... because it was dry and warm inside.  

a couple of notes:
-- women really like to be rescued.  
-- school administrators should use some common sense and not wait until there is 8" of snow and 50 foot visibility before dismissing children and staff (incl my wife).  
-- all season tires are not a substitute for proper winter tires.  
-- after there is 8" of snow on the ground, it probably doesn't matter what kind of tires you have, given a RWD car.  
-- if you take a threaded clevis shackle out of your warm truck, then attach it to something, after half an hour outside in driving snow and 20'F weather it will be frozen up really nicely.  
-- don't high five until you're dry.  after the tow up the hill, she got the car stuck in the driveway 15' from the garage.  

ps:
informational note -- every european-manufactured car is equipped with a front and rear tow point.  in bmw-land, there is a small plastic "flap" in the bumper which you gently pry out with the key; behind it is a threaded boss directly connected to the car frame.  into this threaded boss you screw in the tow eye which is found in the OEM tool kit mounted under the trunk lid.  do not use any other rube-goldberg attachment to pull with; the OEM tow hook is a drop-forged Grade 87 chunk of steel and, fully screwed in, i'm told that it is strong enough that you can hang the car from it.  

ps2:
important note:  while pulling a car up a 10% grade in 8" of snow is not exactly a ton of stress, keep in mind that ANY towing operation can result in a lot of potential energy stored up in the tow rope.  use common sense, use the right hardware with an adequate safety factor, and don't jerk the vehicle.  

this is my recovery strap: http://wheelersoffroad.com/product/recovery-equipment-320778/wheelers-recovery-and-tree-straps/
and this the clevis i use: http://wheelersoffroad.com/product/arb-products-2/arb-heavy-duty-34-shackle/

this is an example of an OEM tow eye: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b35/KnightofDeeDee/garagesale2/bmwextowh-1340337933-9147.jpg

and here is what it looks like when installed into the recess: http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l131/jjojo2004/IMG_0450.jpg

ar-jedi

"Dear, now that you've pulled me out of the ditch and escorted me home, would you be so kind as to fetch the shovel and clear the driveway?"

Glad you got her home safe.

Stuck 15' from the garage.

That's a heavy snowfall OP.  

Where are you located?

we are only halfway to the anticipated 14-16", and it's coming about an inch an hour right now.   we are on the coast in the northeast.

it's not *really* heavy though -- we have had some real whoppers in the past few years, in fact 29" the day after xmas in 2010.

ar-jedi

ETA

I still can not understand how people can live where there is a chance your eyeballs can freeze

WTF is that white crap all over the ground/???????






and "you people" actually go outside in it????
how do you move in all those clothes???


yikes..what icky stuff...







and so freakin glad I left that crap behind 40 years ago and moved where civilized people live and own guns...

Nice job on the rescue, but which part of "there's over a foot of snow coming so let's take the Bimmer sedan to work" sounded like a plan for success?

it's a good point!

my wife was incredulous when school was not closed completely; instead they decided mid-morning to have a "half day".  

she is not only the college guidance counselor but she has some psy-ops responsibilities as well (meaning: she is the degreed crisis counselor for the school; believe it or not, i think she is more important than the principal is...).  anyway she goes in at 6:20am and there is of course no snow yet, but the NWS is forecasting a SHTF whiteout starting around noon.  naturally by 10am the snow had already started, computer forecast models be damned.  so now that the ding-dong administrators have 300 kids under their roof, they decide at 10am to close the school at 12:30pm and send the kids home early.  

well, now, this is like turning an aircraft carrier around.  buses to be arranged, parents to be called, etc etc etc.  it's a frickin administrative nightmare, and unfortunately if there is qty 1 child in the building there is a core administrative staff that needs to be there as well.   so my wife could not leave until the last child had departed, which wasn't until about 1:30pm.  by then it's snowing apeshit and the trouble is mounting.  

her 20 minute commute turned into an hour drive; the major roads were no problem (just you need to go slow) but the roads off to the side were at the time untouched.  the hill she was trying to get up was packed flat -- about 8" of snow mushed down into a slick surface coating.  as you can see from the 1st photo above, there is a ford edge(?) just in front of her, progress also halted.  i came down the hill in my Taco, said hi, did a K-turn behind her on the downslope, came back up, hooked up, and towed her past that FWD-only micro-SUV.

ar-jedi

My car has those attachment points too, but I don't know where the hook thingy is.

It is amazing what a good set (4) of snow tires will do for a car.   We have two Yaris with snow tires and "it is like dating a Gothgirl" in the snow.   You end up doing silly stupid things that you should not do but is really really fun.

Wow, nice recovery.

Does that car really have 226 thousand miles on it???  

