apparently damages the trees! That said a Merc or BMW flying off the road does a hell of a lot of damage to the Flora and Forna too 🙂

Where does all this salt go after the thaw? Eek!
Winter road salting is the reason the sea is salty – fact.

I thought it was the reason you don't see slugs in winter.

600 ton isn't going to go very far though, barely more than half a day's gritting for most authorities.

You do have to wonder at the impact of the salt though, here is scotland there must have been nearly half a million tons spread over the last two weeks. You can see why some countries don't bother with it at all.

Chappy here bought himself a £32k Merc about two months ago. He couldn't leave site yesterday because he had to go up a hill in the snow and it is a rear-wheel drive. He was all over the shop!

My Yaris (yeah, I know, hairdresser's car!) did it fine!

1.0L yaris are awful in the snow though, much too light but this lightness does help with the fuel economy, swings and roundabouts i guess

RWD = reverse up the hill!?

Love it "a £32k merc" .. because, you know the price of the car makes all the difference.

I had a £500 omega, that wouldn't drive up hill very well

My old £525 audi quattro (sold it a long time ago) coped very well!

my dads £5k rangey copes well too.

Yay for price having a bearing on the car 😉

(all tongue in cheek, no need to get your knickers in a twist!) 😉

They dont use salt in Sweden or Finland as it is so corrosive to vehicles. They use grit and sweep it all up in the spring. They do use studded snow tyres as well. My missus is a "traffic engineer" she cant get her head round the fact that we drive on icy roads with out studded tyres. I am always terrified how fast she drives on snowy roads with studded tyres.

600 ton isn't going to go very far though, barely more than half a day's gritting for most authorities.

Oh yeah, very true. And they've got to get in here and collect it first as well, remember!?

What they sould have done was take the sand a day or two ago and mixed it 50/50 with the salt they had left. But that's foreward planning, and this is a council we're talking about….. 8)

"RWD = reverse up the hill!?"

not going to happen … being a merc itll be an autobox and front engined with fat tires. autobox gets confused on snow

parents have a C220 and its garbage on snow ….

All the salt gets washed in to the rivers and doesn't do the fish any good, certainly puts them off their food as most fishermen will confirm.

jontawn – Member
RWD = reverse up the hill!?

Even worse. RWD are mostly crap because there's not a big engine on top of them to keep them weighted. Point it backwards up a hill and even more weight will be on the front wheels…

Salt only works down to a certain temperature, after that grit is all you have to work with. If we all had chains/winter tyres/studs then they wouldn't grit either.

How do studded tyres/ chains cope on tarmac as there was some visible ths morning?

The countries that don't use salt or use studs or whatever do so because their weather is predictable enough that you can expect to fit a certain set of tyres for the season. When it snows it stays snowy, its snowy everywhere and its like that for weeks/months

Here snow that sticks for more than a day or two is rare, and on most routes thats effectively cleared by 10 oclock. Even in this freak weather, chains or studs would be a godsend for the first 800 yds of my journeys, after that I'd be on tarmac for 90% of the rest of any trip.

So for our weather, 29 years out of 30 it makes more sense to expect people to run on standard tyres and clear the roads for them.

My cooncil is nearly out of salt. rumour has it they have been sending the trucks out empty to give the impression that they are gritting the roads 🙄 Wife recons the one in front of her last night did this + twice round a roundabout with nothing coming out of it

Salmond says there is plenty of salt tho 💡 Bit of bad timing for MPs to be trying to spin things

i'm using Michelin Pilot Alpin winter tyres to stunning effect in heavy snow in NE Scotland on my Civic.
the Yokohama Advan's were atrocious. Tyres makes much more difference than 4WD / weight distribution, etc.

was a gritter and plough driver in the peaks for 5 yrs, grit only works if someone drives over it and crushes it and activates the chemicals in the salt if its laid and not driven over then gets snowed over again it wont work, and if it rains all the salt and chemicals get washed in the top water system and rivers (not good) and it wont work, it is also why your cars go rusty, in japan and europe they use liquid alcohol with added chemicals and in some places they even have underoad heating, thats why jap imports dont go rusty til they come over here, using sharp sand is crap, it will work for traction until it gets covered over again then its useless as it wont melt anything

Wife recons the one in front of her last night did this + twice round a roundabout with nothing coming out of it

It could be that the gritter driver was actually doing his job properly for once, believe it or not they aren't supposed to grit when the grit may hit surrounding traffic!

Guy who lives by me who works for the council on the roads said there's barely any road salt left 🙁

Can't we just spray sea water everywhere? Or is that a really silly idea! 😀

If my drive is snowy I have to reverse out of it as it slopes up to the road and there isnt enough weight on the front tyres to get a grip, they just spin, but if Im reversing out the weight of the car is pressing through the front tyres. I imagined a RWD car would work on the same principles but evidently not based on peoples experiences.

The road along the top of Cannock Chase was thick sheet ice last night, so slippy! Ive had no trouble with my FWD 2.2 diesel yet, but coming down a steep hill of ice was interesting last time we had this weather, what actually can you do when the car wont brake or barely steer as the tyres are on ice? The best I could do was use the engine braking and come down the hill in 2nd gear.

Can't we just spray sea water everywhere? Or is that a really silly idea!

depends on the salinity but sea water will freeze around -2C

My missus is a "traffic engineer"

What's that? A lollypop lady?

was a gritter and plough driver in the peaks for 5 yrs[/quote

What a great job, why did you give it up? You get to sit on your arse all day, your boss can't sneak up on you to see what your doing & you get 11 months holiday a year (slightly more than a teacher).
The month you do need to work you could always use the excuse that you could not get in for the snow. Any jobs going? 🙂

lol waynekerr! not quiet like that unfortunatly, scrotes throwing bricks was a problem, snowballs were ok just wind your window up, bricks were something else

Mr Kerr she sorts out the roads for her kommune in Sweden, from designing roads to sorting out bus timetables it is a literal translation.

Kommune is local authority not a bunch of hippies