Ice and snow in vehicles wheels

So Thursday we had some intense snow fall, followed by high winds to blow it around. Snow ploughs had been doing a decent job of scraping the roads. My wife had to work, and wasn?t crazy about the 25-30 mile trip. So as she only works 10 till 5 , and I was done morning chores. I offered to drive her to work, and kill my time visiting with my brothers. Wasn?t a bad drive in, but the wind came up with white out conditions, and the snow removal equipment was called off the roads. By the time I came up our side road to home, I was bucking drifts 2-3 feet high. Next day I started the Jeep, and backed out of the garage and found the brakes weren?t working as they should. Wheels were packed full of ice and snow, and it was interfering in the normal operation of the 4 wheel disc brakes. So I spent some time laying under the Jeep chipping the ice and snow from around the brakes, and out of the wheels themselves. Frozen ice in your wheel rims can put your tires out of balance, and cause tremendous vibration. Not something some of you southern boys would ever have to deal with. A thing that only occurs every once and a while here, but you have to keep your guard up in winter in the North. Or end up in the ditch like about a dozen cars and truck I drove by the other night.

With all the salt and brine they apply here that seldom happens. Slushy at the worst.

Yep, our Chevy Traverse does the same thing in the winter. Will shake so bad your teeth rattle! I?ve had to use the shop torpedo heater a few times to thaw them out after driving in heavy snow situations.

we run rural mail route here and yea that has been problem in some winters,one time we even had the unit freeze to the ground in garage. took quite a while to get it to move, since then that vehicle always goes in my heated shop area every night during the bad stuff. really funny to see the wheel wells all full and black cause of the tires rubbing,some days its not fun that's for sure, they have back off now some thou and if its total whiteouts we can choose wether to try it or wait till it settles down

Gravel road dust and mud collects in the "20" inch rims and then at the car wash you have to be extra careful and remove the accumulation all the way around. Otherwise the debris at the top causes the tire(s) to be out of balance!

Snow melting from the top and freezing at the bottom causes problems too.

I had to use a torpedo heater once to thaw the ice out of the wheels on an Olds 88.

Our Lincoln MKX is great for getting mud inside the wheels and throwing them out of balance. With the 19" wheels, the rim is too flat on the inside for water and mud to run off, so when the vehicle is parked all the sloppy mud runs to the bottom and stays there, throwing the wheel out of balance.

I've made a pipe that attaches to a garden hose to reach through the spokes and wash the wheels from the inside, and that doesn't always work.

I know those fancy 19" wheels are all the rage, but not everyone who owns them lives out in the country.

We do have salt/sand mix spread on the roads here to , when the temperatures allow it to work. If the temperatures are too cold, they hold back on the road salt, at least on our county roads. I am thinking it might be just that much warmer where you live, that road salt will work most winter days.

Had a '72 Scout that I couldn't get to warm up one AM after driving home in blowing/drifting snow in a -20 night before. After about 50 friged miles stopped to look & see what was up. Opened hood & you couldn't even see that 304 V8 for the snow. Cleaned it out, engine was encased in ice, cooling system was by passing through that huge 2 1/2 inch bypass that IH used on that family of engines. Ice cover kept engine cool enough the thermostat wouldn't open.

A heated garage or at least one like mine that does not get below freezing in it your car would of been all thawed out by morning.

I got this creep plow driver who scoops up heavy damp snow and pounds it under and through my car before an impending freez. A foot thick up to the windows The next day it is entombed in ice and breaks snow shovels to free. Apt life

I got bitchen spiked snow knobbies.
Incredible but scary if you hit the breaks.

Mufflers get tore off by hard or deep snow

this is where shop heated floors come in handy. park overnight and in morning you have water all over. other than that I hate my feet hot.

As a kid I never could understand why we had to fill our little kid pool with cold water from the hose. Welllllll . The house I have is equipped! Installed a "mop sink" faucet. You now have cold and hot water. In the winter you can shut off the valves inside the basement or leave the garden hose on and let it dribble. I have used it several times this winter and it is so nice to have a blend all the way up to HOT water to wash crud off.

You can have pretty bad winter driving conditions in midwestern states too, Illinois & Iowa, Indiana, even Kentucky. The Wife before we were married wanted to go see our high school football team play for the State Championship. My car could nicely seat 4, Me, my girlfriend, her little sister, and cousin. Drove down to Champagne Illinois no problem. Started raining in 2nd quarter, changed to snow in 3rd quarter. Had to be 400-500 cars from our town there. We get out on the Interstate and guess no snowplows on Saturday nights! We CONVOYED single file 180 miles about 40 mph, there was 4-5 inches of sloppy wet slush in the left land, you got out of the wheel tracks at your own peril. We made it no problem. I had accepted 8 hours of overtime at the FARMALL PLANT on Sunday, DOUBLE-TIME. Was not missing that! I go out about 5 AM and my car is an ice cube. It starts but won't move, finally get it to move, make my way back to the Interstate, make it to work just in time to punch onto the time clock.
Helped my Brother-in-law shovel a foot of snow off his driveway in St. LOUIS on day. Oh, laid in 4 inches of fresh snow in zero degree temps to adjust the fan belt on a Dodge camper van in North-Western Louisiana one morning.
Bad weather and bad road conditions can happen almost anywhere. Had slick snowy roads in Wyoming I think it was at about 10,000 ft elevation in the middle of JUNE.

Our 2010 Chevy Impala has very little clearance between the tires and inner fenders. In certain conditions, ice will build up in inner fenders and you can not turn the front wheels to the RH or LH but just a little. Scary when you try to turn the steering wheel and it won't turn.
Loren

Salt works above 15 F. We'll get temps like that or below 0 some but not that often.

Ya just gotta love winter, I was beating this stuff for a while, had a few inches on the under side of the trailer!

Ya just gotta love winter, I was beating this stuff for a while, had a few inches on the under side of the trailer!

(quoted from post at 09:15:49 02/29/20) I got this creep plow driver who scoops up heavy damp snow and pounds it under and through my car before an impending freez. A foot thick up to the windows The next day it is entombed in ice and breaks snow shovels to free. Apt life

I got bitchen spiked snow knobbies.
Incredible but scary if you hit the breaks.

Mufflers get tore off by hard or deep snow

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Hey Mutt and Jeff, how long does that plow driver spend pounding the snow under and through your car? That sounds like hard work! What did you do to him?

Its rare we deal with it the best thing to do is go back in the house turn the weather on cook up some county ham make red eye gravy and pour it on yer grits... : ) and hope for sunshine...

Ever been to Alabama for the clay? Wheel balance? Brakes not working? Gotta love that one wheel spin.

Hangar 17 at JFK had heated floors. Our mechanics complained all winter long about their feet getting too hot.

Funny you should mention that. I bought a new 2016 Subaru Limited in Sept. 2015. The wheels on it have big flat ledges on the inside nearly 4" wide. After driving a while in snowy or slushy conditions, a ledge of ice about 3/8" thick build up in them. All's good until you hit a pothole, or park where the sun shines on one side of the car enough to soften up a bit. Then a big chunk of ice will break out of one or more wheels, and the whole car starts to shake like an out of balance washing machine. To say it shakes badly is putting it mildly. I started packing a large, long screwdriver with me in the winter so I can chisel the rest of the ice out. I had to do that 6 times last winter & 3 times so far this winter. It's very aggravating. Bad enough that I wrote to Subaru and complained about it.