You asked "How much snow?" - Chains
 

I had looked here for advice on snow chains. Heard a lot about X3 traction.

Someone in Canada said, 'Chains? How much snow can you be talking about?'

The pictures say it all.

On the ice the X3 was flawless . . . it was hard to get it to slide. But in the deeper snow, the car just seemed bogged down. The tires had zero grip, and there wasn't the power to wheels needed to charge anywhere. If one wheel started spinning, the other didn't turn at all.

Once the chains were on I was good to go. But I will be careful when charging the deep stuff with these tires.

lol, I would call that a winter. I had that happen once (not quite that much though) and it sure is an exercise to find a car... :bustingup

Wow, that's something. Looks like you were retracing the route of the Donner party ;) Whereabouts were the photos taken?

No snowtire in the world will get you through that without chains. The wide tires on the X3 make it even harder, they simply float in snow like that.

BTW, what tires and size are your running?

Wow!Never seen so much snow on a car before!Makes the X3 look liké a motorcaravan!

Need some extra shocks to hold up all that snow........:wow:

Danusunt,

What part of Los Angeles did you take those pictures? ;)

Wow!

:wow:

Where these pics were taken . . .
 

These pics were taken in Van Nuys . . . no, wait, I mean in Mammoth over New Years, yeah, that's right . . . Mammoth. It snowed non stop. Then on the last night, it puked about 5 feet of the stuff. :thumbup:

Certain things take practice when dealing with snow, like how to avoid getting the inside of the car completly fogged up - avoid shoveling snow for an hour then driving a cold car - sweat + cold car = fogged windows. Also, as hard as it is, try to avoid getting snow in the car - snow + eventual heat = soggy car (It took about a week to finally dry it out).

Also, it's easy for snow and ice to get jammed up in the wiper well. Keeping the wipers free of ice and snow is something to pay atttention to. At night, I turned off the car when the wipers were in mid wipe, then lifted them. If you do this, be sure to turn the wiper switch off before starting the car again. The wipers slide under the hood and if they go on while lifted up, it doesn't clear.

Kuddos to the synthetic seat material. It handled the elements like a pro.

If you do get your car covered in snow like this, you have to clear snow from the exhaust before starting the car. If you don't, it stalls after a few minutes. That, and the exhaust gasses builds up around and in the car while it does run.

Finally, pack a shovel. You never know. . .

Newbie question: what chains are acceptable for the X3? I have a 2006 X3 with the 17x8 wheels (235/55-17 tires). Anything at Pep Boys (I have some gift cards for there :) )?

We might be going to Big Bear this weekend and there's a chance of some snow. We were advised to have chains "just in case."