OT: Snow Removal From Your Car Before Driving

[Hoophound]

Only really works for the very driest fluffy snow. Usually causes ice to form where that snow melts. Spoken from experience.

I never really thought of a leaf blower mainly because my parents had a steady supply of leaf rakers, of which I was the youngest.
I've never even seen a leaf blower at my folks house.

But if I had one, it seems like an effic8ent option.

Leaf blowers are awesome. We never had them when I was I kid in CT but now own 2. Once you use one, you start finding tons of other applications. I use it to clean my garage in place of a broom, when vehicles are extra filthy inside (like after a long road trip with my dogs in tow) I just blow it out before doing a regular vacuum and cleaning and in the construction business, it’s fantastic for clearing out dirt, saw dust and drywall dust. Just open the doors and have at it. I also use it to dry things like small puddles and to accelerate curing of paint or glue.

Edit: just in case anyone is motivated to buy a leaf blower, I highly recommend a high powered electric one. I have an 80V Greenworks that’s an absolute beast. I also have the 40V which is still quite powerful—-both work great. The electric ones have no fumes, are much quieter and of course, they start every time.

 

[ElGuapo]

When I was a young buck I had to drive my car to Randolph, VT with an older co-worker to visit our factory at the time.
It started snowing on the way up so when we got off the I-89 Randolph ecxit I decided to top my car off at the gas station so it would be full for the ride home.
While it was filling up I had at it with clearing the windows, hood and anywhere there was snow.
I got back in the car and the co-worker was so impressed that I did all that at my young age.
I was like "What? There is no other way." while thinking to myself that I needed to see the road to get us there and back safely.
Crashing my car with him and I in it was not going to be due because I couldn't see out the windows.
It certainly enlightend me that I was doing the right thing but always just thought it was common sense and road safety.
But who knows. So many dumbdumbs out there who don't think like that.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Since this has turned into a shaming thread, I am going to circle back to tailgating in cold weather. A 3 second gap with the car in front of you is not enough when there are even small patches of ice on the road and the car behind you is likely tailgating you. You can't just slam on the brakes because the car behind you will hit you, so you need enough space to slow down without causing a pileup. 4 seconds should be a minimum. If cars cut in front of you, then they cut in front of you.

Since anyone who drives anywhere will see cars very close to each other while moving at 50+ mph on the highway, very few people follow this standard defensive driving practice.

 

[Ha Who]

3 inches is not very much snow. A driver should also be far enough behind the car in front of them that the front car's rear bumper can fall off and the rear driver won't hit it. 3 seconds is the rule of thumb for the distance between you and the car in front of you, and if the roads are even a little tricky, 4 seconds is more appropriate. If they are going to enforce a couple of inches of snow on the roof of the car, they should use AI to track tailgating. If every car on the Merritt one morning gets a ticket, then that is the way it goes.

I looked up the NH law, and that involved a situation with a truck, which is a bit different.

You’ve gotta give it up on this one. 3 inches of powder is not a problem but when it turns to ice, I’ve seen it fly through the air. You’re just totally wrong. You’ve got to clean the roof. The time I saw it shatter the windshield the car was at least 20 car lengths behind it Whenyou’re going 55 or more on the highway in the ice flies off the roof. It goes quite a distance.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I feel like, especially in cold weather, rubbing that against the top of my car isn't a good thing. I also feel like they could push material over the roof too.

I don't know how to explain it, but the completely vertical nature of it means that it just pushes the snow off without need for any downward pressure on the car itself. It's a very light foam whole thing weighs less than a pound. It's a way better tool than a push broom, which is heavy, often has sharp bits and is angled for use from above on a floor, so is even harder to use on the roof of an SUV unless you're Donovan Clingan.

 

[Jay-Bone]

Has anyone tried using a tarp? I wonder if its worth the effort. I suppose you have to bungee it. Maybe if you live in a climate that regular gets 1'+ of snow.

