Getting Your Car Unstuck from Snow or Mud

Cars drive great on roads, but not so great when the roads become covered with snow. (They also don't drive great if you are off road and trying to drive in mud.) The reason for this is that roads are designed to provide traction—the right amount of friction between your tires and the surface of the road so that the car can move in the desired direction. Snow and mud reduce friction and thereby reduce or eliminate traction. Remove the traction far enough, and you won't move anywhere.

If your car gets bogged down in snow or mud, it doesn't do any good to accelerate in an effort to move. Traction doesn't depend on the speed of the tires. In fact, traction can be reduced by rapidly spinning wheels, which tend to slide even easier on the snow or mud.

What you need to do is try two things: First, you can try to move the tires ever so slowly with the hope that the slow movement won't cause the tire to slip and will, instead, provide the traction you need to move. If you are driving a car with an automatic transmission, try putting the car into the lowest gear possible and giving just a bit of gas to barely move the wheels. If you are driving a care with a manual transmission, put the car into a higher gear and barely let out the clutch to move the car ever so slowly.

The second thing you can try is to remember why the car isn't moving in the first place: a loss of traction. You need to find a way to give the car more traction. For example, you might try to dig out a bit of the snow or mud from in front of the power wheel (the ones that actually turn when you step on the gas) and trying to wedge a car mat, blanket, or old coat under the leading edge of the wheel. Try to inch the car forward until the tires "grip" on the item, and then slowly drive the car out of the snow of mud in which you were trapped.

Because traction is such an essential part of driving successfully, many people in cold climates carry in their trunks a few items that are helpful in snow. First, they carry a small shovel so they can remove the snow or mud from the front of the tires. Second, they carry some rock salt, cat-box litter, or sand that they can put in front of the tires to help provide the needed traction. I personally prefer cat-box litter or sand because they won't corrode metal. If you choose to use cat-box litter, make sure that you get the kind that stays hard even when wet. (Some cat-box litters become pasty or muddy when they get wet, and will of little help in snow or mud.)