Vancouver - questions about salt on roads.

[Batan]

A thread I started on TheSamba got me thinking about driving in the winter around here, something I planned all along. Actually Busdaddy got me thinking as he seems to be feeling pretty strongly about not driving the bus(es) in the winter. And I can see why. The bay is my only vehicle now and I do plan on driving it... sometimes. However, I drive VERY little and could probably avoid driving on salted roads.

My main question is, does anybody know what are the exact rules on salting roads in Vancouver? I want to set up some guide lines for myself to see if I can completely avoid it. I'm also downtown so we mostly see rain here, but I do know that they will salt even when its dry if it's chilly out. The underside of my bus is way too nice to get salt all over it.

And, how many of you actually drive an aircooled in the winter?

[beetlemandan]

i quite driving aircooled in the winter (except for my baja in the bush when the snow is very minimum) 12 years ago and have never regretted it. i guarantee you'll see a little rust this winter, more next, and by  the end of the third you'll have holes. your baywindows anti-corrosion abilities are next to nill now that 30+ years have passed.

[Geoff]

As soon as there is a hint of ice on the roads the salt trucks will be out and that includes the down town area. Buy a $500 beater jetta and let that rust away, keep your bus in good shape

[Batan]

Yeah, I realize it goes downtown too, I've seen it. What I'm trying to figure out is when it's "safe". I mean, if it's been raining for days, even if they salted before that, it's all gone... and what about the days with the high of +7C and the low of +3C... that sort of stuff. I'm avoiding it, one way or the other.

[vwboop]

I wouldn't drive in winter unless the roads are dry. Water can transport road salt everywhere. I think you'd be relatively safe on dry days. I've always supported the winter beater idea. We drive our VW's maybe six months out of the year and drive a domestic the rest of the time.

[finkmobile]

I drive my bus all year round. I'm not afraid!  My undercarriage is in pretty good shape, a bit of rust in some spots. I gotta haul around band gear when my band plays shows, and the bus is the only vehicle I own or can afford. I'm gonna get some Rust Check and do some spots under there to protect it. The only time I don't drive in the winter is when there's fresh snow on the ground (people are crazy here and immediately forget how to drive) or there's too much snow on the side streets for me to get out

[buddy boy]

in the past iv had other cars i bought , i never cared about what they looked like or what make or model there where just as long there where mechanicaly sound , and they lasted me longer than i would expect !!!

[silas]

...Buy a $500 beater jetta and let that rust away...

i agree...i went this route last winter (and still have the car for this winter!) and it's the best $500 bucks i ever spent!!

i drove an acvw 24/7/365 for about 14 of my 19 legally licensed years...so i know what it's all about...and i'm all for driving them and enjoying them...but the winter will take it's toll regardless...and it'll show after a few years. even with wet roads (no salt) the water will get into all sorts of nasty places that we dont even know about!

it's hard to determine a "safe" time to drive with the weather being so unpredictable these past few winters. if it snows or freezes and they salt and then it's milder and  rains for the next 3 days straight after that will there be any residual salt on the roads? like vwboop said...water will carry that s#!t everywhere...so it's really hard to say.

do what you must but just be aware of all the points that have been made here! you sound like you have a pretty good idea of how to handle it!!

[Trevor P]

Put winter tires on your bike and rock that for the "cold" months.
(note how I put cold in quotations )

[Bruce]

.... does anybody know what are the exact rules on salting roads in Vancouver?

I don't know if there are rules, but they'll dump the salt down when it's completely DRY out, as long as the dew point is within reach.
If you park on the street, even if you don't drive, your Bus will ROT out.  The salt trucks will spray it.  The best is to scope out an alley to park in, the salt trucks don't do the alleys.  
At the first sight of grey roads, they've sprayed the roads.  If you can walk to the grocery store, you can avoid driving.  If there are transit busses, it's worth it to ride with the weirdos (entertaining too).
Last winter my car saw ZERO salt.  We didn't have a lot of below freezing days, and I was able to avoid all the salty days.  I give it a day or two of rain to wash away the salt, then I'll drive.  The vast majority of the rain drains away and takes the salt with it.  I believe it doesn't take much to completely clean away all the salt.  Once it's disolved, it's down the drains.
If you live in an apt that has a car wash area, give it plenty of rinses if you get caught out in the salt.

[Batan]

.... does anybody know what are the exact rules on salting roads in Vancouver?

