PSA: Tires and Snow, they matter!

This winter has dropped record snowfall for December in our area, and while the amount of snowfall isn't exactly impressive it is very refreshing.  I certainly miss the snow, and am enjoying the White Christmas.  However, in this area, snow is a much more dangerous prospect than in other places.  I figure it is the same in the coastal areas of California, where there is also little chance of accumulated snow.

The thing that amazes me is that the Pacific Northwest, and Portland in particular, are very green.  Lots of hippies, loving their biodiesel and hybrid vehicles.  What amuses me more so, is that in spite of attempts to be green, nearly everybody here drives everywhere, and I rarely come across people walking as a form of transportation (as an example of this, the local shopping center didn't even have a way to get from the street sidewalk to the store without walking on the drive way for about a year).  With the snowfall, I've seen people take up their cross country skiis and heartily approve.  However, these are the same people that in good weather I never see outside of a car.  Even if they're going less than a mile to the grocery store.

Now, combine that with the fact that it seems the green is only outwardly noticeable things.  Bumper stickers that say, "I run on veggies" and glistening "Hybrid" or "FlexFuel" badges.  Yet, keeping the tires aired up and in good condition seem to be too minor of a concern, and we get people who drive around on bald, underinflated tires.

To connect this with the snow, last night I dug out the 3rd stuck car in front of my house and after the first attempt at getting the woman going I noticed that her tires were leaving very little, if any, tread impressions on the snow.  I then looked at her tires, and they were very nearly bald.  It was very little surprise at that point why she was getting stuck every 5 feet.

After digging her out another 2 times, followed by watching her get stuck 3 feet up the road, my wife finally and helpfully tells the woman about my experience with this cold, white, slick stuff.  She says I can hop in and try my hand at getting her car out, and I have very little problem with getting it going.  Pure driver skill, but the car was more like a snowmobile at times than a car.  There was absolutely no traction on the front, and I was at the mercy of hitting the right ruts and keeping my momentum going.

So, please, be kind to your neighbors:

• Leave your chains on if you're going through snow and don't know how.
• Keep your tires in good condition.  This demands rotation schedules and proper checking.  I compared this woman's tires to the back, and the back had probably 50-60% tread and the fronts were gone.
• Check your air pressure!

Aside from the safety aspect, it really is more "green".  Keeping your tires properly inflated reduces drag and friction against the road, which increases fuel economy.  It also increases longevity of your tires.  The rotation is even more important, as it balances wear across all the tires and keeps everything uniform.

A car with 50,000 miles should not have bald front tires.  Do everybody a favor, and go look at your tires.  You don't want to get stuck and inconvenience a good samaritan with something so easy to avoid.

Comments

[pulse]

[this is good] "a car with 50,000 miles should not have bald tires"

that's subjective.  it's very dependent upon the quality of the tires you've got on the vehicle (bridgestone potenzas are horrible), the roads you're driving on (kentucky, for one, has horrible roads statewide), your front end (keep it aligned), and, last but not least, your driving habits.

i'll preface the following by saying that the ONLY vehicles i've ever driven on a regular basis (rain, snow, ice) have been FWD vehicles.  yes, i've had experience driving RWD and 4WD vehicles, but only in limited situations (and not in freezing conditions).

you are right to recommend rotating your tires.  on a front wheel drive vehicle, your front tires are THE most important tires on your vehicle.  i don't know that the reverse is true, but i'll disagree that uniformity is important if you're going to try to push the tires on a FWD vehicle as far as they will go.  at interstate speeds, in a FWD vehicle, a back tire blowing out is less likely to result in complete loss of control of the vehicle than a front tire blowing out.

in freezing conditions, just don't be stupid.  don't drive too fast, and don't use your brakes.  if you're hitting your brakes in freezing conditions, you're not driving responsibly.

the thing the woman in the story needs to understand is that brakes do NOT make the car slow down.  they abruptly retard the rotation of the wheels in an attempt to increase friction with the road surface.  only in the right conditions will this result in reducing the speed of the vehicle.  in the wrong conditions, this can, and quite often does, result in increasing the speed of the vehicle.

in icy conditions, a flat bald tire is safer than a fully inflated bald tire.

[J. Shirley]

While the reason may be variable, there is really no valid reason to drive with bald tires.  If a car at 50,000 miles has bald tires, chances are they had cheaper tires and should have been replaced earlier or they didn't follow proper rotation schedules and drive poorly.  50,000 miles is a very awkward mileage reading to have bald tires.  In any reason I can come up with for bald tires at 50,000 miles it all points to bad vehicle maintenance.

It's also really bad to try to get the most life out of your tires.  I know quite a few folks who do this, and I seldom understand the point.  The agony and frustration out of a flat tire at an inconvenient time isn't worth the extra cash to buy new tires.  The potential destruction of a car at the other end, and even loss of life, makes the decision that much more confusing to me.

This woman wasn't going fast though, and most people around here weren't going that fast.  They were just getting stuck.  A lot.

My post was more about the lack of follow-through with the "Green" movement in these parts, by offsetting any gains by not maintaining their vehicles and then a similar correlation to just not learning how to properly drive to not get stuck when there is 6 inches of snow.