I find it funny how many people are so quick to dismiss Bend and Central
Oregon's winters as nothing to bad. I say we don't have to live in the
Arctic to warrant a bit of care and winterization for our old vans.

Growing up here since 1986, I must say that we have some winters where it
just gets cold (10-20 degrees) for a couple months with not much snow/ice
(even that will take a toll on our old Vanagons) but a lot of years we get
quite a bit of snow.  And even more ice/black ice/ hard pack snow glazed
over.  The biggest issue is that these aren't quick snow storms and then it
all melts away, it usually sticks around for a long while.

And don't forget when our winter really starts and we get our few weeks or a
month of daytime single digit and below 0 temps in mid-to late Jan and early
Feb.  This makes Totoro very unhappy.  I may not run a trickle charger on
the battery but I do put a small $15 electric space heater in the van on the
lowest setting.  Makes getting in the van a bit nicer after a night of -10
that was probably preceded my a daytime high of 8.  Also, keeps the battery
at that same warmish temp so you have no problem with cranking power.   I
tried a dipstick heater, I didn't really notice a difference.  I think a
circulating coolant heater would be ideal.  Everyone would appreciate the
heat working faster.

Keep in mind this is a van that I drive pretty much every day even in
Winter. I have a set of studdless Hankooks.  Only traction issue is getting
going occasionally.  I did get stuck once in our driveway, I got into a
deeper (two feet) part trying to turn around and had to dig out a bit.

Over on the westside around Newport Mkt. and such you're still in the
rainshadow of the Cascades, the further south you go in Central Oregon (even
the Old Mill and south) the more snow you'll see.  In Sunriver last year, we
got much closer to three feet than the 20+ inches we had at our house in
Bend.

Funny though, over on the westside you're in the higher priority area for
plowing and sanding.  Sanding only helps for a bit until the sand turns to
little ice marbles.