It is the first time since July that I was glad that my van was still
in the shop. Enough snow has melted that I can now see my BMW wagon
that I didn't even bother to uncover. I have a 4-wheel-drive truck
that I have been driving in this snow and I have yet to actually put
it in 4-wheel-drive. It may be a lot about the skills of the driver,
perhaps less about the vehicle and its weight distribution.

But now that the roads are clearing up, I want my van back. They found
out last week what was making it run rough; one of the cooling vanes
on the torque converter was broken. I may be getting it back soon!
Fingers crossed...

Good luck getting out, Kim!
Marc

On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 4:46 PM, KIM BRENNAN <kimbrennan@mac.com> wrote:
> So, I’ve been stuck in my neighborhood since the big snow storm. I knew that even with good snow tires, I wasn’t going to be able to drive through 21” in my Syncro. And the tires on my passenger van were from from new (Nokian Hakkapalitas, 215/75R16). On the other paw I noticed a stack of snow tires in my garage. I figured today the snow pack had scrunched down enough that I might be able to make a run of it with those real snow tires.
>
> Vredestein Winter Comtracs 225/75R15. Shorter than the other tires, but with tons of great tread. So I started out. Managed to get nearly all the way out of the neighborhood when I got stuck behind someone else…who was driving a pickup truck with nothing in the bed of his vehicle. Doesn’t matter if you have 4wd, if you don’t have the weight to cut through the snow. I turned around and drove back home (which is what I would have done if I had made it the last 100 yards to the plowed street). I wonder how long it will take that person to get unstuck? (and no, I consciously chose to not help him, as it is the bad neighbor from across the street who has damaged 2 of my vehicles, and littered the park land next to my properly and  multiple other offenses.)