Into the Snow and Ice

Three weeks after getting the Escape we made a trip up to Tahoe for New Years. Mine is only front wheel drive, so I picked up some chains at the local O'Reilly Autoparts. Unfortunately, the set was more expensive than what they were showing on their website; Laclede 2029 for around $90. Their website was showing a different model of cable chains for $35, but it turned out that set was too small for the P235/70R16 stock tires.

To prepare for the cold I added most of a bottle of rubbing alcohol from Walgreens to the washer fluid. If you buy pre-mixed washer fluid most of the time it has methanol or something else to keep it flowing below freezing, but I usually just use Windex concentrate or the store-brand equivalent. It ended up working great, the squirters started right up, even after 10F nights, when we headed home.

All told the trip was 430 miles, which we did on one tank. I didn't save the receipt here either, but the mileage was around 32 MPG for this trip. That's pretty decent given the freezing temperatures, mountain driving, and the chains.

We did end up using chains, which was novel but actually pretty annoying. Still, they worked well and on several occasions we drove around other vehicles which were having trouble (likely 4x4 that were exempted from chain control). I ended up hooking the chains on the second to last nub on the inside of the wheels, and the same on the outside, then tightening to the last nub on the outside. It was good that I practiced in the driveway the day before we left, as they chains both went on and came off with ease. We had no problems either way.