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I took a few pictures while clearing off the driveway at my parents' home.




The neighbour's big christmas tree, it just needs some lights.



The school across the street. Junior school was so fun back then...



The home where I spent the first 20-odd years of my life. It's a good house, they don't build them like that anymore.



Closer zoom of my old junior school.

What are you doing?! You can't go around telling people that! Tourism will suffer! People will avoid us and curse our barren, frozen, desert of a country!

Pay no attention to the pictures above! aerius is in Siberia! Honest!

All we get is cold rain and some fog.

Not that anyone could drive on snow if we did get it. It's been years since I drove on snow and then I had a front wheel drive car instead of a rear wheel drive pickup. I particularly love it when the people with the monster 4X4s who like to haul balls and gun it when the road is slick, because they have four wheel drive.

Anyway, love the pictures. I don't miss shoveling snow (that much) but I do miss having a little of the stuff from time to time. Even our moutains haven't been keeping snow for much of the winter these days.

Fuckin Shop, man...

Tsyroc wrote:I particularly love it when the people with the monster 4X4s who like to haul balls and gun it when the road is slick, because they have four wheel drive.

I've met quite a few people who think that you don't need to get snow tires in winter, as long as you have the right acronyms on your car: AWD, ABS, TC, etc. But electronics are a poor substitute for traction.

Darth Wong wrote:I've met quite a few people who think that you don't need to get snow tires in winter, as long as you have the right acronyms on your car: AWD, ABS, TC, etc. But electronics are a poor substitute for traction.

Funny how hundreds of those idiots went off the roads today and wrecked their vehicles. Early this afternoon the accident count in Ontario was something like 600, and the snow's still coming down.

Can you guys give an explanation for why winter tires are inferior in summer? And would a person be better off with Summer tires in summer as opposed to All-Seasons?

Phantasee wrote:Can you guys give an explanation for why winter tires are inferior in summer?

Soft low melting point rubber, chunky tread pattern. The tires will literally melt against the hot pavement in the summer, they'll wear super fast and the chunky tread is going to be really noisy and have high rolling resistance which kills your fuel economy.

And would a person be better off with Summer tires in summer as opposed to All-Seasons?

Depends on your car. In my opinion they make sense only if you own a high performance car or you're trying to wring out every last bit of performance that your car is capable of.

My car has a pair of winter tires on since last winter and despite putting 50,000+km on them they are still in good shape.

Cleanup complete, I haven't seen this much snow in a while.

aerius wrote:

Darth Wong wrote:I've met quite a few people who think that you don't need to get snow tires in winter, as long as you have the right acronyms on your car: AWD, ABS, TC, etc. But electronics are a poor substitute for traction.

Funny how hundreds of those idiots went off the roads today and wrecked their vehicles. Early this afternoon the accident count in Ontario was something like 600, and the snow's still coming down.

It's really funny out in the country, where the roads aren't plowed as quickly and the ditches are a lot bigger. In the countryside, you don't even see the vehicles at the side of the road after they lose it. All you see is the warm red glow of the tail-lights pointing toward the sky

Never understood how people who have dealt with Toronto area winters still don't get it. Would think with years of experience people would finally get that all-season tires + AWD is probably worse than 2WD with winter tires. At best all seasons have some minor aquatread which just instantly gets muddied up in snow. That and most SUV owners need to realize thinner tires are better in the winter.

Maybe it's the newest crop of drivers that grew up driving SUVs in their teens/20s that don't have the need in their mind to learn how to drive safely with 2WD. They just slap it into AWD and try to power or slip their way through everything thinking it's magic. I honestly think all starter drivers should be required to have some real world driving classes or test in the snow with both FWD and RWD, it's a natural tool to teach people how to drive with control and care.

Phantasee wrote:Can you guys give an explanation for why winter tires are inferior in summer? And would a person be better off with Summer tires in summer as opposed to All-Seasons?

To add to what aerius said, studded tires also fuck over the road bad.

Rawtooth wrote:

Phantasee wrote:Can you guys give an explanation for why winter tires are inferior in summer? And would a person be better off with Summer tires in summer as opposed to All-Seasons?

To add to what aerius said, studded tires also fuck over the road bad.

Well, besides the fact that in this part of the world they're banned all of the time (though well north of here they're legal in the winter), I think that the earlier posters were talking about plain-jane winter tires.

I spent about an hour yesterday clearing out my driveway and sidewalk, and about 20 minutes this morning on the lovely present left for me by the snowplows.

There are a few times a year where only vehicles with chains on are allowed up to Summerhaven (on Mt. Lemmon). There might have even been a couple of times when the vehicle had to be 4 wheel drive and have chains but I don't recall for certain.

