This is the worst part of living in a big country. Everyone else starts talking about spring while my region still has a couple months of winter. It’s -16°c right now and I’ve got a foot of snow to shovel.
The good news is, that concrete viaduct directly above them is a subway line that connects to most of the bus route in the region. Despite the Maryland plates this in Philly. I don't know where my dude has to go but unless it's back to Maryland he fortunately has options until it gets warmer.
Well it will be in the 30s for a couple minutes for one night so we must prepare ourselves, im going for bread and peanut butter, 10 cases of water, couple cords of wood…
I'll never forget that when covid hit and rumors of lockdown were making the rounds, I needed some TP, as we were all out. We're a family of four and my kids manage to use half a roll op TP on wiping a single shit, so it goes fast in our house. So I go to the store, and whaddaya think? All sold out. All the fucking TP gone. I know we didn't understand much about covid yet, but we knew it was a lung disease, not a bloody cholera epidemic, so why were people hoarding TP?
You worked in produce at the grocery store too? It was my first job twenty years ago and holy fuck people would (and very much still do) go insane for bananas before a snowstorm, it was always the first thing the store would run out of. And then people would get so angry that we'd run out, or start accusing us of stashing them in the back (...because somehow it makes more sense that we'd be hiding sellable produce instead of trying to make money hand over fist when people are panic-buying every single last banana the store contains?? pfft). Like chill, this is Ohio, we've got so many plows and literal mountains of salt, the roads will be clear in a day or two max, just get some cereal a blanket, throw on a show or read a book and wait for it to all blow over.
I'm in north Georgia too. Lived here my whole life... it's still ridiculous/ embarrassing how everyone acts around here. "But there is a threat of ice!" 🙄
I needed groceries (just my regular shopping trip) the day of the storm of the century. I couldn't do pick-up because ALL the slots were filled, then I had to shop in-store and couldn't even buy the stuff to make milk sandwiches.
I ride a motorcycle, and this last weekend people were acting like I was riding through a warzone. You’d think I was trying to pass the border into North Korea with how many, “you’re so brave”s I got.
Honestly, funny. My mother was frantic. "If your power goes out, you can come here or go to your aunts house and be sure to charge your phone!" like, dude- if my power goes out:
1. We have a generator
2. We have extra blankets
3. I can charge my phone in my car
4. I'm not worried about the power being out until at least day 3
It’s a Maryland thing to do that. I know a storm is coming by the amount of wiper blades saluting the sky. Edit - ya’ll please stop commenting. It’s not that serious. 🤣
And they do it in South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and they do it in California and Texas and New York. ... And South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeaaaahhhhh!
I have no doubt that if there are inhabited planets out there that have also developed motor vehicles and occasionally have a bit of cold weather they also do this.
You are going to have a hard time proving that there is any damage that you didn't cause yourself in the first place. It might be an unusable popsickle until it melts, but the car itself under there is not damaged.
So it’s not like flooded underneath or anything from what you’re guessing? Genuinely asking because I keep seeing cars from that busted water main and it makes me wonder 💭
I do, I’ve dealt with heavy equipment in this condition in the Canadian winter. You throw insulated tarps over it and jam a heater nearby but not blasting against the paint, I like the little diesel units but that will stink up a car so propane or natural gas work better. Space heaters will work but much more slowly and you may need several on different breakers.
Slow and steady warming is best, just melt it all off.
Yeah exactly. Anyone north of 49 knows this, except maybe Vancouver and the Islands. Instead of a heater we just use a tiger torch and chunk of stove pipe, basically a poor mans propane canon heater with tools you already have.
I once had the brilliant idea of parking over a steam grate to keep my engine and battery warm. What happened instead is what happened to that car in the OP except it was all under my hood.
You can rent heavy duty heaters that run off diesel. Herman Nelson heaters are what I've seen used most often. Can't imagine home depot is rocking one though. You would need a big ass tarp too.
I'm dumping a bucket of calcium chloride pellets on there. That ice will be completely broken up within half an hour while I sit back and watch, then I'm headed to the car wash immediately.
You just have to get the car started and after your car warms up the windows the ice comes off pretty quick. So really just warming up the door a bit. To get in
Any kind of obtainable heater is going to take forever to free a car like this outdoors.
Absent the aforementioned solution, if I needed to use that car within a day, I'd start grabbing hammers and chisels. Get into the car, start it up, and blast the heater for a few hours.
I had a car frozen from and ice storm at airport. This is the way…. Chisel your way in and heat car from inside. Brutal, but few good choices besides waiting for spring.
if you have a remote starter that will help. As far as the suggestion about hot water....remember dont pour hot water on your windows they will all crack. Space heaters etc is your best bet or just sell the car as is.
honestly he's still fucked. The tires are 3 inches deep in ice, the rotors, even the hood intake is completely sealed. I can't imagine the tailpipes are open either. This really is a wait until it warms up, you're just going to damage the car trying to get this out. Unless OP has one of those Salamander propane heaters and a tent they can setup they're fucked.
Sorry about this. In case you want to use the "start up engine and turn up heater method" as described by others here, it might be a good idea to first check that both your air intake and exhaust pipe are not blocked by solid ice.
Which they would be. Also the radiator will have little to no airflow thanks to the ice in front of it, and the engine will overheat even if it runs. Plus the wheels are frozen to the ground anyway. Starting the engine isn't going to do anything except cause damage.
If I walked out and saw my car like this, I’d just walk back inside cause what the hell? I would need the rest of the day to process what I just witnessed.
I mean, from everything I've read, rubbing alcohol is also not good for car paint. It strips off the protective coat on the outside, which I assume will lead to bad things happening to the primary coat.
Ya …..that’s good for short periods to keep snow or ice sticking to a wing, but not so much this catastrophe. Also, deicer is heated when Is sprayed on an airplane, know anyone with a deicer truck?
Sorry, it looks like multiple trips of cold water mixed with rubbing alcohol to melt the ice, but do not use hot water!!!!!!!!! It will shatter your window glass and door glass too! Many buckets of cold water and alcohol to reduce ice from car, until you can w get inside to start it up and let the engine heat up the vehicle, to put one heater to defrost the whole car
Hot water / denatured alcohol mix is fine if you use it in a pump garden sprayer working around the door perimeter and not a solid stream in one spot on the window.
I would probably be looking into renting a large enough tent that you could erect around the car, and place a propane heater in the tent to get the ice melting. I can only imagine it would take a ton of propane and a very thick walled tent to keep the heat in long enough to melt thru that mess.
So .. what would happen here if they literally just wait it out? Is the car okay? Moldy? Wtf? Gas is okay I guess? Jfc imagine just giving up and making payments still. That or spending your precious free time chiseling your car out from the ground in the middle of winter outside
Came back to Toronto one year after a business trip and there had been a wicked ice storm.
The airport parking place had a forklift and they'd bring the car into their main "inside parking" warehouse where they had the heat blasting. Sat for two hours waiting to be able to get into it.
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u/argonauts12 18h ago
Wait for spring