Unsticking your car from snow: Traction mats?

Do any of you snow drivers have experience with "traction pads/mats" for getting your cars unstuck from snow/ice? Links to two variations I found are below. Are these things useful, or just junk? Full tire chains are overkill for that quick "get yourself unstuck" need (and a real hassle to install). Generally if we can make it out of our cul-de-sac the main roads are fine. We usually don't have all that much snow here in Denver, but the last three weeks have been somewhat of an ordeal (to say the least!) Unfortunately, a drunk rearended us a few months back and totalled our 4-wheel drive.


Some traction mats I found searching the web:

http://www.ajprindle.com/products/sku-11886__dept-21__orderby-nw.html

-or-

http://www.lionsgrip.com/

I've used roofing shingles to extract myself (before AWD) and have heard of folks using heavy "Welcome" mats, carpet squares and the like. These linked items seem like specialty items that would work just as well. Neither of these are terribly expensive, but you should be able to find something suitable for free around the house or for cheap at your local hardware store, Home Depot, etc.

Good luck out there in the white!

A guy I used to know said he kept some chain link fencing in the back of his vehicle for such situations. I wonder if other kinds of wire mesh fencing would do as well?

Sue

I have freed my Jeep from the snow many times by placing tree branches and what not under the tires. In addition I have been off-roading with several trucks who carry a much larger version of the traction pads for use in mud and snow. The down side would be that 1) you have to carry them with you 2) you have to get out of your car to use them. Often times, I have found, that once you get stuck in the snow, you want to try and keep your momentum up to avoid becoming stuck again. More specifically if you stop to retrieve your traction mats, you may not be able to get going again without using the mats again.

Cat litter works great. And you don't really want to go bck for it.

Cat litter works fine- if -you have enough of it.... Chains work, unill it gets bad, then you got to chain up all 4 take it easy..Chains arn't overill, it's more like , an obligation, in Denver <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Car floor mats in emergency could help.

I make traction mats by cutting discarded snowmobile tracks into pieces about 3 feet long. They are free (at least in Maine) and the lugs on them grab the snow well. Check your local snowmachine dealer for discarded tracks.

Use your chains. Don't need to put them on, just pay them under as a traction mat, no sense in carrying another item that doesn't work any better.

Wow! Lots of good ideas for alternates here. 4WD with agressive all-season tires has been just fine for my last 25+ years in the Denver area. I don't think I've had to put on chains on over 20 years. Now that the 4WD is dead and we have no replacement yet, I'm getting a taste of how normal cars do in the snow. Not as good as I'd like.

A square ended shovel, bucket and gravel and you will also comply with "Colorado's Chain Law" when it is effect.

Ask someone who feeds stock to save you the synthetic 50# feed bags. Place what ever you need as far back in the vehicle as possible.

Roofing shingles have worked for me as emergency "traction mats" when stuck. Drove right out over them.

I'm a fan of multi-tasker items, so I use my car mats. They don't take up any extra space nor are they an additional cost.

Has anyone actually USED their car mats to get out of snow? My sister tried it, and she said the mats were just zinged out from under the wheels.

If you've done it, what's the trick?

Sue

I would imagine that the effectiveness of the car mat depends greatly on the condition of the snow and the type of car mat. For example if the snow were packed, but not completely solid, the rubber traction tips / points / pokey things on the bottom side of many car mats should dig in and provide some traction. I have not tested floor mats in snow myself, but I have used regular house carpet while stuck in mud and it helped a little.

On one of Ray Mear's shows in the desert, he tied the "sand ladders" (or whatever they were called) to the vehical when getting out of soft sand, so they would be dragged behind and he could wait for a convenient spot to stop and pick them up.

No idea if this approach would be useful on snow.

eeph

http://www.portabletowtruck.com/

I have a set of these and tend to work on icy roads, which is the only situation i have used them in.

Usally, i just dig out the tires and wedge the shovel under the back tires to use as traction.

It does vary on the type of snow/ice.

During the winter, I put WeatherTech rubber mats on top of the carpeted factory mats. Usually I just use the rubber mats, but once I used the carpeted one with the carpet side on the snow. The carpet side helped grip the snow.

I don't think the really thin aftermarket vinyl mats would work, not enough "weight" and lack of nubs/spikes for traction.

I'm not a snow person, I try to avoid the dreaded white stuff if at all possible (but I do carry chains year around, just in case). But, I have been stuck in sand and mud, and have used cool cushions (anyone remember them, they seem to be gone from most stores) for traction. In my experience, if what you put under the wheels for traction zings out, you have given the engine too much gas. Most people tend to do that, floorboard the throttle, thereby digging themselves in deeper. A light touch on the throttle is the way to go.

The heartache I have with traction mats is that, assuming that you want to keep them, you have to stop and go back for them, often getting stuck again in the process. Once I get going I like to keep going...

"...On one of Ray Mear's shows in the desert, he tied the "sand ladders" (or whatever they were called) to the vehical when getting out of soft sand, so they would be dragged behind and he could wait for a convenient spot to stop and pick them up.