It looks great for it's age if it does.

Nice work Sir!

Stone Faced garage is PIMP.

Is ALL the house stone as well?

Or just the "carriage house"?

Great job! Stay safe and warm.

Redman

yes.  '99 e46 323i, original owner.

photo below is from the summer, if it's not obvious...  

ar-jedi

Nice write up ar-jedi

This is my second winter living here in upstate NY. I own two vehicles: 4x4 f-250 with all season radials (Firestone AT's) and a Hyundai Elantra with 4 dedicated snow tires (Goodyear Nordics).

My preferred vehicle to drive to work when the roads are covered in snow? The Hyundai with snow tires, that front wheel drive car is a beast in the snow thanks to those tires.

Many of us remember when RWD vehicles were all there was.

Nice write up.

This is one of the many reasons I live in southern Texas. Unless Al Gore is TERRIBLY wrong I will never have to deal with anything remotely like this. Right?

Jokes aside, I lived in CO for a couple of years and could never get used to the snow and dangerous road conditions. Again, I live in Texas now, for many, many reasons.

doubletap, time to replace the mouse

nice writeup - sexy taco... nice bimmer


my wife will drive my truck or I'll take her if she has to work....

she has an AWD lancer but isn't comfortable driving it in the snow. My ranger has studded snow tires on it - talk about doing dumb shit you shouldn't? THAT'LL do it


enjoy the snow

Good write up, glad everything turned out okay, and good luck with this new storm!

3 4x4's and my bikes. For years the wife thought she could drive FWD's here and I just kept pulling her out of ditches. Finally 3 years ago she got into the Jeep SUV thing and I've only had to pull her out once...(on it's side, 2 wheels off).

Had 54" overnight back in 93. That was some serious snow!

lol I've seen it snow like that here in June. Not many rwd cars here. Glad everyone is safe.

No chains?





No weight in the back?
Dad went darn near everywhere 4x4 went in a bug and 2 wheel drive pick-up.





Always fun in weather like that.

Nice.

Hopefully you got in a good laugh?

my daily driver is a Mazda protege front wheel drive rolling all weathers.  right now my wife is driving my truck.  honestly I don't notice an advantage of the studs for the car over the all weathers.

Actual snow tires are a huge difference. I have General Altimax Artics on my Mazda 3. They are far superior to the factory all season tires. I put a set of these tires on my wife's car as well.



 

Nice job.  Should I mention that I wore a short sleeve shirt to work today.  The school district my wife works in just changed the dress code to allow shorts all year as pants are not really necessary in the winter.

Good men always rescue the ladies.....

Glad no major damage was done.

Good to take note.  A harbor freight 'tow strap' will probably fail in a similar application.  A good and well rated recovery strap from the 4x4 website will get the job done.  Dry run it in your mind to make sure you have adequate hardware to attach the strap to both vehicles.  

Since I have the proper gear, I will probably never need it.

Pants are rarely necessary.

My family is better prepared to handle 12" of snow in the winter than 115* in the shade in the summer.

link in OP.  


i thought the exact same thing!  

one note:
the only other time i got stuck was when i *didn't* have the recovery gear with me... (orig link)

honestly this is the first time in the 15 years we have been married (and in fact the car involved is the same age) that i have had to go fetch her. we've only had the little 3 series in deep once before and that was my fault completely. after a january wedding in VT we drove to a friend's cabin in upstate NY and i managed to get the car pretty well stuck in a drift on a long uphill pass -- fortunately, just about 600 yards away from our friend's house. so we just left the car in place overnight. that time i had to get the AAA truck to come and tug on the same hook to get both wheels back on something hard. the bmw's traction control system is quite effective but it can not and does not manufacture adhesion.

ar-jedi

10 -11 years ago we had a pretty good ice storm in Dallas. I worked out at the airport and had a Jeep Wrangler.The roads were already getting bad that night and they were asking for volunteers to work past the end of our 10pm shift. Since I had a Jeep and was bucking for promotion, I agreed to stay late. We ended up working till 1:30am.

There was a bus that ferried us out to the parking lot where our cars were parked. The parking lot was already so slick, the buses had crashed into a couple of cars, so when they got to the gate of the parking lot, that was it, we had to walk to our cars. At least a 1/2 inch of ice on the parking lot. I was wearing Bates boots with the waffle thread and nearly busted my ass a couple of times just trying to walk 300 yards to my jeep.

There was another gal who stayed late with me, she asked if I could follow her home to make sure she didn't slide off in a ditch. It was kind of on the way home, so I followed her, then headed to my house. No problems till I nearly got home where I hit a turn lane that was already iced over. I did a 540 degree spin out in the middle of a 4 lane road. Luckily it was about 2:30 am and there wasn't another car in sight. I cranked up and drove the last 1/2 mile home at like 5 mph with dirty underwear. I think it was another 2 hours before I finally got to sleep.

