Re: WSJ: SUVs in Chicago

[Todd Young <tyoung@wamnet.com>]

Matt & Jenai wrote:

>
> By the hundreds, the very vehicles that in ads scale steep mountainsides and
> cruise across oceans of snow have been getting stuck in the streets of
> Chicago. And the damage hasn't been limited to pride and $200 towing
> charges. Many stuck drivers are spinning their wheels so furiously that they
> burn out their transmissions, or worse.
>
>
> "Some people have basically destroyed" their vehicles, says David Hessing,
> president of A-1 Towing Service in the Chicago suburb of Niles. "They think
> that just because they've got four-wheel-drives they can drive right through
> 18 inches of snow."

Probably the "main" problem these boneheads had was the stock tires. Most SUVs
are sold with "all season" tires, designed for rain and a little snow. With
proper mudder or all terrain tires, they would have had a lot less problems. I
had all terrain tires on my Toyota truck the entire time I owned it and never
got stuck. That included a record breaking Halloween blizzard, where I had to
push my way through a large plow drift. Granted I hit the drift straight on at
30mph and simply blasted through it, but I have managed to slowing drive
through plow drifts also. As we all know, the right tires can be the deciding
factor between getting stuck and getting through.

As a former (and future) driver of 4WD vehicles, I have no sympathy for idiots
who overdrive their vehicles and get stuck or in accidents.

--
Todd Young              WAM!NET Inc.
tyoung@wamnet.com       6100 West 110th Street
612-886-5051            Bloomington, MN 55438-2664
800-585-1133 ext.5051   http://www.wamnet.com/