Man oh man does salt make a once simple job a truly misserable experience. I simply started out to replace the front brakes, calipers, tie rods, ball joints, and u-joints. The front knuckles were frozen-locked. From the manual hub screws (which all but one broke) to the ball joints was a real chore. Lots of PB, Kroil, heat, and pounding to do such a simple job. Life was good in Idaho before the state began using salt six months of the year on the roads. Not one brake line came apart. Truly sad. Anthony

 

We dont have salt as bad up here as it sounds like you guys have there, but we have winter driving weather a good chunk of the year too, so I feel your pain!

Before I go to work on something, I soak it with penetrating oil as best as I can for a weekish beforehand.

 

Worse is that nuclear grade brine **** that they use down here, it's gets in all the places that salt cant... Every year I have to clean and paint underneath. I'm not one of these guys that wants to drip used oil all over everything to keep the rust down. Going back together with stuff, anti-sieze is your friend.

 

They use the brine (liquid salt) heavily several times a day and rock salt in the plow trucks. The damage to vehicles alone costs the american public $23 million anuualy according to the History channel which did a show on salt. That doesn't include the damage to concrete, bridges, nearby vegetation etc. What a horrible way to maintain our roads. Anthony

 

Is there a better way to remove snow and ice? If they only plowed, we would see a ton of people sliding and crashing in to each other. I am one of the few people I know that really enjoys driving on snow and ice. The stuff has to be removed for all of the Hondas and soccer Moms.

Don't get me wrong....I hate the rust and stuck nuts as much as you guys but what else can they do? I spent a couple days on suspension about this time last year and it was a royal pain in the ***.

 

how bout go back in time sand and studded tires or chains

 

Sand is hazardous waste and has to be treated as such come spring. Salt / sand mix was once 25 % sand. So when the salt melted the ice the sand would give traction on the black ice, the next morning. Now do to the Government mandates sand is a thing of the past. Expect to see it gone altogether by the end of next year. This state has done away with it already and YES that puts the public at risk of black ice but your life costs less then the clean up in the fall... I love winter BTW. City plow guy ....

Look up the cost of sand clean up/hazardous disposal . That 23 mill is peanuts... And the "brine" real name is liquid calcium.

 

I'll never understand it. Studded snow tires are awesome. If you can't afford them, slow down. Still using sand in CO, thankfully (maybe because it gets too cold for it to work well!). That brine is probably a calcium chloride solution, magnesium chloride solution, or sodium chloride solution (all do the same thing to ice). Simply liquid calcium would have to be at ~1600*F as thats calcium's melting point.