Winter Driving Stories

[Brass is Best]

Ok with snow and ice come winter driving. What interesting winter driving story do you have? Did you drive a roadster in sub zero weather? Did you brave a blizzard in a Sedan with no heater? Did you have to explain to local law enforcement why you were carving donuts in the high school parking lot?

[John_S_in_Penna]

Snow is a natural and normal part of northern winters.

 

About 10 years ago, I was driving back on the Interstate

highway after visiting my parents.  It was dark;  6 or 8

inches of snow had already fallen on the uncleared roads.

Since so much of Penna. is rural, there were no other cars

to be seen at that late hour!

 

It's great to drive in clean, fresh, virgin snow when there's no salt or slush.

The falling snowflakes were large, reflecting off the headlights,

so I actually turned OFF my headlights on the dark, empty,

one-way road, and could actually see better!  The moon glimmering 

over the bright white landscape provided plenty of safe light. 

 

I did that just for a few miles, a few minutes, enjoying the

tranquility, and then resumed driving with the headlights.

Edited December 12, 2017 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Joe in Canada]

Had my mothers new 66 Olds out with the boys on a Sat. night about 60 miles to Toronto for the evening. Heavy snow on the way home and did a spin in the medium and regained control getting out. Parked the car in the garage when I got home but was woken up in the morning by an upset father. I guess I left the exhaust in the medium that night.

[mikewest]

Andrew , This was the week before Christmas 2013  in a Packard touring . A few in town thought I lost my mind , but I have the pictures and the memories. It was a real storm when I went to town. By the time I got home , the interior was full of snow.

[dei]

I was getting my drivers license this particular year and then one had to have a beginners for 6 months before applying. With my birthday being in January I wanted to be free to drive alone that summer. Having heard on the radio (remember this is pre internet days) peoples cottages on the north shore of Lake Erie had been blown in the day before by a heavy snowfall off the Lake, I asked mom if we shouldn't take a drive out and see for ourselves. 

Dad's car was a 1959 Oldsmobile 98 that we had taken a family cross country 5,000 mile vacation in two years previous (no not the Chevy Chase Vacation type ). 

Fortunately the main roads out were cleaned and when we pulled up this is what we saw.

 

That's me digging out the road side door to get some of the pressure off the storm door glass. 

My parents owned that one and the one next to it behind the Olds which they rented on a weekly basis. 

 

Two years later I had purchased a cheap $50 Dodge and again hear on the news that another bad winter storm had closed off the cottages again. Naturally I had to cut class to go and see that next day.

It's a little further up the road of ours but what a pile of snow! 

 

Being on the Lake has it's winter / snow issues but....

(same cottage/home in the upper picture)

 

When the summer hits like this it's hard to think of driving in snow! 

[mikewest]

22 hours ago, dei said:

I was getting my drivers license this particular year and then one had to have a beginners for 6 months before applying. With my birthday being in January I wanted to be free to drive alone that summer. Having heard on the radio (remember this is pre internet days) peoples cottages on the north shore of Lake Erie had been blown in the day before by a heavy snowfall off the Lake, I asked mom if we shouldn't take a drive out and see for ourselves. 

Dad's car was a 1959 Oldsmobile 98 that we had taken a family cross country 5,000 mile vacation in two years previous (no not the Chevy Chase Vacation type ). 

Fortunately the main roads out were cleaned and when we pulled up this is what we saw.

 

That's me digging out the road side door to get some of the pressure off the storm door glass. 

My parents owned that one and the one next to it behind the Olds which they rented on a weekly basis. 

 

Two years later I had purchased a cheap $50 Dodge and again hear on the news that another bad winter storm had closed off the cottages again. Naturally I had to cut class to go and see that next day.

It's a little further up the road of ours but what a pile of snow! 

 

Being on the Lake has it's winter / snow issues but....

(same cottage/home in the upper picture)

 

When the summer hits like this it's hard to think of driving in snow! 

I sure like the Special Convertible.. You don't know where there's another ? Mike

[dei]

32 minutes ago, mikewest said:

I sure like the Special Convertible.. You don't know where there's another ? Mike

 

Sorry, not one that is for sale around here Mike but thanks for the like.

 

Oh, and that is why I bought the Dodge back then, as a winter beater, to keep the convert from winter driving. It worked! 

