stop spinning your tires (and other winter driving tips)

I’m from Maine, and in Maine it takes a lot of snow to slow us down. Actually, it takes ice. I remember going to school with 2+ feet of snow on the ground– ice was the only thing that would give us a much loved snow day. When it snows in Maine, people just go on with their daily lives. So, growing up in Maine I learned how to drive in the snow. I even took my drivers license test in fresh snow and paralleled parked without getting stuck (I think I haven’t parallel parked so well since, actually).

When I lived on Long Island I was constantly amazed at how much people panicked over the teeniest tiniest bit of snow. Half an inch was enough to cancel everything, and sadly also enough to send cars flying all over the road. Maybe people just didn’t know how to drive in it, or they didn’t have enough equipment to make the roads safe, but literally snow shut down the world on Long Island.

Here in Wisconsin people aren’t quite that bad (although they are terrible at plowing and salting), but this latest snowstorm has made me realize how little people know about how to get their car unstuck from the snow. Everyone gets stuck in the snow at some point and knowing how to get out (or get someone else out) is a great skill.*

So here are my tips:

• Don’t spin your tires. I’ll repeat, Don’t. Spin. Your. Tires.
  • Spinning your tires doesn’t get you anyplace. It actually buries you deeper in the snow. Or, if you’re on pavement, the friction turns the snow under your tires into ice. And ice is much worse to drive on than snow. (Actually, in bad driving conditions, driving with your tires on some snow can be safer than driving on slick, icy roads. Snow has more traction.)
• Here is the basic principle of getting your car out of the snow– you want to move your tires as much as you can in different directions, backwards and forwards, until you can find some traction.
• And you need a lot of patience. You’ll get out if you don’t give up (eventually) and not having patience will make you spin your tires. You want to go slow.
• Before you get out and start digging try rocking the car back and forth to get some momentum.
  • (1) Put your car in reverse and turn the wheel. Try going back.
  • (2) If you can get some momentum going backward, then put the car in 2nd gear really quick and turn the wheel in the other direction. Try going forward slowly.
  • Repeat 1 and 2. If you can get the car to move in either direction (backwards or forwards) just a couple feet, that could be enough to get you unstuck.
• If worse comes to worse and that doesn’t work, try shoveling around your tires (in front and back). You should know if your car is front wheel or rear wheel drive. Shovel around those tires especially well.
• Then repeat steps 1 and 2 above.
• Don’t spin your tires.
• If that doesn’t work try putting something behind (or in front of) your tires. Cardboard works, and sand, salt or cat litter work. Even your car mats will work. I find this doesn’t work as well as just rocking the car back and forth, but it does do the trick sometimes.

So there you go. Unless you’re somehow stuck in 4 feet of snow, or in a ditch, or your tires are way too bald, this method will work for you. I pretty much guarantee it.

* I guess I have some notable skill with getting cars unstuck. Last year I got some people’s cars unstuck in our driveway when no one else could. This morning we all had to move our cars for the plow, and someone gave up on their truck stuck in the middle of the driveway, and handed me their keys. I was able to get them out. And then I moved everyone else’s cars. Even the plow guys thought I was very good at it. So I guess this gets added to my list of talents– along with packing things into small spaces, and putting things together with directions.