Keeping your car prepared for winter weather is essential to ensure safe driving. You often cannot predict when and where you might get stuck in the snow, even with snow tires. You can get caught in severe weather, far from help or even outside of the range of cell phone service. So it's important to have the accessories available to give your tires traction and get your car safely free. There are solutions and products that offer additional help when nothing else seems to work.
Tyre Grip is an aerosol product made by Triangle Associates that you spray on the treads of each tire. Made of isopropanol and resin, this product claims to prevent snow from accumulating on your tires. The way it purportedly works: As the isopropanol evaporates it cleans road grime from the tire, and what remains on your tire is a traction enhancing layer of resin that offers a grip on the road. The adhesive spray can last up to 50 miles, depending on the severity of ice and snow on the road. It is not harmful to tire or road surfaces.
AutoSock is a mesh that you slip over your tires. Available in different sizes, the high tech textile offers significant traction. Consumer Reports tested AutoSock against Tyre Grip and found AutoSock to be significantly more effective, especially getting uphill in the snow. This is a temporary solution that should not be left on your tires. Originally launched in Europe, AutoSock is now available through TireRack in the United States.
Keep a bag of salt or sand in your trunk to place under the front of the slipping wheel in an emergency. An alternative product to throw down is cat litter. Its properties also offer excellent traction. If you find yourself stuck without any of these items, find gravel or even twigs and sticks to place under the tire to help the treads grip a surface and pull you free.
A carpet square or rubber floor mat can offer great traction to free your snowbound car. TractionAids are small ladders of steel plates that fit under the front tires for front wheel drive vehicles or the back tires for rear wheel drive. Hand welded of A36 steel, they offer a grip in slippery snow. Portable Tow Truck is a polypropylene, highly durable strip that is placed under the pull wheel of your vehicle and gives immediate traction. These products are easily stored in the trunk of your car and are available for purchase online.