[Hudsy Wudsy]

Drive safely.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Hudsy Wudsy (see edit history)

[James-Wahl Motors]

In the early 2000s I had a 1961 Chrysler New Yorker that I had bought as a parts car, but I got it running so I good we used it as an extra driver for several years. I drove it from Chicago to the New York Auto Show for work once, then I set out to do it again the following year. I did not check the weather (this is late March or maybe early April) and after a couple hours of sunshine I drove into a big snowstorm. So, I'm cruising down the Ohio Toll Road in 4 to 6 inches of snow, regular all-season tires, defroster blasting, wipers wiping, thinking this car is doing just fine. I wasn't happy about the salt bath but this car wasn't much to look at and already had rust. Then it quit running! The tow truck guy said I was the only tow that day that wasn't out of a ditch. I had him drop me in a truck stop parking lot. I went inside and bought some gloves. It was snowing sideways so hard the distributor cap filled with snow while I was checking the points. Short wrap up: it ended being the points, I got it going after standing in the snow for a while (had spares). Stayed with some friends a half hour away and finished trip the next day and got back with no more problems. Storm was clear by morning but lots of semis still in the ditches.

 

Another sort of winter story. In '98 or '99 on that first 50-degree day in February after rain had washed the salt off the roads, I took my 300-G out with my now-wife for a ride on a Chicago expressway a few miles to warm it up and put it back away. I have Antique Vehicle registration and a state trooper pulled me over and said "WHERE'S THE CAR SHOW AT?" I told him what I was honestly doing and said "it's part of the maintenance." He let me go but didn't seem too happy with me.

 

 

[John_S_in_Penna]

There's a lot of good to winter, so if people don't mind,

let's try to keep to some of the more positive stories,

especially as Christmas approaches.

Just as a summer rain differs vastly from a hurricane,

a normal snowfall is one that doesn't cause destruction

of lives and property.

 

[James-Wahl Motors]

Well, I hope you don't find my story too negative. I find the moral is a stock 40+ year old car can be used pretty much like a modern car in most cases. Just as they were for millions of miles when they were new. As long as you are smart enough to check the points once in a while! Happy Holidays!

[SC38dls]

A friend of mine had a 50 Dodge or DeSoto (can’t remember which) when we were in high school, that we would pile 3 or 4 couples in to go to local hamburger joints or whatever. When we had a sudden snow one weekend the guys decided it would be a lot of fun to tie a 20 foot or so rope to the bumper and put a few of us on a toboggan to be towed around. Tom (the owner) drove with the rest of us on an 8 man toboggan. All went well until he took a left turn just before reaching the top of a hill. The toboggan kept going straight over the top of the hill and down toward the busiest part of the small town we lived in. About 10 blocks later we finally stopped when we crashed into bushes as the street ended into Main Street. Tom managed to go around the block and followed us down the hill honking the horn at each intersection. We didn’t know he had a police escort most of the way down the hill until we stopped laughing and untangled ourselves. The cops tried to be stern but in the end they couldn’t help but laughing about it. No one got hurt or a ticket. The cops warned us to not do it again. We all piled into the 50, tied the toboggan to the roof and went off to our favorite hamburger joint. 

The Dodge or DeSoto had fluid drive and was really easy to drive on snow. We had a lot of fun in that car. 

[Harold]

In early January 1977, I became the owner of 8 government fleet cars courtesy of a sealed-bid auction in Buffalo, NY.  The most efficient way to get them home was by car carrier.  We were living in Staten Island and I flew to Buffalo to stay with friends at the University and get things organized for the pickup.  The cars were all jammed onto the roof of a garage building and were covered in snow.  I cleverly made an 'X' in the snow on each car that was mine to make it easier for the government guys to get them out. That night Buffalo had a huge snow storm and the cars and I were snowed-in for a week.  It turned into party time at the dorms and I had a lot of fun waiting for the roads to clear.  Great memories!

[John_S_in_Penna]

3 hours ago, James-Wahl Motors said:

Well, I hope you don't find my story too negative. 

 

James, I wasn't thinking of your story.  My opinion

just happened to be posted after your account.

I was hoping we wouldn't get into blizzards that killed

people, or big accidents, and the like.

And besides, it's just my own thought!

Edited December 15, 2017 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[R Walling]

 I love snow!

 I have always played in the snow with every car that I have owned.

 Once I drove in 3' snow until I could no longer go. The under side of the hood imprint in snow was all I could see when I opened the hood to see why it quit!

It was packed completely in snow all the way up to the cowl.

 

 Did I say that I love snow?   (:-) 

[JACK M]

I was driving towards Oregon from Reno on the back roads in my motor home with a friend.

He was cooking breakfast when he looked out the side window to see the road straight ahead.

We had emerged from beside a hill and a gust of wind took the coach by surprise.

I was looking at a fence straight out of the windshield but was going just about exactly sideways at about 60 mph.

