OT: slush and snow under wheel wells.

Anybody got any ideas how to make this crap easier to remove? Or not build up so fast?

This is on my mail route car, the right side is the worst because it has to drive in almost constantly to get to the mailboxes. I am having to stop several times a day and knock it out with a tire iron.

Waited too long yesterday between times, a frozen chunk dropped down and rubbed through the sidewall on the right rear tire. It is easy to clear under the front wells, just turn the steering either way and kick it out.

The rear wheels have near zero clearance, meaning I can't get behind the tires to knock out what is behind them.

It is going to be a LONG winter if this keeps up. I also have hay sold I need to move, but would like to see at least the mid 20's to do it. DOUG

What are you using for a car? I"ve never heard any of the RD"s at the office complain about compacted snow. How about a 2 foot chunk of 1" angle iron. Most ours have been switched over to LLV"s, but the rest have mostly suv"s one guy has a Taurus wagon,another has a Buick wagon.

This one is a 98 Chevy Prism LSi. The same as a Toyota Corolla.

My 95 Corolla's didn't seem to have this problem. But the last two were station wagons. The ice would start to build up in them, and then drop out half way easy.

Wonder if the fact they were wagons meant more heat was getting to the back, instead of being blocked off in the trunk.

I COULD run my RHD Jeep Cherokee, but it is helpless in two wheel drive and I don't like shifting constantly in and out of 4x4. It also costs me over twice as much per mile for fuel. DOUG

Spray your wheel wells with pam. Works on lots of other stuff, might work there too.

I would try the Pam too. It seems to work on the snow shovel, rear blade, and loader bucket when pushing snow around.

Greg

Just hit a frost heave on the highway fast enough to bottom out the suspension... cleans out the wheel wells REAL quick! Just did that this afternoon with my 'Sploder!

I know what you are dealing with and just glad I an not having to deal with it any more, I ran a rual newspaper route here in western Ohio for years and this last March I hung it up as at age 67 I can no longer take the weather. I have a couple of ideas on that problem but as I don't know if the 98 is the same body as the 95 was but if it is the same a wagon is rated for more load weight and heavier and therefore I would think heavier springs than on your current car so it would give more ground clearance than a sedan and if you are carring the same weight you would be compressing the springs harder for less tire clearance, even if the wagon had a larger tire the springs would have been designed to give more tire clearance and I would guess that the newer car has a wider designed tire even if it is the same height so that would make the clearance less. I do not think heat could be a factor as I could never get enough heat to melt the ice on the driver floor board so the back end would not get enough heat to make any efect. Could your rear springs be getting weak and sagging? On the Olds Ceira's that I drove (85, 94 & 98) I used when I could get them, almost allways buying used tires a 195-75R 14 instead of the factory 185-75R 14 as handled better but the newer body Ceria did not have the tire clearance either front or rear that the earlier body car had. On the Dodge Caravans that I drove on the route (85, 88 & 94) the standard tire was the same as what I used on the olds with the optional being a 205 70 series that was same height but wider than the 195 75 but would not go thru the snow as well. The vans did better in snow at any time than the cars but cost more to run and harder to reach out of. I am thinking your newer car is designed with less clearance and if it was the wagon version it would be better because of the springs. Did you not at one time also drive a Ceira on your route? It was on the drivers side that always hit the snow on the paper route as we always crossed the road and delievered of the left side when we could and the sheriff office said they just considered it a part of doing business with the highway patrol later taking the same look at it. At least the post office here if it is a danger to your life they do not make you run like the newspaper did. If it was an snow emergency with a level of 3 being the worst and you could be picked for being on the road (emergency vechicals only) they expected you to be out delievering even if no customers could get out to get the paper and even if it killed you and if it would have done that they would still have thought you should have gotton out of your coffin to deliever. I always carried a 3' pry bar to knock the ice out. Never tried the pam idea.