 

[JMick]

You’ve gotta give it up on this one. 3 inches of powder is not a problem but when it turns to ice, I’ve seen it fly through the air. You’re just totally wrong. You’ve got to clean the roof. The time I saw it shatter the windshield the car was at least 20 car lengths behind it Whenyou’re going 55 or more on the highway in the ice flies off the roof. It goes quite a distance.

He's totally ignoring that there is air moving around the cars that will carry the ice and snow further backwards. He just doesn't like being called out for being an inconsiderate person

 

[nelsonmuntz]

He's totally ignoring that there is air moving around the cars that will carry the ice and snow further backwards. He just doesn't like being called out for being an inconsiderate person

You are just picking a fight with me. My original comment was half a joke about people tailgating, which is a much more serious problem than a film of snow on top of the car. Also, I almost never have snow on top of my car because, I posted before this post quoted above, I park in a garage almost all the time.

Rather than engage in a performative shaming ritual that posters like you love, I was simply pointing out that tailgating in the winter in the northeast is a much bigger danger than a thin layer of snow on the top of the car that will melt off in about 10 minutes. Between ice patches on the roads, sand causing cars to slide, and snow and ice getting in tire treads, driving in the northeast after a snowstorm requires people to be more prudent than normal. You could take every flake of snow off your car and you will be the equivalent of a two ton missile if you are following within 3 seconds of the car in front of you after a snow storm or even a winter rain.

I am correct that something would have to go really wrong for any snow or even ice to come off a car and damage the car behind it unless the second car was tailgating.

Let's do some math. 60 mph is 1 mile a minute or 5280 feet per minute, so every second is 88 feet, almost 30 yards. That means 4 seconds is 352 feet, or 117 yards, on the highway. 3 seconds is 264 feet, or just under 90 yards. Even 2 seconds back is almost 60 yards. That is over half a football field.

Most importantly, ice does not levitate. It will hit the ground within a second of coming off the car. 2 seconds if it is a sheet and catches the wind just wrong. If you are 3 or 4 seconds back, none of that is your problem. If there is a lot of snow on the car in front of you, stay further back and slow down.

This is literally a 3 page thread about how to make tailgating safer. STOP TAILGATING and the snow won't be a problem.

 

[LBird33]

I'm finishing up another trip home to Connecticut.

Was fortunate enough to see the snow and enjoy winter. Cue the Progressive commercial. I got to shovel the driveway three times over the weekend.

I am somewhere between interested, curious, and intrigued at the different levels of effort Nutmeggers put in to cleaning snow off of car before they hit the road.

There is a range from pristine cleaning of frint windshield down to barely a square big enough to see through. Some leave the snow on the roof, some don't bother cleaning off the passenger side. Some don't clean the rear window, they just let the wiper or rear defrost do what they can.

There is a state law about removing snow from the roof of your car before driving

 

[HCCForever]

Has anyone tried using a tarp? I wonder if its worth the effort. I suppose you have to bungee it. Maybe if you live in a climate that regular gets 1'+ of snow.

I would worry about tarp freezing to car unless you take precautions to prevent this. I had a convertible that I covered with a tarp and I discovered this the hard way.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

So being 3 seconds back should solve the problem.

Also, the ice will be moving the same direction as the car until it comes off. It does not go backwards, and will probably even go a little further in the direction it was already going, making a football field gap even safer.

Stay back, and a lot of problems are solved.

 

[Ewekon]

my car has remote start and defrost on the app which is pretty decent.

Gen Z or millennial?

 

[Duncan Idaho]

My mother swears by this. I've never understood why not just use a push broom. Works fine for me.

Have one with soft bristles. works great.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Lolz, that's not at all how it works.

Just stop being selfish and clean off your car.

As I have said in two posts in this thread, I park in a garage. No snow on my car.