I noticed a car off to my left up against fence way off the road and a patrol car parked on the shoulder.

The cop was running as fast as he could away from his car towards the stranded car.

Being the old dirt racer that I am I simply waited until I got past all that before I straightened it out and slowed down.

Its funny how it all goes in slow motion sometimes.

[Jim Bollman]

I have a couple of snow stories.

 

My best friend in High School and I both drove Crosleys, he had a 47 pickup and I had a 49 wagon. I ran tractor treads in the Winter if there was snow, so it limited my top speed. He piled cement blocks in the back of the pickup and used tire chains, if there was snow or ice. With the chains and blocks he could actually push snow with his bumper and keep going. We use to go out to the town park with his pickup and drive cross lots into the snow drifts and see how far we would get. When we couldn't get any further I would get out and stand on the back bumper and shift my weight back and forth to get traction. If we couldn't get across we would get out and the two of us would grab the back or the front and walk it sideways till we could get going again. Oh the follies (stupidity) of youth.

 

An even earlier Winter story was my first time driving on slippery roads. A friend of the family called one evening and asked my Dad if I could come out and help him move a piece of furniture. It had snowed but the roads had been plowed so my Dad sent me out in the family 60 Comet wagon. The friend lived about 4 miles out in the country. NW Ohio was part of the Black Swamp way back and has very deep ditches to drain the land. I turned off the main road onto a secondary and the back ended slid out. I thought that was fun so instead of doing as I had been instructed I kept the fish tailing going until I panicked and hit the brakes. I was instantly in a plowed field stuck, right across the road from a very deep ditch and dead center between two telephone poles. If I had to go off the road it could not have been a better place accept I couldn't get out. A car stopped and of course it was someone that knew me and my family so no getting away with anything. They gave me a ride home. I walk in and my Dad said something like why was I already back. I told him the stupid thing I had done. With no scolding he called a friend that owned the local Sunoco station and asked if he could borrow the tow truck. We drove out he hooked on to the front of the Comet and pulled me through the field and back on the road and he told me to go finish the moving job and to drive slower. I don't recall the incident ever coming up, I don't think my Mother ever found out and I never hit the brakes in a skid again.

 

I have another story but really need to find the picture that goes with it.

[Brass is Best]

Tis that time of year again...

[keiser31]

I was in Royal Oak, Michigan, 16 years old and just about to get my driver's license. It had just snowed and I was VERY anxious to go for a ride in my freshly put together '31 DB coupe. I couldn't wait for my license, so I went for it. Across the back yard to the alley I went, happily cruising over to my buddy's house and back and all around having some fun. It was grand driving around in the deep snow passing all of the modern cars with low clearance that were stuck in the snow. NO PROBLEM for me with those 19"x4.5" tires. Later, after putting the car away, my Dad came home from work. He went into the kitchen and called me in there. "So....how did the car run on your ride, today?" I said, "Ride?" He pointed out the kitchen window and said that I must have taken the car out since there were skinny tracks in the snow across our yard....BUSTED!

Edited December 21, 2018 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Mark Wetherbee]

When I got my learners permit Mom had a Ford Maverick with a 302 in it. So I pestered her all week and she kept telling me we could go on Saturday. Friday night we had an ice storm and Mom looks out the window and said “perfect time for it, let’s see how careful you are on the gas” - took about an hour, but I finally found out how NOT to spin tires which was a trick on dry roads in hat car!

 

Flash forward, my first car was a 1972 Pinto. I’ll wait for you to stop laughing... So I was working 2nd shift and coming home with about 5 inches of slush on the highway and going about 35-40 mph when my rusted out floor decided to give up, it dropped down just behind my feet on the pedals and becomes a snow scoop. I was up to my bellybutton in slush almost before I could realize that the floor was no longer under my feet. All I could do was fold it the rest of the way under and keep driving. Damned that was cold!

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

My first car was a 65 bug. It didn't do bad in the snow or ice. Me and my friend use to go drift bustin out in the countryside. Run it about 25-35 to hit a drift and go up and over it. I got pretty good at it until we hit one that was a good 3 foot high and about 12 foot long. We got stuck about half way through. We spent about an hour getting it out. Turned around and headed back to town. We passes the snow plow a mile down the road. We turned back around and found the snow plow stuck in the same place we were. We helped him get out. He was very great full for the help as his radio had quit working and Was on his way to the garage to get it fixed. It took him 3 times to get through. 

[J.H.Boland]

This thread brings back a lot of memories. I drove small foreign cars (VW,Austin,Renault) for years before I smartened up. Engine compartments full of snow and spinning out backing into ditches were almost routine. 

