Motivational Poster Thread (warning content)

I once lived in the British Property's in West Vancouver .Many had heated driveways to melt the snow .Now hit the un-plowed road and there in the ditch !

 

I watched a mechanic on YouTube diagnose a problem with a Chevy truck that wouldn't start half the time , and cut off at other times . It was in one of the northern states . The guy finally found the problem, one of the upper shock mounts had broken loose from the frame because it rusted out , and was cutting into and shorting out the fuel pump control module mounted on the frame .Thought it was kinda funny when the mechanic said the truck wouldn't start because of a broken shock mount .

 

Eric comes across some interesting issues, no doubt about it.

 

In areas further away from the equator ... we have this thing called snow. It is a state of water that has solidified into unique crystalline structures. It is typically found between 0C and -40C. Below -30C it might as well be tarmac as salt is no longer effective at melting it into it's liquid state below -10c.
Our state like to shovel metric shittons of the NaCl all over our roads so they don't have to actually remove the snow via mechanical plowing as lowering a plow will probably cause the roadways (considering how poor they already are) to be removed along with the snow.
Ice usually occurs when melted snow refreezes into a nice sheet over the previously salted area. It is best when the temperature drops drastically and the partially melted snow has been raised as razor sharp rock hard ridges that like to remove the under car components like exhausts, under engine splash shields, mud flaps, air dams, spoilers. Most insidious is tire sidewall lacerations that can lower your cars ground clearance to zero in a matter of seconds.
Ice also has a wonderful state where it was raining as a mist, it coats the entire surface of the roadway, landscape and automobiles with a 6 to 17mm thick surface of wonderful glass. Typically in the northern states, we just drive a little bit closer to the speed limit during these times and we wind up making it to our destinations, maybe frazzled but none the worse for wear. Southern states shut down completely for days on end, their power grids fail, thousands of cars are abandoned along the road way because the only folks that can drive on that stuff are considered yankees, and the grey men amongst us just stay home lest we be outted by our proficiency on the slick stuff. Also why go out there is no one that could make it to the waffle house to open it up anyway.

 

But yeah, Salt is brutal on vehicles, with the holes in boxed frames the splash gets in there and if you add driving on dirt roads as one member mentioned calcium chloride turns into a mud that attracts water that embeds itself into any body joint, body mount, spring perch, wheel arch, frame bracket and never dries out meaning you have salt just eating at your cars under structure year round. After about 5 years of age, you really need to inspect the under body of a used car and after 15 most are just parts cars or probably shouldn't be allowed on the road anymore. Basically washing the under body will prolong the life of the vehicle but unless you can basically get it up on a lift and spend an hour under there ... it's the hidden salt pockets that are going to get ya.

 

Here in Tallahassee, Florida, only once have I known them to spread sand on the roads in the winter uptown. It got colder than normal, down into the teens at night. But it was also more humid than usual in winter, so ice was forming on the highway overpasses. It made a real mess later, all the sand blowing around when the spring winds came.

 

I'd take the sand blowing around. It reminds me of US2 along the northern Lake Michigan shoreline.

 

Here they put cinders on the roads doing no damage to anything.

 

Ditto for Anchorage.

 

Hmmm? Why are these States the heaviest users of road salt?



Could it be their proximity to the massive salt mines under Detroit? They've been mining salt there since 1910, so it's
just the way things are done.

 

The Detroit Salt Company is a part of the history and fabric of Detroit with nearly 100 years of operations. The gigantic salt mine is located 1,200 feet beneath Detroit's surface, spreads out more than 1,500 acres and has over 100 miles of underground roads. The mineshaft opening is located at 12841 Sanders Street in Detroit, Michigan.

Detroit Salt Company

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