San Diego BS Thread.

Well if today is your snow play day. You have plenty of ares to choose from. Still snowing right now.

 

the town of Ranchita has some areas off the main rd.

 

Heard Friday the snow line is dropping to 3000'. Lot more places off the beaten path to find snow if it drops that low.

Edit: forgot a 0. should be 3000' (fixed)

 

300 would be crazy. So far Friday is predicted down to 4000 which is still pretty low.

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/getprod.php?new&prod=XXXAFDSGX&wfo=sgx

 

Dang 300', we could ski Mt.Soledad in L.J.
Just ribbin you TacoNoVeg,funny.eh?

 

Wassup ladies and gentlemen!! Hope all my TW peeps are doing well! Im finally back online, finally got the internet working a little better now, and I'm mostly healed from some big crashes the past couple months now I'm able to work at full speed again. I still have a fractured shoulder blade but its not causing too much trouble now, only when I have to reach overhead is when I feel much pain.
Ill be returning PMs starting tonight, this is gonna take a while, pretty sure most people just texted me but I'll return PMs anyway since I dont really know peoples screename vs their real name.

Anyway, missed all you guys! Hope everyone is doing well!!

 

Ok, back to kids and snow. I’m contemplating travel to my sister’s place in Mi Wuk Village. She is there now and the stay at home has been rescinded.

My sister has expressed concerns I won’t make it.

I have chains and of course the locker. No plow or anything. Some decent experience in snow from decades ago but it’s been a while. Two young boys.

On a scale of 1 (no risk) to 10 (high risk) how safe is this road trip? And would recovery boards or a tow strap add safety? I figure I can turn around at any point and go find a hotel in the Central Valley but my sis is expressing severe anxiety given expected snowfall.

The last time I went to this house was in my Corolla. It’s paved the whole way just a bit remote.

 

Not a great time to travel to the mountains with the forecast for the storm rolling in. There is a blizzard warning along the Sierra front from Tahoe to Bishop...Mi-Wuk is outside of that but still under a winter storm warning with expectations of 3ft of snow through the weekend.

In addition to chains, you should have a strap and shovel in addition to warm clothes and several days worth of food/water at a minimum.

 

Thanks. I plan to travel with clothes, sleeping bags, tent, food and water. I can throw in a shovel and get a tow strap and some wiper fluid. Are recovery boards useful in this situation?

 

The only time I used traction boards in snow they cracked, plastic and cold are not friends

 

Saw this on Reddit.

 

What tires are you running, how old are they (check the manuf. date code on the sidewall), and how much tread do they have left?

I've never needed traction boards when traveling on paved roads but that's not to say others wouldn't use them.

Any reason you have to go before the storm? It's really not something you should be traveling in unless you need to. Driving in a snow storm, with potentially zero visibility from blowing snow, with two kids in the vehicle, isn't a very wise thing to do.

 

Dang Jason, I hope you're back at full speed without pain soon. Be careful out there and good to have you online again!

 

So, the _point_ is to have snow play time (the boys are obsessed with snowballs, snowmen, etc right now) and my sis has a solid back yard which is sloped just right for 5 year old sledding. She also has 3 girls who are a bit older and love the boys. We've all been in solid isolation, not even going to school this week because of a potential exposure last week Monday. Pending test results, we've done 2 weeks of isolation and with the lifted stay at home order plus the dumping of snow expected, it seems an opportune time to _be_ there for the weekend to play in large snow drifts. The boys have been talking about snowball fights for months now.

The tentative plan is Friday am departure, not today nor tomorrow. I think, since the storm may be a bit unpredictable, it might be best to set a ~24h departure window from Thursday morning through Friday at noon. It's around 8h of driving plus stops for boys plus delays from weather and traffic so a solid journey.

I'm not looking for some excessive adventure, but I did buy a truck in part for access to places I want to go, this sort of fits the bill and it came with chains and a locker so I'm not unprepared. I was planning to fill my rotopaxes with water for weight (hoping they don't freeze along the way) and I've already started packing food and clothing. I added my small shovel and just bought a tow strap and topped off wiper fluid. Getting the oil changed on Thursday morning. Bought my 5 y/o a super warm jacket, already have one for the 3 y/o. Snow pants, gloves, hats, all packed already.

Blizzard warning extends through 2am Friday at this point in time. I'd be hitting the after-effects. A Friday 4am departure as planned seems like it should be accessible and I'd arrive at a perfect time to get max play/enjoyment of the fresh dump.

The question being if this is truly dangerous or reckless even given my planning and/or how to reduce risk to the point where it isn't reckless. That's a tough one for me to judge. I do think it'd be best to leave very early rather than afternoon or evening so as to ensure the most challenging driving will be done during hours of daylight.

I figure I can certainly delay the return until such time that it's safe to leave.

ETA: Oh yeah, tires, unfortunately they are the OEM wranglers, could be stock, truck has 42k miles and tread is about half for 3 and brand new on the driver rear as I rotated in the spare when I got a nail patched. So, 3 tires could be 4 years old and 1 (the spare) definitely is but based on the tread life remaining and the vehicle age and mileage I'm guessing the may have been replaced at some point. Or do the stock tires really go about 80k miles? I've owned the truck for a year now, put on about 1000 miles so far myself. That's a good idea to check the date, will do that. DT has looked at them twice now and twice advised against replacing. I figured I would chain up once I hit significant snow.

EDIT2: Looks like 2316 on all tires so shoot, maybe all 5 are the originals from the point of sale. That would appear to be one of the weaker links, though I do have a freshly patched spare on OEM rim ready to rotate in. I should pack my breaker bar and torque wrench as well I suppose.

 

I wouldn’t want to be driving on the Grapevine during winter conditions. You may be fine, but who knows about that dude in the 2000s mustang with bald tires or the soccer mom in her G-Wagen.

 

@daveeasa, by Friday AM you should have a pretty good idea about how much of a storm this really was.

5 year old half worn all seasons aren't going to do you a lot of favors but by the time you're in the mountains the plows will have had some time to work on the main roads.

 

Food, Water, blankets, a full tank of gas, cell phone & charger, and DO NOT leave your vehicle if anything does not go as planned.

 

This is a good point and got me thinking. I now own 3 steelies thanks to @Tombiology70's pair. I never planned for snow tires living in SD but f it, I already have my 5 OEM wheels for mall crawlin' so I may as well get some beat-the-s-out-of-me-please shoes and stich 'em up with some really bad mpg, just-for-s-weather laces. Anyone got a lone spare 16" steelie who wants rid of it on the cheap? And which tires would be best for this type of stuff? A real snow tire or a heavy/loud MT? Obviously looks aren't a concern on steelies, nor mpg nor life as I'll swap back to my shiny wheels once I'm back home.

Tons of warm clothes, blankets, food, water, tent, sleeping bags, pads, 400w anytime mod, chargers, cell phones, backup cell phones, tablets for the kids, cliff bars, chains, diff lock, 2wd low, shovel, washer fluid, tow strap, new battery, fresh oil, keep gas tank full, and new tires. I guess winch is maybe the one thing I'm missing?

 

Do you have a good tow point on both the front and rear of your truck?