How to Aid Wintertime Tire Traction With Sawdust

Anyone who deals with heavy amounts of snow each winter knows that traction for car tires is slim. Sawdust is a great alternative to salt, which is the primary product for aiding wintertime tire traction. It's cheaper and can be just as effective.

Instructions

1. Collect as much as you can. Sawdust isn't short in supply at lumber yards and carpentry shops, and those folks are usually trying to get rid of it without hauling it to the dump for a fee. Also plan ahead when working on summer projects and collect the sawdust you produce. It really adds up.

2. Spread a thin layer of sawdust on car and truck paths that get a lot of traffic around the work site. It makes the snow more compact while protecting the ground beneath it.

3. Scatter sawdust on snowy driveways. Use it on the really bad days with the really wet, slippery snow. Make the excuse "I'm late because I couldn't get out of the driveway" a thing of the past.

4. Apply sawdust to tires when your car is stuck and its tires are spinning. Keep a bucket of it in the trunk for emergency situations. Load it on as far underneath the spinning tires as possible. This makes the snow harder and less slippery when you're trying to get out of a greasy situation.

5. Look for tires that actually incorporate sawdust into the tread itself. Check with a local tire provider to see if they still carry these older style of tires. As the tires wear they release tiny bits of sawdust, resulting in thousands of tiny suction cups all over the tire that essentially grip to the road without tearing the roads up like today's treads do.