Snow hell in SoCal

[bbhero]

Those are actually reasonable numbers for the mountains in Oregon and Washington. I would have thought Big Bear was used to snow since they are a ski resort?

We are getting another dump in the mountains her and it looks like California will get it as well. Tomorrow will be interesting.

Oh absolutely…

In Northern California it’s quite common for 36- 72 inches of snow in the Sierra’s.

And the same is true farther northward in the Cascades in Oregon and Washington.

In this case it’s not quite as common in the San Gabriel mountains and other mountains surrounding LA. In this event even mountains southward near Dan Diego had a fair amount more snow than they typically do too.

 

[UG_Passat]

I'm up at 6000 feet in the mountains west of Palm Springs. We have gotten about 15 inches of snow so far with more forecast.
My Mazda CX 5 has AWD and does OK with the new Continental Extreme Contact all season tires as long as the snow is only a few inches deep and the road is fairly level. The problem is that the side streets off of the State Highway can be pretty steep and then
traction becomes a big problem. And due to a design flaw on the CX 5, you cannot use chains as they will rub on the suspension components.

So I just stay home until the streets are wet but not icy or don't have a light coating of snow on them. The county is good about plowing both the highway and residential streets, but the steepness of some sections makes them impassable. I do have a neighbor with a 4WD Jeep and some kind of suitable tires and he climbs right up the street with no issues even when there is several inches of fresh snow on the road.

You can't use Autosocks, like Subarus with the same design flaw?

 

[Pew]

You can't use Autosocks, like Subarus with the same design flaw?

You can use socks. There isn't a design flaw, the wheel and strut are just too close.

 

[DwightFrye]

The reason I bought a Mazda CX 5 with AWD is that I wanted the more powerful turbocharged engine and more standard equipment. And that meant that the model would also be AWD. The car gets at least 27 MPG on the freeway although it sucks gas going up and down the mountain. But I'm OK with the fact that it isn't miserly on gas as I'm only putting about 5000 miles a year on it since I am retired.

Pew, if the wheel and strut are too close to use chains and a great deal of the geography in the US where these cars are sold gets a considerable amount of snowfall each year, how is that not a design flaw ? Snow tires are a solution but not practical for me since I would really only need them a few times a year.

For what I understand about snow socks, they are only for emergency or short term use correct ? I'd sure like to just have a $30 set of chains available that I could install in the comfort of my garage when needed for a short trip to town. But there was an insert provided with the paperwork at the time of the sale that warned against using chains and I had to sign it when taking delivery.

 

[UG_Passat]

The reason I bought a Mazda CX 5 with AWD is that I wanted the more powerful turbocharged engine and more standard equipment. And that meant that the model would also be AWD. The car gets at least 27 MPG on the freeway although it sucks gas going up and down the mountain. But I'm OK with the fact that it isn't miserly on gas as I'm only putting about 5000 miles a year on it since I am retired.

Pew, if the wheel and strut are too close to use chains and a great deal of the geography in the US where these cars are sold gets a considerable amount of snowfall each year, how is that not a design flaw ? Snow tires are a solution but not practical for me since I would really only need them a few times a year.

For what I understand about snow socks, they are only for emergency or short term use correct ? I'd sure like to just have a $30 set of chains available that I could install in the comfort of my garage when needed for a short trip to town. But there was an insert provided with the paperwork at the time of the sale that warned against using chains and I had to sign it when taking delivery.

If you really want to spend the extra money, consider Konig K-Summit for 20x the cost of you'd like.

I had these on my Passat, which don't support chains in the 235/45r17 tire size (but does support it in 215/55r16). Since it doesn't wrap to the rear of the tire, no strut body clearance issues.

Chains in general are emergency/short term use also.

 

[Pew]

Pew, if the wheel and strut are too close to use chains and a great deal of the geography in the US where these cars are sold gets a considerable amount of snowfall each year, how is that not a design flaw ? Snow tires are a solution but not practical for me since I would really only need them a few times a year.

I wouldn't say it's a design flaw, everything works as normal. A design flaw imo would be a tire at stock size rubbing up against the plastic fender liners at full lock. All (3) of the cars I've owned did not have space for snow chains per the manual. The biggest factor I've noticed is the vast majority of CX5s are around suburban areas which tend to get plowed pretty quickly; I couldn't find a study based on sales of CX5 per state.

 

[Chris142]

https://share.newsbreak.com/36ofls3b

 

[totegoat]

We are simply not set up for this.

Had snow like that at Big Bear winter 68/69, then it turned to rain........quite the mess.

 

[Chris142]

Had an avalanche today not far from palm springs!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...rnia-avalanche-mount-san-jacinto/11364030002/

 

[Finklejag]

My parents just called and said it’s snowing in Hemet. Even snow couldn’t make that slum city look nice.

 

[Pablo]

My parents just called and said it’s snowing in Hemet. Even snow couldn’t make that slum city look nice.

My great aunt and uncle lived there in the 1960s. Nothing there really back then.

 

[Finklejag]

I graduated high school there 30 years ago and it was a nice city. All the Los Angeles garbage moved east and destroyed it. My parents are well into retirement and can’t afford to move out. I feel bad for all the senior citizens that live there these days.