Not that many years ago,my daughter and I delivered my '89 Jeep Wrangler (YJ in Canada) to my mechanic who lived the other side of London,Ontario for a V8 engine swap.It was a clear ,very cold day in January as we drove right through London with half doors and a half top,bundled up like Inuit hunters. We got a lot of thumbs up and stares. What can I say.It's a Jeep thing !

[Mark Wetherbee]

My wife asked why I didn’t add my Canadian Mountie story so here goes...

 

It’s 2007 or 2008 and I’m working as a manufacturing engineer for a snow plow company in Maine at that point. My company has prototypes in a winter test program placed  in several areas around the country and there’s also one in Digby Nova Scotia. In late December my boss was looking for a volunteer to inspect that one unit and somehow I drew the short stick. So just after Christmas I start off at a god awful early hour so I can make the one daily ferry from St. John into Digby. I’m up there early but the ferry was canceled due to snow and poor visibility so I stopped at a McDonalds for a lunch and hop onto the highway. Well, the snow was pretty bad and there’s no traffic on the highway at all, come to think about it there’s no plows either but I am getting paid for driving so on I go white knuckling it through to Moncton where I am planning on giving up and staying someplace. It was snowing so bad the exits are not passable but the highway is still drivable so on I go. Not too many miles later I am stopped by a Mountie with his cruiser blocking the road at a turnaround. Well he walks up to my truck and asked “sir, are you aware that this highway is closed?” And the only answer I came up with was “No sir but it would explain the lack of traffic since leaving St. John.” Thank goodness he had a sense of humor, but he was shocked I was there at all. It seems they closed the highway and blocked the on-ramps just after noontime but I was already on the road and there were no signs telling me to get off so I kept on going. He turned me around and told me I had to sit it out in Sackville as the road from there to Amherst was going to be shut for another couple hours. I finally pulled into Digby at 3 am and thankfully the innkeeper wasn’t too mad about my arrival time. 

[Jim Bollman]

I see I promised one more story when I found the picture to go with it. Well here is the picture and story.

 

I went to college in NW Indiana and it started snowing the end of January 1967 as we were finishing up finals for the semester. Those that finished early enough in the day and/or  lived close to school made it home for semester break before all the roads were closed. Those of us that had further to drive and thought the roads would be better the next morning were snowed in for most of the break. The picture is my 1961 Metropolitan after the snow finally stopped. The real car part of the story started then. Since most all the roads were closed there was not a real hurry to dig our cars out but we were all bored so started shoveling. I cleaned the big stuff out from around  my car and a couple of the big drifts between me and the exit to the parking lot. By then the road plow had cleared the roads in front of the school. A big Mercury, I think it was a 58, owned by an upper classmen had been bragging that he would have no problem getting out because he had positraction and chains. I had snow tires and a trunk full of cement blocks in my 61 Met. As I was finishing up he came chugging though the snow and promptly got stuck spinning his chain wrapped snow tires (later after the snow melted you could see two ruts in the asphalt were he had spun his tires). So I decided to give it a try and drove straight out including over those low concrete curbs they put in the center of lots to park an extra row of cars, right past the stuck Merc and out the driveway. He wasn't happy. Of course I had limited places I could drive but I found another school parking lot that had been cleared and parked there. Of course I wasn't suppose to park their, so some "Friends" picked it up and  put it on top of a pile of snow with all  4 wheels off the ground. After a length apology and lots of begging they took it off the pile and back on the ground.

 

The 61 Met was one of the best snow cars I ever owned. With it's short wheelbase and lots of weight in the trunk it could pull out of a skid with ease and get through very deep snow.

[Mike36]

On 12/20/2018 at 3:29 PM, Mark Wetherbee said:

When I got my learners permit Mom had a Ford Maverick with a 302 in it. So I pestered her all week and she kept telling me we could go on Saturday. Friday night we had an ice storm and Mom looks out the window and said “perfect time for it, let’s see how careful you are on the gas” - took about an hour, but I finally found out how NOT to spin tires which was a trick on dry roads in hat car!

 

Flash forward, my first car was a 1972 Pinto. I’ll wait for you to stop laughing... So I was working 2nd shift and coming home with about 5 inches of slush on the highway and going about 35-40 mph when my rusted out floor decided to give up, it dropped down just behind my feet on the pedals and becomes a snow scoop. I was up to my bellybutton in slush almost before I could realize that the floor was no longer under my feet. All I could do was fold it the rest of the way under and keep driving. Damned that was cold!

Hey Mark, didn’t the fire in the back keep you warm?

