OT... Is it just me? Sand bags in the winter.

[Jimmy]

How many here use sand bags for weight in their car or truck in the winter? For fifteen years I have been using bags of small stucco chips instead. They are cheaper than the dirty sandbags sold around here.

50 pound bag of stucco chips is $3.50 They don't mess up your vehicle even if they spill. Nice clean white rocks easy to clean up. They don't freeze into a solid lump. They don't get your hands all filthy if you need to throw some under the tires for traction. And they REALLY provide traction, way better than the dirty frozen sand.

Best of all in spring you can use them for landscaping in your yard.

So why after fifteen years of harping on this am I the only one using them.

[BillyBob]

Because all we care about in here is wood related things, not sandbags.

[Upscale]

Because the rest of us live down in Florida where hurricanes are more of a concern than snow.

[Gerald Ross]

Never heard of stucco chips. Is it made from flaking stucco or more like cow chips?

[B a r r y]

No, I have limited slip rear axle.

If that's not enough, I can activate 4WD and my electrically locking rear differential.

[George]

I keep some 4' sections of hard maple in the back of my pickup.

If I were carrying a bag of anything, it'd be chicken grit. Sharp, and instant traction....

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

My chauffeur never asked for my authorization to buy them.

[Knothead]

I just put an 8' piece of steel on the front of my truck in the snow, says "Western" on it. What I haven't figured out is if I am required to where my cowboy hat when driving with it on. Don't seem to have any trouble with snow what so ever though....

knothead

[Knothead]

Limited slip and a locker? Fanatic....;-)

[Joe User]

Not me. I use 5 gallon buckets. Fill 'em with water and they're about

40lb each.

-j

[mywebaccts (at) PLUGcomcast.ne]

When I had a rear-wheel drive, I used to carry one-gallon plastic jugs of cat litter (the ones you see in supermarkets). It added some weight and if I found myself stuck on ice somewhere, it made for an excellent traction mechanism (just pour it out). The one-gallon size made it easier to work with.

However ... cat litter does make a real mess if you get it on your boots and track it into the house. Stucco chips sound like they would have been a better option.

Heck .. we live in New Mexico now. We don't get enough ice down here to consider the problem anymore!

Jack

[e-mail]> How many here use sand bags for weight in their car or truck in the winter?

[George Max]

I see. So you have need for more than a couple of sandbags.

I'll take the snow, thank you anyway.

[Jennifer Juniper]

There are a few of us who live in sunny California where the weather in most places consists of two seasons. Warmer sunny weather and Cooler sunny weather. Occasionally we do have that strange liquid stuff falling from the skies which so confuses some people that they forget how to drive all together. :)

~Jen

[Pounds on Wood]

Never heard of "stucco chips". What they hell are they normally used for? Here in CA we prefer our stucco on the walls.

--

******** Bill Pounds

[fredfighter]

1) I never read what you wrote about them before. 2) I never heard of stucco chips before and have no idea where to get them, or what sort of dip to serve with them. 3) I live in MD now, but when I lived in NE Ohio I just drove through the snow and never worried about redistributing the weight.

[John T]

Stucco chips are his name for decorative landscaping stones, about the size of a nickel, usually in come in bags at DIY stores. In this case, he prefers the white stones.

John

[Lee Gordon]

In this context, they are for when your car gets stucco in the snow and ice. You pour some in your tire tracks to get unstucco.

Lee

[Lee Gordon]

Last time I had a rear-wheel-drive car I kept 4 or 5 cinder blocks in the trunk during the winter.

Lee

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I use them and they work great. I stack maybe four over each of the drive wheels. Only problem is, I can's see over the hood then. Maybe it is a better idea for RWD vehicles.

[Norman D. Crow]

Harrumph! In my earlier days, carried two or three old tombstones in the trunk of my '53 Chev.(grandad was sexton for our country cemetery and they were old ones that had been replaced). Carried a toolbox or a couple concrete blocks in the front end of my '62 Corvair just to help keep the front end glued down so I could steer it in the winter. Only time I ever got it stuck was showing off, tried driving over/through a ridge of plowed snow in a parking lot, got high-centered and had to drag enough snow out from under the car to get the wheels back on the ground! Later on had (4) 50lb. Otis elevator test weights, about 8" x 8" x 6" steel with a built in handle, in my '64 Falcon Sprint. More recently, (5) 70lb. tubes of "traction grit". They fit nicely between wheelwells in my 2WD p/u, and if really necessary open them and spread some very nice sharp cornered traction aid. Between those and snow tires, if I can't get where I'm going, got no business going there!