Northern CA B.S thread

hes got a prerunner

just tell the chain guys its 4wd they aint gonna know ... calif frequently requires chains when the hwy is still bare asphalt!

 

^ lol, I don't know if I could get away with that...

 

I went up to Tahoe the Saturday after Thanksgiving and got trapped in the snow storm on the way home. It took 9 hours to get home to UC from Truckee. Major traffic and at least 7 accidents in the mountains

 

unless you are on 20s with low pros youll be fine

i got away in it in this all the time




havent tried with the toyota yet

 

^ but would they fall for " I'm in a 4x4"?

 

yea like i said, sometimes they will ask you if its 4wd and you say yes, othertimes i just throw up 4 fingers and they waved me thru without rollin down the window

 

All the check points i've encountered over the years required demonstration after you've told them you're 4x4 equipped. i.e. accelerate to so they can see all your tires spinning. Why lie about it, get some chains and be safe rather then sorry.

 

ive been doing this for five years and that has never happened to me

two of the years involved coming up hwy 20 to get to 80

plenty of 80 encounters

going hwy 50 from the south lake side

as i said never had a problem.

 

OK, there's two levels of chain control (actually 3 but 2 for all practical purposes)

At the chain control 1, cars and pickups with M&S tires go through. You might find it's pretty dry at the inspection station at this level.

At chain control 2, only 4x4 with M&S tires goes through without chains. Usually significant snow or ice on the road further ahead by the time they go to this level.

(Yeah they have chain control 3 where everyone chains up - but as mentioned before that's so rare few folks have ever seen it applied. I haven't)

I've seen the inspector get out and study the sidewall to find if its M&S or not.

If you've got lots of experience driving in the snow, well then you neither need nor want my advice. But for someone new to driving in the snow, I personally would recommend against trying to "sneak through" the 2nd level chain control point in a 4x2 without chaining up, especially in a light-ass-rear-end pickup truck.

Learn your snow traction limits in a big parking lots (lots of fun), and on flat streets and roads. Not on crowded mountain highways.

 

I agree! Do not be the idiot who gets waved through to spin out and cause an accident in conditions that most people driving are already inexperienced in. If you dont have a 4x4 then get the chains. Not hard to put on at all and takes 10 - 15 minutes out of your day.

 

im not advocating that at all, but often they will be reqiring chains when its bare aspahlt, thats when i tell em my rig is a 4wd and go .... if its really bad i will put on chains

 

LMAO! watching the news right now and all the ppl up in the sierras are being videotaped trying to put on chains. Thank Goodness for 4x4! worth every penny!

 

These R2 conditions still require 4wd vehicles to carry chains (which is why I carry them). My in-laws lived in South Tahoe for over 22 years and they always had them even with 4wd. While they've never checked mine, they have asked if it was 4wd and that it was engaged. They're mostly looking at the tires and tread depth. One of our friends lives up a little further past our exit and she drives a 2wd hatchback with studded tires. She always tries to sneak through. Last month, it snowed down low and she got to the chain checkpoint. He asked, "4wd?" and she said, "No, but I have studded tires on all 4." So he asks again, "4wd?" and she repeats what she said before. He asks a 3rd time, "4wd?" and she gets the hint..."Yes, it's 4wd." And he waves her through!

The joke, though, was almost on her. She barely made it up the hill and almost got stuck. She doesn't want to do that again (and she's been driving in snow for years and years). So if she'd gotten stuck, I wonder what the fine would have been for: a) Lying to the official that it was 4wd, and b) Getting caught in a chain requirement area in a 2wd vehicle without even having chains?

And I totally disagree with sneaking through. Not only do those people tend to hit others and/or close the highway down due to their accidents, but there's enough yahoos living in my town that can't make it up the hills in 2wd. In winter, it is common to see one of two things on our two-lane roads. Either you get stuck behind one of these yahoos going 5 mph while they're sliding back and forth trying to make it up the hill (and don't pull over so you end up passing them over the double line), or they simply can't make it up the hill and park in the road. They turn their lights off, turn the vehicle off, lock the doors, and walk somewhere!!! So sneaking through the chain checkpoint really pisses me off.

Ah, I feel better now for venting. On second thought, if you're going up 80 instead of 50, go ahead and sneak through.

 

What is funny is that we live in california where most of the snow drivers are going over the sierras, in other parts of the country its all flat, nebraska, detroit, wyoming... etc... Just a bunch of flat roads no one cares about, but when you are going over mountains with windy roads and cliffs its a totally different story...

(Fade in)

5 years ago I was trying to making it to South Lake tahoe for new years and we got stuck in pollock pines at a checkpoint for chains at 2am. Well I got out put them on then they decided it was too late at night and they had to wait til morning to clear roads and let traffic through so we pulled off. Talked to a nice couple on their way to tahoe for their sons wedding and were worried they wouldnt make it, they got stuck without chains too because they were from michigan and driving a rental car. The guy was so pissed because he said I am from michigan I drive in this shit all the time and never required chains before.

I thought it was ironic and funny at the same time, guy didnt even know how to put them on, but I did it for him in the holiday spirit.

 

Lived in Denver for a while and had friends that grew up there that didn't even know what chains were.

......... I missed that state........

I told them and they said chains were you chumps that couldn't drive in the snow!!

Haahaaa

P.s. They both came from Audi and Subaru families!!!

 

my inlaws are all in Eastern Canada and dont use chains. But the difference as mentioned before is that they dont have hills (big difference) and california doesnt salt the roads. Thats why our vehicles dont rot to hell in a few years. They only drop sand. Those inlaws I mentioned before had two accidents here in the snow a few years back because they thought they were some kind of snow professionals, its apples and oranges.

 

holy crap! Gonna head up to south lake tahoe here in about an hour and it is dumping in the valley,

 

Ya its dumping up here. We had almost 2 feet fall yesterday!

 

Gotta love the TITs!!!!!!!!

 

Yep, CALTRANS uses a de-icer (called Ice Slicer: http://www.iceslicer.com/) that looks like salt and leaves a white residue on the roads and cars. But it's 70% less corrosive than salt on steel. I wonder why it isn't used back east? CALTRANS also doesn't use sand on the roads. Instead they use cinder. The Tahoe area uses sand and cinder and will frequently mix the de-icer in with their loads of sand/cinder. What's funny is the company name on the trucks that deliver the cinder to the "sanding" stations along Hwy 50. My wife's seen them and they're something like Cinder-ella (Not sure how they spell it but it sounds out just like Cinderella).