I don't know if there are rules, but they'll dump the salt down when it's completely DRY out, as long as the dew point is within reach.
If you park on the street, even if you don't drive, your Bus will ROT out.  The salt trucks will spray it.  The best is to scope out an alley to park in, the salt trucks don't do the alleys.  
At the first sight of grey roads, they've sprayed the roads.  If you can walk to the grocery store, you can avoid driving.  If there are transit busses, it's worth it to ride with the weirdos (entertaining too).
Last winter my car saw ZERO salt.  We didn't have a lot of below freezing days, and I was able to avoid all the salty days.  I give it a day or two of rain to wash away the salt, then I'll drive.  The vast majority of the rain drains away and takes the salt with it.  I believe it doesn't take much to completely clean away all the salt.  Once it's disolved, it's down the drains.
If you live in an apt that has a car wash area, give it plenty of rinses if you get caught out in the salt.

Thanks, that's very helpful. I do live in an apartment and I have underground parking so the Bus won't even see rain, let alone salt. We don't drive to get groceries and as I mentioned, I barely drive. For reference, I think I put only about 9k on my GTI in almost 3 years before I sold it.
The description of your driving last winter kinda outlines my plan as well, I want to drive it sometime but I want to avoid salt.

[finkmobile]

If you park on the street, even if you don't drive, your Bus will ROT out.  The salt trucks will spray it.  

I don't know if I agree with this because I think they only will spray the main roads. I think if you're on a side street the chances of them spraying are minimal. Hell, they didn't even plow the side roads that year the snow was really bad. But maybe they do a few times during the winter, I just don't recall seeing them on the street I used to park on.  But meh, I wanna drive and enjoy my bus. If it gets a little rusty, then it gets a little rusty. I'd rather be able to drive around and enjoy it. Its like those toys that people leave in the packages...you never fully enjoy em that way!

[Bruce]

Depends on where you live I guess.  I'm in Burnaby and they go down every street in existance.  Even the ones without a line down the middle.  Many times per year.

The Bus parked in the underground is a bit of a problem.  All the other cars will track in the salt and there's no rain inside to wash it away. Then you have to drive through it. 

[Batan]

The Bus parked in the underground is a bit of a problem.  All the other cars will track in the salt and there's no rain inside to wash it away. Then you have to drive through it. 

LOL, no it's not. My "underground" is an 8 car garage and only 3 move. I'm 3rd in from enterance. I agree with finkmobile to a point, I like driver cars.

[iceneweb]

Despite having another VW cus of my job, I'm with Finkmobile on this. Drive it, keep it clean and enjoy it.

[finkmobile]

Depends on where you live I guess.  I'm in Burnaby and they go down every street in existance.  Even the ones without a line down the middle.  Many times per year.

I guess they like Burnaby more than East Van 

[Batan]

Depends on where you live I guess.  I'm in Burnaby and they go down every street in existance.  Even the ones without a line down the middle.  Many times per year.

I guess they like Burnaby more than East Van  

Well, they do have a lot more hills there!
I decided to take a bunch of pictures of the underside of the Bus to show what I'm trying to preserve. Most of undercoating is still there with a few spots of paint showing where the coating peeled off. The only real rust on it is some of the window lip sections (but not windshield) and battery tray corner.






A lot more there:
http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r48/BadzakAutoDesign/Bus%20Body%20Metal/?albumview=slideshow

[Bruce]

The undercoating is your biggest problem.  In many places, it has become unattached to the paint. Water gets in behind it, then never dries out.

[Batan]

The undercoating is your biggest problem.  In many places, it has become unattached to the paint. Water gets in behind it, then never dries out.

Well, I can't do too much about that.

[Batan]

Anybody know or can recommend places to actually Rust Check the undercarriage? The more I think about it, the more it seems like it might be too messy of a job for me to do it personally.
I don't know if there are places around here as this is west coast after all, not Ontario.

[buddy boy]

there are places who do it , i can\t remember at the moment,.. i did mine it's not that hard

[Bruce]

The undercoating is your biggest problem.  In many places, it has become unattached to the paint. Water gets in behind it, then never dries out.

Well, I can't do too much about that.

Sure there is.  You can get under there with a screwdriver and chip away the loose undercoating.

[Bruce]

....

[Batan]

there are places who do it , i can\t remember at the moment,.. i did mine it's not that hard

I know it's not hard. But logistics are tricky. It's not really something I can do outside in front of the building and it would be even trickier in the garage. Bad light and to make it worse, I have overhead pipes which disable me from jacking up the bus to a height that would insure a good job. I could do it if I used spray cans but the thick stuff, from what I've been told would take a lot of cans to do.
I'm not sure about it... the list of things I need/have to do is long so some could be left to somebody else. If I could insure it's done right and if it was feasibly.

Sure there is.  You can get under there with a screwdriver and chip away the loose undercoating.

LOL, duh. Yes, I could do that... 

[finkmobile]

Hey Batan, I'm in the same boat as you.  Limited in the work that I can do because of being on the street and having to do all my work outside.  Let me know if you find any info. I was looking myself....but there are other things that I need to attend to first. I might just crawl under there on a sunny day (will those ever happen again or are they months away now?) and chip away the loose stuff and cover the parts that look like they really need it.