How to Tow a Car Out of the Snow

When the roads get slick or packed with snow in the winter months, your car can easily get stuck in it. You can try backing your car up and accelerating forward, but most of the time your vehicle is probably stuck. You will have to get a four-wheel-drive truck or vehicle to hook to your car with a tow chain and pull your vehicle out of the snow.

Things You'll Need

  • four-by-four truck
  • 14-foot tow chain
  • Back a four-wheel-drive truck up to whichever end of the stuck car is easier to get near--sometimes the front of the car will be in a snowbank so you will have to hook up to the rear axle. Stop within 3 feet of the front or rear bumper of the stuck car.

  • Put the truck in park.

  • Wrap a tow chain over the top of the rear axle of the truck and hook the chain over itself--place the hook on the end of the chain over a chain link that is close to the top of the axle to make the chain loop tight. Make sure the chain isn't wrapped around any wires or hoses, just the axle.

  • Wrap the tow chain over the top of the axle of the stuck car the truck is backed up to. Hook the chain over itself--place the hook on the end of the chain over a chain link that is close to the top of the axle to make the chain loop tight. Make sure the chain isn't wrapped around any wires or hoses, just the axle.

  • Have a second driver get in the stuck car and put the car in neutral. Get in the four-wheel-drive truck, put it in the lowest gear, and press the gas pedal slowly and gradually. Make sure that the wheels of the stuck car and truck pulling it are straight as you pull it. When the driver of the truck presses its brakes after it pulls out the stuck car, the driver of the stuck car should also push its brakes to stop.

  • Put both vehicles in park.

  • Unhook the chain from the axles once the car is unstuck and on the road again.