Winterization
 

Hi all!

I'm coming over to Jackson Hole, WY for a ski season this winter and I'm genuinely thinking about shipping my BRZ over too. I'll need a car when I get there, after all, and it'd be an insane road trip!

I have a considerable amount of experience driving it in snowy conditions in Europe, and some experience driving around the Rockies in Jan/Feb/Mar - have done the Denver/Jackson round-trip twice and a whole bunch around Breckenridge, CO - mostly in rented RAV4-style vehicles but a bit in a Jetta too.

I'm trying to think about what I'll have to be aware of (practical stuff, as opposed to import paperwork):
- obviously I'll need winter tires. I do fit them in Winter here for the Alps, but I'm wondering about whether I can make it to JH on summer tires in mid-December, fit winters, and then change back at the end of the season in April - vs fitting them here and shredding them over 4,500mi of Interstate on the way. Although, as I write this, they'll probably be a good idea for the drive West from NYC so maybe it's just whether or not they survive the journey back.
- I'll need to check that the coolant I buy here is cold-resistant enough
- ditto windscreen washer fluid, although that's far more trivial to replace
- my big question is: How bad does it have to get before you wouldn't use this car at all? There's been some days in JH where the snowploughs can't keep up / aren't fast enough - especially for us early birds. I'm fine on ice, I'm fine on hard pack snow (in this car), but does anybody have any experience driving as it starts to build up and get softer? I've been considering filling the spare wheel well with sandbags...
- anything else I haven't thought of?

Hope to see some of you over there!

Jimbo

No chance you can make it on summer tires. If you pick up the car in New York you will absolutely need winter tires from the get go.

As for driving when it gets deep, we have a few Canadien members that can answer that.

Just get winter tires, and take your time. Don't put sand bags as that would throw off balance bad if you were to get into a slide and you likely wouldn't be able to recover.

Thanks both!

Yes, I pretty much talked myself into winter tyres from the port once I realised what the temperatures would be like.

"take your time" is a nice summary of all bad-weather driving advice :)

Blizzaks and lift it 2 inches on stock springs and shocks. tape up the front and invest in some tokens for the car wash every week.


then send it