No idea if this approach would be useful on snow..."

I have thought of that myself, and the only problem I see with it is front wheel drive, which many of todays vehicles have. That could require some perfectly placed ropes or whatever, to allow the "mat" to free the front wheels, but not go far enough back to tangle with the rear wheels...

I'm not a snow person either, but I did see something on TV a while back comparing some different solutions. A typical front wheel drive car drives into a snow drift and gets one its tires stuck. The driver spins the tire a bit, trying to drive out, melting the snow and letting it refreeze into a slick icy rut. The tire then just hopelessly spins in the rut as all the engine power goes to that one wheel.

As a demonstration, they tried various methods to get unstuck, like shoveling a path out, floor mats, kitty litter, trying to melt the ice with the cigarette lighter, etc. A hunk of chain link fence is one thing, but for the typical things that people might put under the tire, they were all basically ejected out the back and the tire just spun in place. The lighter is useless and just makes more ice. I forget why digging the path didn't work...I think the tire still couldn't initially get out of the iced up rut it was in and the "lip" of the rut was too hard to break up with the plastic snow shovel. Well, what was the secret to getting out?

Reducing the tire pressure so that you increased the surface area in contact with the icy rut. Then some gentle application of throttle and the car climbed right out of the rut. You can keep driving at a safe speed until you're on firmer ground, and then you can stop to reinflate the tire. You did remember to pack the portable compressor, didn't you? <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I think this method works partly by increasing the friction on the stuck wheel, so that it can help climb out of the rut. And I think the added friction helps send power to the non-stuck wheel, which also helps pull the car out. Someone who understands automobile differentials can explain that part better than me.

With an open differential (what most passenger cars have) the power supplied by the engine will take the path of least resistance. More specifically if one tire has traction and the other does not, all of the engines power will be sent to the slipping tire and not to the tire with traction. Airing down tires in snow, mud, sand, etc, will greatly increase traction by giving the tire a larger surface area on the ground. If you get stuck in a situation where one tire has traction and the other does not, airing down the spinning tire may help to balance out the power distribution a little. However, once you are un-stuck, you should air down the other tire as well. Airing down, in some situations, can almost provide as large of a traction gain as shifting into 4wd.


How dirrentials work: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm
Airing down: http://www.californiajeeper.com/tire-presures.htm

Yep, thats the problem, a differential will send all power to the wheel with the least amount of traction. A lot of the AWD systems have this problem too.
Sometimes you can power brake it, push the brakes a little bit (or parking brake if rwd) and the spinning tire will get stopped by the brake first and transfer some power to the other. Some people who offroad 2wd's will hook up two parking brake pedals, one for each side.
Some traction control systems do this by using the ABS pumps to apply the brakes to the faster spinning wheel to get power to the others. This of course eats brakes.
I've had all types and your much better off with the traditional rwd with locking transfer case in the middle that way there is no slipping between the front and rear. Those can also help prevent wheel lock ups by downshifting and using engine braking when coming to a stop rather than applying brakes and letting the ABS release your brakes when one wheel starts to slide.
Years ago I have a little 4 cylinder 4x4 Chevy S10. Very light truck and of course all those people who think rwd can't go in the snow didn't understand how I got around, I rarely needed to put in it 4wd. Late one night a big storm hit and a highway overpass with on ramp froze up. To get on the highway I had to go up the hill and on top get in the left turn lane then start down the other side and stop at the light and wait for it to turn green before making the left turn on to the on ramp. The police were there directing traffic as everyone who tried to stop at that light couldn't and would just slide on through so the police would stop the traffic the other directions so no one would get hit. I saw them as I got came to the top of the hill motioning someone who hadn't gotten into the long left turn right away to go straight so I got in the left turn lane before they could motion me to go striaght. I pulled the 4x4 lever just to be safe and downshifted as I got closer to the light and the police stopped traffic as the vehicles in front and beside me started sliding. They looked at me with big eyes as I downshifted again and came to the stop bar and applied a tiny bit of brake and stopped like normal, then motioned for me to go on since they already had traffic stopped the other ways. I popped it out of 4x4 and started off and drove around the turn and onto the highway without any problem. The locked 4x4 won't let one of the wheels brake loose since one of the wheels at the other axle would have to do the same but it still had traction. Years later driving a newer AWD vehicle with ABS I tried to slowly stop at a light on flat ground in the snow. One wheel slipped a bit and the ABS kicked in and release the brakes and I had to go on through as the older ABS systems had a couple second release/apply cycle and the viscous coupled front and rear allowed a speed difference between the front and rear axles.
Some vehicles even with auto transmissions you can start in 2nd like a manual to get less torque to get you started in low traction.

She hit the gas too hard, but thats how most people do anyway. If your transmission will let you start in a higher gear, higher gear=less torque=less chance to break traction. Then apply the gas very gently, if it breaks loose let up on the gas. Most accidents happen because people hit the gas harder when they loose traction.