My first wife ran a nursing home, and at 7am, she woke me up exclaiming she had to go to work because none of the cooks showed up to make breakfast for 100 old folks. She drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee. 2 wheel drive, but I figured she's be ok.

She called me at 7:30 saying she couldn't climb the hill to get out of our neighborhood. It was kind of steep, like a 60 - 70 ft incline over 100 yards. I pulled on my uniform and went out to help. I tried to push her uphill with my jeep, but couldn't get enough traction. I pulled out my town strap and proceeded to hook up to the front of the Grand Cherokee.

For those of you who don't know, the early 00 Grand Cherokees were more or less a fucking minivan, and on this cold icy ass day, I had to figure it out. Damned open diff's, not even a factory fucking front tow attachment point on the front of that giant flaming piece of shit. I took a smaller piece of webbing and tied my 10,000lb tow strap to the front axle.

4L and up the hill we went, up onto the icy 4 lane highway that was fairly busy. I get out to unhook the strap and my wife pulls up next to me, in traffic, with the fucking tow strap wrapping around the axle!!!

I'm yelling at her to stop, fearing she'll rip the front end out and there's a dozen cars headed right toward us. She's like "What? What's wrong?"  

FUCKING STOP!!!

So now I'm laying on the ground, on an icy highway, under her Jeep, in uniform, in traffic, trying to cut the webbing loose from her axle with a dull pair of scissors I had. Took about a minute, but with cars sliding past, it felt like 10 minutes. I yelled at her to get the hell out of there and she drove off and I climbed in my Jeep.

I went back down hill and 3 or 4 of my neighbors were lined up trying to get out. I was wet, tired, and PISSED, so I was like fuck it. I DROVE PAST ALL OF THEM, parked in my driveway, went inside. Threw my uniform and uniform jacket in the washing machine and went to bed.

My wife was kind enough to call me at 10 to let me know she made it to work. (FUCKING CALLING ME WHEN I'M TRYING TO SLEEP BEFORE MY SHIFT STARTS!!!)

I figured screw it, they are probably short staffed at work too and I'm not getting any sleep anyway, so I threw everything in the dryer and headed into work a couple of hours early to help out.

Never did get that promotion.

FUCK ICE AND SNOW.

We are experiencing almost the same kind of conditions here right now. My wife has a Subaru and I have a 2013 Silverado.  Always wondered what those little squares on foreign bumpers were for.

Good job and nice to learn something new today.

Wow. In southern Ulster county we had zero snow. None at all.... and the schools had closed on Tuesday at 10am.

Northern NJ must have been on the line of maximum annoyance.

Beautiful home.



Good rescue.

just a question -- do all japanese cars have this feature?  or it unique to subaru and perhaps a few others?
i'm pretty sure that the german-designed bmw's and mb's have these features because they are required for "DOT-equivalent" certification in europe, or at least in germany.

i have an idea... see next post.  

ar-jedi

FOLKS: please post in this thread whether your (normal, everyday*) vehicle has front and rear pull points using the screw-in system, or equivalent




ar-jedi



(*) because i know most of you have deuce-and-a-halfs !!!

I end up pulling quite a few people out of stucks on the beach every summer. Most vehicles do no not come equipped with a threaded tow eye. I have found that a 3/4" shackle is often too big to hook up to the tie down points designed into the structure for shipping purposes. I carry 1/2" shacles in my truck and Jeep for this purpose.

Dodge Ram: Yes



Nissan Maxima: No



Subaru Impreza: Yes



Jeep CJ-8: Yes

1991 Honda RT4WD Civic Wagon. Has factory tow hooks.

And brand new winter tires this winter!

Ha, I'm your polar opposite apparently. I grew up in northern MN my whole life, moved to Texas, and 2 years was all I could take. Main reason we moved back was to be close to family, but Summer down there sucks until its about 8pm and cool enough to go outside.
A lot of the people we met were nice, but many were just straight up A-holes. The kind who don't say "Thanks" after holding a door open for them, or letting them go first or shit like that... that drives me nuts.

And everybody there sucks at driving, just on normal sunny days. Throw rain or snow in the mix and you might as well take the ditch to work.

How much snow is on the ground now, ar-jedi?

As for vehicles:
9th generation Corollas (2002-2008) have an emergency tow eyelet/hook under the front of the driver's side.
XC90s (and I'd assume all Volvos) have the standard euro towing eye on both the front and rear. After playing on Google Images for a few minutes to grab these photos, I discovered that some people use them as anchors for carrying a kayak on the roof.