Snow removal from SUV/SAV/Minivans

For all of you living in the snowy climates, I wanted to see your opinions...

Thursday we revieved around 3" of snow in our area during the day. Going home I was amazed by how many people in taller vehicles didn't even make an attempt at getting all the snow off the top of their car...many didn't even bother with any snow removal. Just hit the wipers and go.

Not only can I not figure how they see out the back (or front if they didn't clear their hood), but driving behind them is like cruising along in your own personal blizzard I saw one guy in a mid sized SUV who didn't bother clearing ANYTHING in the opposing lanes of traffic...he looked like a comet barreling down the road.

Our other car is a large SUV and I do my best to clear as much snow a possible. Since it is so tall that is often hard, but I at least clear the hood windows and as much from the top as I can while standing on the running boards (when I am not at home)

I try to get all of it off, which on the Avalanche was quite a chore. On the Jeep it goes pretty quickly. Even the Touring can throw off huge amount of snow if not cleared off.

I've seen people around here driving cars with "tank slits" - one little pass of the scraper to clear the window. I also saw one of those people almost go under a flatbed truck - luckily the truck driver saw the idiot and had room to manuever.

One other story - about 10 years ago I was taking an airport shuttle van home from Boston. The minivan in front of us on I-93 had not been cleaned and loosed a whole roof full of snow at the van - shattering the front window. I was sitting behind the driver and got a lap full of glass. Luckily neither I or the driver were hurt. The minivan just sped away, oblivious to what just happened.

So yeah, I'm sensitive to the problem.

I'd forgotten the armored vehicle slits people scrape out. Another personal favorite is looking out throught the little melted areas the defroster has melted.

Originally Posted by Desertnate

I'd forgotten the armored vehicle slits people scrape out. Another personal favorite is looking out throught the little melted areas the defroster has melted.

Yep, the best one it the people around here who have these little slits scraped out. The go down the main street in the development, which is downhill to a "T" intersection. When they go to stop the snow slides down obscuring their view. That was the scenario of the one that almost drove under the flatbed truck. I don't get it.

Originally Posted by gojira-san

... loosed a whole roof full of snow at the van - shattering the front window....

Unbelievable! I was tying to explain this to my GF the other day and she just didn't see the reason. I really don't get how many people just don't think.

Originally Posted by Scotes

Unbelievable! I was tying to explain this to my GF the other day and she just didn't see the reason. I really don't get how many people just don't think.

I don't think many realize that after that snow sits there for a bit it melts and gets a nice layer of ice between the car and the snow. When that snow/ice breaks away you get a heavy object moving at a high rate of speed. Of course many still would be to lazy even if they knew...

When I drove I used to pile all the snow on top of my roof and gun it once someone was behind me and then stop. That got me a few grand of spending money every December. Now that I don't drive, I spare my ride the time of clearing off the windshield. I just sit on the hood and bang on the windshield indicating witch way to turn.