[Mark Wetherbee]

No, Ford put a tiny plastic plate over the gas gage sending unit and it was supposed to be safe... 

[oldcarfudd]

My first wife, Helen, came from Alice Springs, Australia.  She had learned to drive on her dad’s Aussie-built Chevrolet, automatic, RHD, in the desert.  I brought her to an apartment in downtown Newark, NJ, from which I walked to work at Prudential Insurance, and let her drive my car, a ‘61 stick-shift VW.  There was a learning curve.

 

A year later, we bought a house in the suburbs, and Helen would drive me to the train in the bug. One day it snowed.  Over a foot.  I considered myself a pretty good snow driver, but Helen had never seen the stuff, so I took her out for a lesson.  She did quite well, but then asked what would happen if she drifted into a snowbank.  I said you just rock back and forth and drive out, and proceeded to demonstrate. I drove into a snowbank, and rocked.  And rocked.  And rocked.  About a half hour later, I finally got the car out of the snowbank. And for the rest of our marriage, I heard:  “And this is how you get out of a snowbank” whenever I did, or proposed doing, something stupid. The following year I got transferred to Minneapolis; after six years we both got to be pretty good at driving on snow.

 

My next transfer was to Houston.  Talk about culture shock!  By then my commuter car was a ’66 Datsun 1600 roadster, a softer-riding cheap knockoff of an MGB but without the joy of Lucas electrics.  Our family car and two antiques took up the whole garage, so the Datsun sat outside with the top down and a tonneau cover.  One morning I awoke to about five inches of wet, gloppy snow that was continuing to come down; it was the first measurable snowstorm in Houston in 12 years.  I was damned if I was going to stand out in that stuff putting my top up, so I donned a 1905 buffalo overcoat I’d bought some time back at a Minnesota farm sale.  I zipped open the driver’s side of the tonneau cover and drove to work.  My beard was reddish-brown in those days, the coat was about the same color and had lapels that came up around my ears, and my hair was white as it has always been, so I must have looked like a yeti driving a bright red open sports car in a snowstorm.  I may have caused a dozen accidents as the Houstonians, totally unaccustomed to snow, stared at this apparition instead of looking where they were going.

[Crusty Trucker]

 

 

 

And more...

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/wlm7S

[Billy Kingsley]

I love snow, I can sit and watch it fall for hours. I enjoy watching the cars on my residential street, and whenever I hear the plow I always stop what I'm doing to watch. 

 

With that said, one of my scariest moments ever in a car was in a snowstorm. It was December, 2002 and I had gone to the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club meeting. It began snowing while I was in the meeting and the ground was covered, albeit only an inch or two, and the snow was still coming down but it didn't seem too bad. We set out for home in our 1990 Ford Aerostar. My mom, who was driving, refuses to go across the Newburgh -Beacon bridge so we went up 9W to take the Mid-Hudson bridge. The ride starts out fine, the road had been plowed and all well.

 

About halfway up 9W the snow intensifies. Visibility is now low, the snow is coming down hard and heavy, and the road becomes very slippery. Luckily, there was not much traffic since it was after 10 pm and while we were sliding around some all was well. Then we get almost to the interchange with the bridge and there in the middle of the road not moving was a mid-80s Ford F-150. Mom hits the brakes and nothing happens...the road is too slippery, we are sliding towards the back of the pickup. After what seemed like an interminable about of time but was probably only a matter of seconds the truck turns into a driveway and disaster is avoided. We very gingerly make the turn for the bridge and once we get back to our side of the river it's barely snowing at all, not even collecting really. 

 

Even though that ordeal with the truck lasted maybe a few seconds the image of it appearing out of the snow as we got close enough to see it will be forever etched into my mind, I can still recall that it was a red truck with a diamond plate toolbox. 

 

After that we decided to skip meetings where snow is predicted. 

 

========

 

One of my earliest memories of anything, let alone automotive related, is watching my dad back out of our driveway in a heavy snowstorm, in our metallic orange 1974 Torino wagon. Dad worked for the post office so he still went to work no matter what the weather was, but that image has always stuck with me. 

 

I have a few snowy car pictures that I'll share later. I'm on my phone now and it's not easy to post them from here, I'll post them when I get on my computer. 

[Terry Harper]

Growing up in Northern Maine I had lots of adventures driving in snow - some fun, others not so fun. A more recent memory was last March spending the day with my daughter and working with a film crew. The 3 hour drive to the museum was interesting to say the least but it cleared off to be a wonderful day. Fresh snow and good people. Made for a very fun day.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Terry Harper (see edit history)

[1937hd45]

[JACK M]

37 Desoto