Nasty Road "Salt"

Whart I'm with you. I'm a southern boy uprooted and living in PA. I've never seen this stuff either...it creates a white film on your shoes that looks like you've been wading in birthday cake. More infuriating is that here they use "cinders" (down south we call it gravel) in addition to chemicals on the roads in winter. These are cool because they never disappear; they'll pepper your car all spring.

 

I invite anyone to come to Minnesota and see what fun we have in the winter. In addition to salt which they only use down to a certain temp they use other chemicals that will melt down to -35 below (or somewhere on that side of 0). They also like to throw sand at us every chance they get, so when winter is all done and gone it takes them about another month to pick up all the **** that is left on the streets. Salt is only good to about 10 degrees or something like that and that is why they start to mix it with other chemicals to attack the ice and snow.

Just my .02

Pat

 

sounds like some good stuff - this weather sucks

 

I feel sorry for you guys. Just the other day I was hanging out at this place a few miles from my house and there was white stuff all over the ground. Lucky for me though they call it beach sand.

 

I hate how it slowly cakes up on the windshield. kafjkahsdjfajsf. I use wayy to much washerfluid up to keep it clean.

 

I think what they are spreading up here is a mixture of sand and calcium chloride. Which is salt, just not the type you put on food (sodium chloride).

 

How about these:

Alaska uses volcanic ash which is black and hard to get off your car. Also eats brake rotors. I went through 3 sets in 5 years. You must use a cleaner wax two or three times during the winter, just so your paint doesn't feel like sandpaper.

South Dakota uses an invention by the Black Hills School of Mines. Just like kitty litter. No corrosive effects, and they place huge barrels of it at the bottom of hills in town. Self-service.

Colorado uses gravel. Doesn't melt anything and the peices are increaesed in size each year, since the anti-pollution people lobby that if they are too small, they create more dust. Usually ball bearing size, and Coloradans don't believe in mud flaps. Windshield repair business is booming. I have replaced three in two years. No street sweepers, so a nice dirty road until late spring.

In Denver, on the highways, they use a red fluid that is usually used on aiport runways. It is very hard to remove from paint, and stays sticky on the road long after the snow is gone. If you are driving on it and it is fresh, the fumes will come into your car and make you sick.