I also don't tailgate. Snow on the car in front of you damaging your car is the not close to the most likely things that will go wrong when you are tailgating the car in front of you.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

3 inches is not very much snow. A driver should also be far enough behind the car in front of them that the front car's rear bumper can fall off and the rear driver won't hit it. 3 seconds is the rule of thumb for the distance between you and the car in front of you, and if the roads are even a little tricky, 4 seconds is more appropriate. If they are going to enforce a couple of inches of snow on the roof of the car, they should use AI to track tailgating. If every car on the Merritt one morning gets a ticket, then that is the way it goes.

I looked up the NH law, and that involved a situation with a truck, which is a bit different.

Not at all surprised by this response from you. Just clean the snow off your car instead of being a tool. Just a hunch, Subaru? By the way you interact on here, I can definitely see you driving around with snow on your car and blaming everyone else. Cool

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Not at all surprised by this response from you. Just clean the snow off your car instead of being a tool. Just a hunch, Subaru? By the way you interact on here, I can definitely see you driving around with snow on your car and blaming everyone else. Cool

Up to post 4 of me saying I PARK MY CAR IN A GARAGE.

Three pages into a thread justifying tailgating, and you jump in. Why do you think you have a right to tailgate?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I am not sure which is worse about this thread, about a dozen posters trying to justify their tailgating, or the fact that so few of you understand the simple math and physics of driving.

Did you guys actually go to UConn?

@Ha Who had a good post showing how it was extremely unlikely that ice could do any damage to your car if you were driving a safe distance behind the car in front of you, and he took it down. Is there a single poster in this thread that can out math me on this?

I barely passed business calculus my freshman year, which was the last actual math class I took. It was on the other end of campus at 8 am, so I didn't go. That was over 30 years ago. So you have to either be totally wrong or really suck at math if you can't out-math me on this.

 

[HooperScooper]

So being 3 seconds back should solve the problem.

Also, the ice will be moving the same direction as the car until it comes off. It does not go backwards, and will probably even go a little further in the direction it was already going, making a football field gap even safer.

Stay back, and a lot of problems are solved.

I have to disagree with this. A few weeks ago I was on the highway and a big sheet of ice came off a SUV that was very far in front of me, maybe 200-250 feet. The sheet of ice was twisting and turning up in the air for what seemed like 7-8 seconds. I was trying to determine where it was going to land. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of traffic so I had the ability to switch into a lane where it wasn’t going to land. But it was pretty scary trying to dodge a piece of ice that big when I didn’t know where it was going. If it hit my car there would have been damage. If it hit my windshield, well I’m sure it would have been no bueno.

 

[Ha Who]

I have to disagree with this. A few weeks ago I was on the highway and a big sheet of ice came off a SUV that was very far in front of me, maybe 200-250 feet. The sheet of ice was twisting and turning up in the air for what seemed like 7-8 seconds. I was trying to determine where it was going to land. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of traffic so I had the ability to switch into a lane where it wasn’t going to land. But it was pretty scary trying to dodge a piece of ice that big when I didn’t know where it was going. If it hit my car there would have been damage. If it hit my windshield, well I’m sure it would have been no bueno.

Yes, we’ve all seen this. He’s got to give it up. You should see the formulas that AI spits out explaining how far the ice will travel. But I don’t wanna bore you all with physics.

 

[superjohn]

I have to disagree with this. A few weeks ago I was on the highway and a big sheet of ice came off a SUV that was very far in front of me, maybe 200-250 feet. The sheet of ice was twisting and turning up in the air for what seemed like 7-8 seconds. I was trying to determine where it was going to land. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of traffic so I had the ability to switch into a lane where it wasn’t going to land. But it was pretty scary trying to dodge a piece of ice that big when I didn’t know where it was going. If it hit my car there would have been damage. If it hit my windshield, well I’m sure it would have been no bueno.

Now imagine it's a large chunk of ice coming off the top of a semi far ahead of you in a different lane. Everyone is driving 75 mph, you have nowhere to go and the ice is twisting in the wind and jumps the lane over into the fast lane where you are and smashes into your windshield.

People like Waylon are selfish and people die every year because of this type of selfishness. I got lucky with just a huge crack in my windshield but it was incredibly scary.

