Blacktop Jungle: Snow Big Deal

Christmas lights are appearing throughout the neighborhood, wreaths and giant lighted snowmen are decorating homes, and commercial radio stations are in their second week of torturing us with holiday songs. Yes, it's that magical time that comes only once a year, which we call the Annual Mounting of the Snow Tires.

That coincides with the much-more regularly occurring events we call the Scraping of the Knuckles and the Using of the Very Bad Words.

Each year, I try to wait until as late in the season as possible, mostly because a good pair of winter snowshoes for the ol' sled is fairly expensive, and they wear out quickly on dry pavement. Invariably, I wait too long, and end up putting the snow tires on as it's snowing.

On Sunday, with the weather seeming to turn colder and rain and snow in the forecast, I decided to take a chance.

Naturally, it's rained for the past two days.

Incidentally, there must be something more depressing than a rainy day in December in Western Pennsylvania, but I can't really think of it. It's not bad enough that all of the leaves have fallen off of the trees and are rotting in the gutters, or that we have about six hours of daylight, or that everything has taken on a gray, dirty cast. No, now the sun is blotted out by clouds, and we're cold and wet, to boot. Why have you forsaken us, Joe DeNardo?

It almost makes one long for snow --- getting back the whole snow tire thing that I started out with. Many people believe that front-wheel drive negates the purpose of snow tires. Au contraire, motormouth. All other things being equal, a front-wheel drive car equipped with "all season" tires will have better traction in snow than a rear-wheel drive equipped with "all season" tires --- but a front-wheel drive car with a good set of snow tires will outperform them both. My late grandfather had a front-wheel drive Ford Escort equipped with snow tires that I think would have climbed up the side of an igloo, if you'd let it. It plowed through snow better than some four-wheel drive vehicles.

A few words of explanation are in order before the snow starts flying.

Front-wheel drive means just that; the front wheels propel the car. Probably 60 percent of the cars currently being built are front-wheel drive. (I didn't make any attempt to verify that stat, by the way. I plucked it out of the air.) Front-wheel drive cars have good traction in snow because the heavy engine sits up front, directly over the drive wheels. Rear-wheel drive means the opposite --- the power is transmitted from the engine up front to the wheels in the back via a long drive shaft.

Rear-wheel drive cars are good at lots of things --- most race cars and many performance cars are rear-wheel drive --- but driving in snow isn't necessarily one of them. The heavy motor is up front, and can't provide any weight to help keep the drive wheels on the road. Worse yet, in a really light car, the heavy front end sometimes wants to slide out of the way and swap ends with the rear wheels. That's why putting a 50 pound bag of sand in the trunk of a rear-wheel drive car is often recommended for winter driving. Rear-wheel drive is making a strong comeback --- Chrysler recently re-introduced its first rear-wheel drive sedans in years --- and maybe 30 percent of the cars being built today are rear-wheel drive. Most (if not all) trucks are rear-wheel drive, and they benefit most of all from a bag or two or three of sand in the back, especially if secured with boards and chains over the rear wheels.

Of course, many trucks and SUVs, and maybe 10 percent of passenger cars, have four-wheel drive, which means exactly what it sounds like. Four-wheel drive is not a license to drive like a maniac in the snow, and I know you nuts are out there. A four-wheel drive vehicle driven recklessly in the snow is just as likely to go plowing off the road and into a ditch as any other vehicle; it's just often easier to get a four-wheel drive vehicle back out of the ditch, because you have two more chances that one of your drive wheels will be able to get you out.

Now, back to the tires. Summer tires are just that --- for use in the summer. "All-season" tires aren't, as far as I'm concerned. They should be called "three-season" tires, because they aren't great on ice or snow. Snow tires use softer, stickier rubber --- good for gripping ice, but not very long-wearing --- and they usually have big, blocky treads that are good at digging into loose material.

Snow tires have a couple of drawbacks --- besides the fact that they wear out fairly quickly, they can also screw up a car's handling at high speeds --- but on a rear-wheel drive vehicle like my sleek, gray Mercury, they're essential. And having driven front-wheel drive vehicles both with and without snow tires, they're a useful safety feature, in my never-humble opinion, and well worth the money. A good snow tire should cost between $70 and $90, installed, in my experience. (Personally, I get mine from an independent dealer in Our Fair City that deals in both brand-name and generic tire brands, and I try to stick to American-made tires.)

I also know several people who put snow tires on all four wheels of their cars, on the grounds that steering and braking is improved in deep snow if all four wheels are similarly shod. Mechanics that I've talked to have told me that it doesn't help that much in the kind of snow that Western Pennsylvania usually gets, and that it's a waste of money, but if you drive frequently on unplowed roads, it might be worth the extra cash.

Also, if you don't mind changing your own tires --- or if you know someone who will do the job for you --- you can save time by buying a set of spare wheels for your car and having snow tires mounted on them. (You can get used or new wheels from a good junkyard --- I've bought them from both Spitz Auto Parts in North Huntingdon and Toll Gate in Greensburg --- and most yards will check to figure out what kind of wheels you need, if you don't already know.) That way, you don't have to leave your vehicle at the tire store to have the snow tires mounted; just leave the wheels, and pick them up when you're ready.

As long as you have a good jack and jack stands, and a flat surface to change the tires, you can put the snow tires on at home, when you're good and ready. Obviously, you'll need someplace to store the two tires you're not using; that would be a real problem from apartment dwellers, I suppose. (I guess you could prop them up in the living room and drape spider plants over them, maybe, or call them outsider art.)

Anyway, do you run snow tires on your car? And what kind of vehicle is it? I'd be interested in hearing from you. Drop me an email at jt 3 y at dementia dot org, or leave your information below by clicking on the "comment" link.

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This is one of a new series of entries I'm going to be writing called "Blacktop Jungle," which was the name of an automotive column I wrote years ago for the Observer-Reporter in Washington. Look for another one soon on winter driving tips and techniques. Eventually, I hope to expand "Blacktop Jungle" to a new section of Tube City Online that will also include helpful shortcuts around Western Pennsylvania. (You can submit those, too!)

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In other news, remember yesterday's rant about bad publicity being aimed at Our Fair City, and the bad image it gets in the media?

Some timing I've got, huh? Yoi and double yoi:

Attorney General Jerry Pappert today announced that agents from his Bureau of Narcotics Investigation (BNI) have intercepted a shipment of 11 kilograms of cocaine and have arrested two McKeesport, Allegheny County residents on charges of possession with intent to deliver the drug.

Pappert identified the defendants as Gregory T. Armstrong, 36, 3010 Grover St. McKeesport and James E. Jones, 45, 1026 Walnut St., McKeesport.

Talk about your snow. Estimated value on the purloined powder is about $1 million.

Speaking of mood-altering substances, if there's one thing I love, it isn't state-controlled liquor monopolies. (Tip of the Tube City hard hat to Cope.)

Meanwhile, researchers in Picksberg have taken bold steps toward preventing another monkey shortage by successfully cloning monkey embryos. This should shore up America's strategic monkey reserve and prevent terrorists and rogue nations from exploiting a monkey gap.

Some people have asked why, if we needed extra monkey embryos, we couldn't have just let the monkeys create them --- it being one of the things that monkeys (and other primates) are good at. Personally, I'm glad that Western Pennsylvania is working to protect America by ensuring that we remain safe, free and full of monkeys in the 21st century.