Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Almost to the garage

1000 ft of driveway and then I got to the ice.



18 comments:

  1. Something ate my comment. It's gone.

    So, once again- that track looks like a donut.

    We are snowed over and it's still coming down. You look like you are in the clear now.

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    1. Martha,
      I've lost a couple of my comments over the last few days, I haven't figured out why.

      Your eyes are good. The ice on our sloped driveway is so slippery it's hard to even stand up. I was almost over the crest when the front end had finally had enough and spun around to lower ground quicker than I could even respond.

      I looked at the radar early afternoon and it looked solid blue from here to Milwaukee. It almost got sunny as I was finishing up. Your sun will again shine .....someday. :)

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  2. Coop:

    Look on the good side. what if the ice were 10,000 ft away . At least you made it to your own driveway. Just a hop and skip and you're home

    too much snow for my eyes, how come you don't have a JEEP ?

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast


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    1. I agree with Bob's comment about a Jeep or AWD. I always see cars like yours out there toughing it out with us AWDs and 4x4s and they generally do just fine. Until...drifts.

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    2. Bob, the entire length of our driveway is impossibly icy, like we've not seen before. I used every tool I've got; the walk behind 10hp snowblower, the Ford tractor w/blade and my 1 ton 4WD plow truck. The truck has ~1000lbs of rock in the back and it struggled pushing the 10+ inches of new moisture The mix of deep wet snow, the ice and our steep slopes makes the Perfect Storm.

      AWD and 4WD gets to be a monetary issue. Both of our cars have Blizzak snow tires and they are incredible with FWD vehicles. Clearance is a gift that not all AWD cars have. The Cavalier was plowing a couple of inches of snow, leaving grooves the entire length of the driveway and I'd have parked it where I wanted it had it not been for the glare ice.

      Back to the monetary....we easily put 50+K miles on a year (we commute together) and we could use all of that AWD traction for maybe 1000 of them, if that. To me, it's expensive overhead. We buy Lease Returns, Rentals, etc and literally run them into the ground, just about our only choice with the miles we run.

      We paid a combined $9K for the two cars we currently use for commuting and these two have provided us with almost a combined 250K miles of trouble-free service, both bought with around 100K each.

      I put 160 on today and only had trouble with .05 :)

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  3. So close...... We got just a dusting the last few days.

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  4. I'm having trouble keeping score, but think it was our turn for this one, even though it hurts to say so. I won't mind if you nose ahead from here on out.

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  5. I bet not many can actually drive under these conditions. I know I wouldn't be able to. I would give my boss a call and work from home...

    Nothing damaged I hope?

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  6. Sonja,
    Peg brings her laptop home if the weather threatens and she just settles in. I've had that choice in the past but not these days. Again, just like yesterday, I was up and gone very early to beat the hubbub....it almost always works. With tonight's snow to take care of, getting home and working in daylight was much nicer than struggling in the dark.

    The car is fine, I got as close as I could with the equipment, 5 minutes of shoveling what was packed underneath was all it took and had enough room to turn and drive it forward. Even with the snow cleaned away, it was too slippery to back uphill.

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  7. Anybody can do 159 miles - it's that last mile that gets ya! I have 4 by 4 with snow tires and with this hovering between melt and freeze temperature... it's just a matter of creeping up the hill with your fingers crossed (my hope is that there isn't anyone parked in the drive when I start sliding!)
    I 'ain't' gonna snow 'no' more,no more - no, it 'aint't' gonna snow no more!!!!

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    1. Surely we're getting close.... there was thawing today and our long range forecast is for mild. I'd order a very gentle melt if possible

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  8. Well that is a funny place to park your car.

    Glad you were close to home when it spun out.

    Fingers crossed it will warm up soon so your driveway isn't so icy.

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    1. It's just the oddest set of conditions. We had the rain that froze weeks ago and even though there's been melting since then, the water seems to have no place to go; it simply pools, then refreezes so we make no headway.

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  9. Oh well.

    4X4 + ice = really, really stuck.

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  10. Oh well.

    4X4 + ice = really, really stuck.

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    1. Keith, ain't that the truth! I managed to keep the heavy truck from getting buried somewhere. Since the tractor has chains, I was anticipating using it to pull the car free. Luckily I had just enough downhill room in front to simply drive it away, so I didn't need to go through the foolishness of hooking up the chain, getting driver help, etc.

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  11. How does that saying go? 4WD allows you to get stuck 25 ft further down the road...

    When we have that kind of ice I revert to chains. A FWD car with chains actually works better than 4WD on ice or deep snow.

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  12. Richard, I've heard variations on the 4WD "stuckness" and would have to agree. I witnessed very first hand what it was like to get big agricultural equipment stuck and it was no picnic retrieving them.

    It would be hard to beat running with chains and I'm not even sure what the rules are about that on our public roads. I was tempted to use a 2WD truck w/chains for plowing our driveway but never made it happen.

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