 

[Dutch Boyd]

I am not sure which is worse about this thread, about a dozen posters trying to justify their tailgating, or the fact that so few of you understand the simple math and physics of driving.

Did you guys actually go to UConn?

@Ha Who had a good post showing how it was extremely unlikely that ice could do any damage to your car if you were driving a safe distance behind the car in front of you, and he took it down. Is there a single poster in this thread that can out math me on this?

I barely passed business calculus my freshman year, which was the last actual math class I took. It was on the other end of campus at 8 am, so I didn't go. That was over 30 years ago. So you have to either be totally wrong or really suck at math if you can't out-math me on this.

Or you can just clean your car off instead of lacking self awareness and arguing with people just to argue being that you park in a garage, lol. Going through the comments, nobody is justifying tailgating. As i stated above, not surprised by your responses. Unfortunately there are many selfish people lacking self awareness wondering around this planet.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I have to disagree with this. A few weeks ago I was on the highway and a big sheet of ice came off a SUV that was very far in front of me, maybe 200-250 feet. The sheet of ice was twisting and turning up in the air for what seemed like 7-8 seconds. I was trying to determine where it was going to land. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of traffic so I had the ability to switch into a lane where it wasn’t going to land. But it was pretty scary trying to dodge a piece of ice that big when I didn’t know where it was going. If it hit my car there would have been damage. If it hit my windshield, well I’m sure it would have been no bueno.

200 feet is not that far back, a little over 2 seconds depending on how fast you were going. It is also physically difficult for a sheet of ice to stay airborne for 7 seconds unless it was a gale force wind or the car was going really fast. A really strong wind or a really fast car could lift a sheet that is big enough to catch the wind but not so big that it would be too heavy to not reach terminal velocity very quickly. And if the wind was strong enough to keep a big sheet of ice airborne, it is likely going to pull it left or right and or break it in the air. This is a tail end of the distribution case.

I am not saying that someone should have 6 inches of ice on their roof, but I am saying that a driver can do a lot to mitigate the risk of getting hit. If the car in front of you has an inch or less of snow on it, it is really unlikely that you could get in trouble behind it. Something would have to go really wrong to hit you if you were 4 seconds, which is about 120 yards, back.

Trucks are a different story. They are already taller, so anything coming off them is going up quite a bit before it comes down. All the more reason not to tailgate.

Alternatively, you are MUCH more likely to cause an accident if you are regularly driving less than 200 feet behind the car in front of you, especially in the winter, than you are to be hit by snow coming off another car if you are over 100 yards back. Probably 10x as likely.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Or you can just clean your car off instead of lacking self awareness and arguing with people just to argue being that you park in a garage, lol. Going through the comments, nobody is justifying tailgating. As i stated above, not surprised by your responses. Unfortunately there are many selfish people lacking self awareness wondering around this planet.

Post #5 saying I park in a garage.

You are absolutely trying to justify tailgating.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Now imagine it's a large chunk of ice coming off the top of a semi far ahead of you in a different lane. Everyone is driving 75 mph, you have nowhere to go and the ice is twisting in the wind and jumps the lane over into the fast lane where you are and smashes into your windshield.

People like Waylon are selfish and people die every year because of this type of selfishness. I got lucky with just a huge crack in my windshield but it was incredibly scary.

Why are you defending tailgating?

 

[uconnfan68]

Since this has turned into a shaming thread, I am going to circle back to tailgating in cold weather. A 3 second gap with the car in front of you is not enough when there are even small patches of ice on the road and the car behind you is likely tailgating you. You can't just slam on the brakes because the car behind you will hit you, so you need enough space to slow down without causing a pileup. 4 seconds should be a minimum. If cars cut in front of you, then they cut in front of you.

Since anyone who drives anywhere will see cars very close to each other while moving at 50+ mph on the highway, very few people follow this standard defensive driving practice.

This is why I've taken to staying in the right lane on most highways these days. Tired of being passed on left and right while doing 75-80.