Snow

[MikeS]

dmdalton once bubbled...
JUst finished digging out myself and 3 neighbors from our 18-20" in Germantown. To no avail. We ain't going anywhere until the streets get plowed and we've got 4 X 4's. Hearing we won't see a plow on the side streets until maybe Wednesday.

Dave D

Dave,

What kind of 4 X 4 do you have that won't drive in 20" of snow? You should get your money back! We've got an Expedition and an Escape. Two feet of snow is no problem for the Expedition but more than a foot and the Escape bogs down. What’s annoying are those abandoned Hondas in the road that feel like speed bumps. Guess it comes down to ground clearance and mass in motion. Another thing that helps is that I learned to drive in Northern Michigan were the average yearly snowfall is about 250 inches.

Last I heard they are saying that we’ve had 18” here in Laurel but where I’ve measured it there’s more than 2 feet

For me the most entertaining part of the storm has been watching people shovel out their driveway only to be plowed back in. I’ve tried to tell some of them to leave a wall of snow there and only shovel it when they’re ready to leave but they just look at me like I’m crazy.

Mike

 

[dmdalton]

MikeS once bubbled...
What kind of 4 X 4 do you have that won't drive in 20" of snow? You should get your money back! We've got an Expedition and an Escape. Two feet of snow is no problem for the Expedition but more than a foot and the Escape bogs down....
Mike

I've got a Nissan Pathfinder and my daughter has an F-150, neither has the ground clearance to get up the street. Up to about 8" I do fine in my Altima (FWD) but it is hiding under a mound of snow at present, nothing showing!

Dave

 

[SwimJim]

The great thing about diving in snow is bouyancy control is a snap. But seriously folks I'm glad its somebody else getting the aweful white stuff. I lived in Reading Pa. for four years. Looks like they probably got dumped on pretty good in this storm. When I was there 84-88 they had'nt a clue on what to do with snow. Thier snow removal was commonly refered to as spring. Then you got the SUV(surely ugly vehicle) and the 4 by 4 people littering the roads with thier abandoned vehicles. When I was a teenager I used to make a few bucks pulling those guys out with a CASE farm tractor. Best snow car I ever had was a 1975 Chevy Monte Carlo. She wouldn't go fast through deep snow, but she would get you there. It's not necessarily what you drive, its how you drive it.
Good luck out there. If in doubt, stay home. Kind of like diving, eh?

Jim:mean:

 

[Dectek]

Believe it or not but the ford pinto was pretty good on snow too. It was amazing what it would go through. If you did get stuck you could get out and pick up the rear end and move it over to get better traction.
The good old Fury was the best snow car thought.
The optimum word here is CAR. We all know 4x4 trucks are better than cars in the snow.

Anyone care to take a stab as to the True Original meaning of the term 4x4. (read 4 by 4 )


Official total for Egg Harbor N.J. 24 inches 1996 was better 30.8

 

[Cherry]

Probably came from the same place Duce and a half came from ...the military

Damn thats alot of snow. Our local ski hills are going to be jealous.

Cherry

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Longmeadow, Massachusetts received 18 inches. I spent a few hours cleaning out my neighbors, my house and my parents place.

My wife's F-150 Supercrew goes through snow with no problem. My Merc Marauder, on the other hand, is more like a bobsled. Once you actually get moving, you need to think about 3 - 4 seconds into the future when changing direction.

OTOH, I made several 90 degree turns just by goosing the accelerator.

The best snow car I ever had was a Ford Fiesta. Front wheel drive and no power meant that it would pull through just about anything without spinning the tires.

Bencool, FWIW, the main roads in CT and MA are almost completely clear.

 

[Dectek]

Back in the 70's it was a Truckers CB term for a type of vehicle.
Terms for some vehicles were:

Pregnant skateboard = VW Beetle
4 wheeler = any type car
Pickum Up = Pickup truck
Straight job= A commercial truck with a solid frame and no pivot.
18 wheeler= tractor trailer
Bob Tail = Tractor with no trailer
meat wagon = Ambulance
Dragon Wagon = Tow truck
Stage coach = Commercial Bus
(new term) Yuppie Shopping Cart = SUV

Long before anyone heard the term Sport Utility Vehicle

4X4 = A short truck type vehicle with an enclosed 4 foot by 4 foot
Cargo area. This group of vehicles included the Ford Bronco, Chevy Blazer, International Scout, and (I think) the Range Rover.

It just so happens that these vehicles had 4 wheel drive. You rarely heard the term 4x4 to mean 4 wheel drive. The terms Quadra track and all wheel drive were used. In Early 80-82 truck sales took off in the US and the term 4x4 was used as a marketing tool and it stuck. Easier and faster to say than any formerly used term for 4 wheel drive.

 

[Big-t-2538]

Now I have more knowledge to throw on top of my heaping pile of useless crap. I didn't know that 4x4 came from CB lingo....but am aware of a lot of the other stuff....interesting indeed....

Now you mentioned something about darts???

 

[Green Mountain]

Well the kids made it home last night 2-18 at 11:30 PM. They kissed the ground when they got here.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Can't tell exactly how much snow we have because of the drifts. My 2001 Monte Carlo does a great job in the snow but I'm not going to try to knock that plastic nose off by busting through drifts. I learned something, when you live in the woods the trees help limit the amount of snow that accumulates on the road so the plows don't block you in when they go by. Strange but in our case, true.

I wouldn't mind having one of those old International Scouts. My dad's friend had one years ago and that thing could go ANYWHERE! He ended up rolling it over a small cliff in West Virginia when he fell asleep at the wheel, luckily no one was injured. The Scout landed on its wheels and when the tow truck driver arrived dad's friend said he wanted to try to drive the Scout up to the road. He did it, scaled a pretty big embankment then parked it on the road. Once it was on level ground they noticed that the frame was bent so badly that only 3 wheels could touch the ground at once. WOW!

Hope everyone is getting themselves shoveled out, be careful out there!
Ber