Hi

I hope to be moving to Alberta (Probably Edmonton) late next year, and like to have all plans in place. Is it really necessary to have a 4 wheel drive. Are the roads kept clear during heavy snowfalls? Is a block heater required?

Thanks
Rich and Meg

No its not. Most, nearly all in fact drive front drive cars or rear drive trucks. Its the tires that make a differnce, specialised winter tires are probably a good investment, far more so than AWD / 4x4

Please, dont get us started on block heaters again

What he said.

You need a block heater. But then, in this part of the world, a block heater is standard issue. I don't know which dealership would sell a car without a block heater.

As Iain and Steve indicated, you don't need 4-wheel drive. I do like to have front-wheel drive and ABS brakes.

To live in Alberta you need a 1 ton truck. Either an F350 superduty or a Ram 3500. Gun rack is de-regieur as is a stetson and boots. Ignore these British wannabes in Alberta who say you can get away with a car and such like. I mean, you wanna blend in right?

We have a 4x4 which we will use on longer journeys and visits to the rockies during the winter and this year I have a front wheel drive standard transmission PT Cruiser with all season tyres, Hubby assures me I will be fine but me I think I need snow tyres, unfortunatley the all seasons are practically new so what I want will be ignored

Hubby during the 1st winter had a LWB F150 that was only 2 wheel drive and he kept getting stuck at the bottom of the road and when he was doing U turnes to park in the street, I was fine in my 4x4 Explorer and it was a mild winter. We both had 4x4s last year and didn't get stuck anywhere.

As for block heaters - fingers in my ears and Lalalalalalala. When we have had a car with a block heater it has only been turned on a couple of hours before the car is needed and only when it's going to be -21 or colder, I don't know what they do (well I sort of do but not well enough to explain) but lots of people have cords across the paths with their cars plugged in all winter. Neither of our cars this year have block heaters - or if they do they haven't got the pluggy thing you need.

We have seen Mustangs/Camaros etc being driven all winter - the ones you see in the ditches are the lifted 4x4s that have been chipped - if your idiotic enough to chip and lift a truck then your the idiot driving at 200 kph in the blizzard and fog.

What has the age of the all seasons got to do with anything? Its not like you chuck the existng tires when you switch over? Think of it as insurance against an accident, and increased life from your allseasons, and go buy some on a spare set of steel rims anyway.

AWD is a nice option to have, gets you going easier, but probably encourages you to drive a bit faster than you would with 2WD as its not immediately obvious when you have low grip conditions. Unfortunately it does bugger all for stopping you in low friction conditions, and that, combied with going faster in the first place is not a good combination. AWD is not a substitute for good winter tires.

Block heaters are not, contrary to public opinion, about getting a vehicle going, as much as they are about not doing long term damage and wear and tear while getting it going.

Most of the time a car wont start in the cold its because of an old battery thats struggling in the cold toprovide enough amps, not the thicker oil thats the problem. Having said that thicker oil puts more strain on the starter and asks more of the battery.

No block heater and crappy old cold battery = trouble for sure
Block heater and crappy old cold battery = could be touble
No block heater, new but cold battery= should at least start.

Oh god, Ive been drawn in again...so thats my last word this time around

The All seasons came on a set of Alloys on the car when we bought the car.

Hubby then went and bought a set of shiney bigger alloys with summer tyres on them.

We don't need a third set to fit the same car and where cars are involved I don't get a say on it.

So (being devils advocate here) hubbie and you are happy for you to drive around risking you and yours life on inadequate tires for the winter because you've already got enough sets of tires for the car although none of those sets are winter tires? Seems like an incredible bit of false economy to me. Do you have a life insurance policy he's looking to claim on?

Great, so you dont need to even buy rims, just the snows for that wheel, which you can get on ebay or mail order from the US for a fraction of the cost locally. It costs only $12 a wheel to put a tire on you know

And you can sell the allseasons you arent using in the classifieds or on ebay to recover some of the cost of the winter tires.


So really you have even less reason than the rest of us to do it as you have spare wheels already and a way to pay for half the cost!

Takes me back to when I was 17

Actually it wouldn't cost anything to put new tires on the rims as hubby is a mechanic. As a mechanic he see's the scariest things you can imagine. Many Canadians don't change their tyres until they resemble racing slicks.

We are hardly the only people in Canada to use all season tires all year round - if we were the manufacturers would stop making them. All seasons are better than using summer tyres in the winter.

Safe and sensible driving is the key to survive winter driving.

If you can make my hubby spend money on snow tyres then be my guest. As I have said I have very little say in what gets spent on a car and what type of car I have. Whatever car I have - I don't get to drive it until he has had it for a while to make sure it's reliable etc.

Absolutely true

And yes many people do without. But having experienced both, and driving sensibly, I realise its much safer to actually be able to stop and steer that much sooner in the snow and ice, if only to be able to avoid the ones without any grip.

It seems the only people who dont seem to advocate winter tires are the people who have never had them on their car. I didnt use to care, my all seasons seemed perfectly adequate, but my wife insisted once we had kids. Now Im a convert. Im surprised you let your husband railroad you into this..my wife certainly made it clear that the money would be spent.

Last winter I was used to driving with them on her car and then got into the one without. (An AWD Subaru no less)

Without doing anything stupid or driving aggressively I totally failed to stop at an icy intersection, and it was only dumb luck that there was nothing else coming at the time.

I'm not railroaded - it's just not worth the argument. I drive aware - in fact I'm probably a nightmare to be behind. If you read Hubby assures me I will be fine but me I think I need snow tyres, unfortunatley the all seasons are practically new so what I want will be ignored from my original post you will see it's something I think is necessary. If I have trouble in my ordinary car on ordinary tires then my hubby will get ear ache, listening to me about snow tyres.

But as it is something I want that he doesn't seem necessary I will probably be ignored - a sad fact in our marriage.