Snow gates in Scotland (2023 Update)

[Colin Bignell]

I have 2,000 litres of space in the back, with the back seats down, more than enough for four tyres and the shopping.

[Commander Kinsey]

Not my point. You are carrying all that shopping from the shop to the car. How many arms do you have?

And who measures boot space in litres?

[Commander Kinsey]

Not passable is a grey area. It depends on the vehicle.

And people might want to go that way and not do a 300 mile detour!

[Tim+]

Lives alone, does she? ;-)

Tim

[Commander Kinsey]

Why do people not answer the question when correcting it?

And I thought the EU had made it illegal to say he or she. We must use gender neutral words like it and they. Except if you're French and are talking about a coffee table.

[Colin Bignell]

The tyre place is no further from the town centre than I would have to walk to the car park and they don't charge any extra for parking there.

I've not seen the volume of an estate car measured any other way for a very long time.

[Colin Bignell]

TBH, I have no idea. She really is a friend of a friend and it was only mentioned in passing.

[Clare Snyder]

And when the snow is coming down sideways at about 75 MPH there is NO WAY the plough driver can see where he is going, or see the stopped vehicles trapped in the drifted snow. Sometimes the roads just HAVE to be closed. We didn't get much snow here over Christmas, but many times I could not see across the street. Less than 25 miles away they got

10times as much as we did - and all the roads were closed for almost a day until things calmed down.

Then there was the Niagara Peninsula, and Buffalo - - - - - and Huntsville / Parry Sound area where my brother has been out of power for a week now.

[Clare Snyder]

Winter tires don't help you see through the blowing snow

[Clare Snyder]

I use snow tires here in Canada and change them twice a year - when I do my oil changes. All 3 vehicles - mine, my wife's and my daughter's. On by November 1 anf generally off the middle of April

[Clare Snyder]

Many tire service companies and dealerships provide tire storage.

[Clare Snyder]

Then there are some people like Commander Kinsie who should never be trusted within 10 feet of a car OR a tool - muchless a car AND a tool.

[Clare Snyder]

Wide tires in winter are like a kid's "Flying Saucer" - and the labour to mount, dismount, and rebalance tires twice a year soon pays for a second set of rims - even WITH TPMS sensors - not to mention the danger of stripping the beads while demounting/remounting the tires. I've found I can buy used alloy rims from the scrappy for less than a set of new "steelies" - I generally pay less than $35 each for good used rims (they are worth about $18 for scrap when I'm done with them)

[Colin Bignell]

Depending where 'here' is, it could be that the only vehicle with even a chance of getting through might be a snowcat.

Given the speed of a snowcat, the detour might be faster.

[Ed Pawlowski]

That seems common in Canada. Never heard of it in the US where I've lived.

[S Viemeister]

Cut out a disc of plywood or mdf, set it on top of the tyres, and cover with a round tablecloth. You now have a plant stand or end table.

[Clare Snyder]

And she won't easily knock it over if she comes home tipsy one evening and stumbles into it.

[rbowman]

The US has those on some of the interstates that are subject to heavy drifting and impossible to keep open in a blizzard. There are also gates on some unmaintained roads over passes. Moot point, since you're not going to make it without a snow machine.

When I first read of it I thought of something different. Several of the parking structures downtown have steel gates on the top level. The clue is the snow flake pattern cut into the steel. Open the gate, position a dump truck below, and plow the snow off the side.

I don't think I'd want to be sitting in the truck during the operation in case they plowed a Smart Car off by mistake.

[rbowman]

Definite oh shit! moment when you destroy a gate with a trooper filming the incident.

There are quite a few on I-94 and I-90. You really don't want to be out there in drifting snow conditions. There are also gates on some of the unmaintained roads over passes. The state park down the road has a gate that is closed if it gets too bad. So far it's open. We've had about 10" total but it's packed down enough to drive on.

Some of the passes will also require chains on towing units or sometimes all vehicles when it gets bad. Most states leave it to your discretion but in California if chains are required it means a 3 rail chains on one set of drives, a single on the other set, and a drag chain on a trailer rear wheel.

Yeah, California. I've spent some quality time in Reno because the interstate over Donner Pass was closed. A lot of eastern drivers figure 'How much trouble can I get into in California?' The answer is 'A hell of a lot'. I-40 in Arizona is the same. Flagstaff is over 7000' and isn't a tropical paradise. Snoqualamie in Washington, and Siskiyu in Oregon. Winter is all sorts of fun.

[rbowman]

Take the detour! I've been through that area in the late summer. It sucks you in because it's a decent paved road to a launch site for rafters on the Rogue River. After that, it's narrow, twisty, unmarked roads. Pretty country and I stopped to hike up Bolivar, the highest peak in the coast range, but I was very happy when I finally emerged north of Gold Coast.

That's not the first or last tragedy. I don't know about Scotland but around here you can go for days without seeing another car on some of the roads.