It's not real fun having to stop and put chains on but the chains are useful and this way people aren't chewing up the road running around on studded tires all the time. Those things would do a real number on the crapy surfaces they use to pave the roads around here.

Honestly, I've never encountered weather that a honest-to-FSM 4WD can't handle, short of it being cold enough to freeze the engine block solid or something like that. Fancy-schmancy AWD is nice when it's raining (I've driven an Audi equipped with their Quattro AWD system in the rain, and it's a remarkable piece of technology), but when there's six inches of China White on the road, I'll take a manually engaged, chain-driven transfer case over the newest and neatest limited-slip center differential any day. That even fifty-fifty split between the front and rear wheels has enabled me to slog through no less than twenty-six inches of unplowed snow(Feb '06 storm).

Well, that, and an actual low-range gear reduction.

You know, until now, I didn't even realize there's a difference between 4WD and AWD.

Meest, you mentioned thinner tires as being better? How thin are we talking about, here?

Alferd Packer wrote:Honestly, I've never encountered weather that a honest-to-FSM 4WD can't handle, short of it being cold enough to freeze the engine block solid or something like that. Fancy-schmancy AWD is nice when it's raining (I've driven an Audi equipped with their Quattro AWD system in the rain, and it's a remarkable piece of technology), but when there's six inches of China White on the road, I'll take a manually engaged, chain-driven transfer case over the newest and neatest limited-slip center differential any day. That even fifty-fifty split between the front and rear wheels has enabled me to slog through no less than twenty-six inches of unplowed snow(Feb '06 storm).

Well, that, and an actual low-range gear reduction.

You're either full of shit or you've never seen real winter. Sheet ice on the roads will defeat any kind of drive system, for the simple reason that it doesn't matter what kind of fucking differential you have when your wheels are spinning uselessly on the ice. And you don't need -40C temps to make that happen. Hell, all you need is some freezing rain.

Phantasee wrote:You know, until now, I didn't even realize there's a difference between 4WD and AWD.

Really? In a car with four wheels, what is it?

Adrian Laguna wrote:

Phantasee wrote:You know, until now, I didn't even realize there's a difference between 4WD and AWD.

Really? In a car with four wheels, what is it?

AWD usually refers to vehicles which can drive all four wheels at all time; 4WD vehicles tend to only use four wheels in low-traction situations only and must be switched back to 2WD for normal driving conditions.

phongn wrote:

Adrian Laguna wrote:

Phantasee wrote:You know, until now, I didn't even realize there's a difference between 4WD and AWD.

Really? In a car with four wheels, what is it?

AWD usually refers to vehicles which can drive all four wheels at all time; 4WD vehicles tend to only use four wheels in low-traction situations only and must be switched back to 2WD for normal driving conditions.

You'll see a switch or button for it sometimes, in pick ups and sport utes mostly. My 92 Ford Explorer has a button in the middle of the dash for 4WD and another for Low Range. 2002 Chevy 2500 pick up had it on the left side as a dial (I think). Options of 2WD, 4WD and something else.

AWD usually means any amount of power can be transferred to the wheel with most traction, where as 4WD just locks the various diffs and axles to provide equal splits.

Meest, you mentioned thinner tires as being better? How thin are we talking about, here?

The rule of thumb is usually minus 1 or 2 sizes down, the thinner tire cuts through the snow instead of needing to push or plow through with a bigger footprint. You can usually match your tire diameter when downsizing to not mess with speedometer readings while still getting a thinner tire with higher profile sidewalls.

Darth Wong wrote:You're either full of shit or you've never seen real winter. Sheet ice on the roads will defeat any kind of drive system, for the simple reason that it doesn't matter what kind of fucking differential you have when your wheels are spinning uselessly on the ice. And you don't need -40C temps to make that happen. Hell, all you need is some freezing rain.

I guess I've never seen real winter then, if sheet ice on the roads is a prerequisite. Central New Jersey is on the southern edge of the humid temperate climate zone, and our precipitation tends to either be rain or snow. We get freezing rain and ice, certainly, but it tends to follow snowfall, rather than precede it. Since 2002 (when I purchased my truck), we simply haven't had the weather you describe. We've gotten a couple very substantial snowstorms, but I guess areas several hundred miles inland get it worse that we do.

Alferd Packer wrote:I guess I've never seen real winter then, if sheet ice on the roads is a prerequisite.

If you have never encountered that, then yes. You've never seen real winter.

A couple of times I've encountered light and fluffy snow which made the roads so slick that it was nearly as bad as being on ice. Not quite as bad since we were able to move slowly as well as eventually being able to stop the car.

I imagine this kind of slick snow would be great for skiing but it sucks for driving.