Winter Weather on the Road

Hitting the road in adverse conditions in an early automobile is not for the faint of heart! (But probably a pastime of the faint of head!)

An early Model T Ford fitted with skis on front wheels, and tire chains on the rear. The car also carries a shovel for digging out of snowbanks and ditches. The back passengers are bundled up in furs and robes.

Winter driving in the 1910s and 1920s was hazardous at best. These rudimentary automobiles had little in creature comforts and protection from the weather. Automobile technology was still in its infancy, and things like heaters, windshield defrost, and four-wheel-drive were still a long ways from what we know them to be today. Cars were built for the roads of the time, which were mostly dirt except in the cities, and while they did have high clearance, the tires were narrow to allow them to cut through the mud to reach more solid ground the same way a horse-drawn buggy does. However, snow doesn't cut away like mud. It compresses into a sheet of ice. So how did folks do it?

A couple and their chauffeur brave the elements in a 1912 Packard touring car with the top down!

To begin with, cars were a plaything of the wealthy. As such, they were a fair weather toy, and were usually "put up" in the winter. However, that didn't stop some, especially the younger set, from venturing out for some fun in the auto when a horse and sleigh would have been the far more common and practical choice. Another reason automobiles weren't taken out much in the winter is that glycol antifreeze didn't exist yet, so you either had to fill the car with water before the drive, and keep it hot the whole trip, draining it out immediately upon returning, or you had to fill your radiator with alcohol, a much costlier proposition.

This brass-era Ford roadster must have been a cold ride. Note what appears to be camping gear on the running boards. This looks like it was quite the adventure!

In the early years, Americans had just transitioned (and were still transitioning) from the horse-drawn vehicle to the motorized one. For this reason, it probably did not seem unusual to them to travel in an open vehicle in cold and snow. It was normal. You bundled up in warm clothing, covered your legs with lap robes, and perhaps set a charcoal foot warmer on the floorboards. However, as automotive technology progressed, cars got faster, and new innovations such as electricity, home insulation, and coal furnaces made homes more comfortable, so too, did consumers expect more of their automobiles.

1920 Essex with damaged side curtains.

One of the first innovations to come to the automobile for inclement weather was the detachable side curtains. These were canvas panels fitted with isenglas "windows". Isenglas is an early form of clear material, similar to modern marine vinyl, however, it is made from fish swim bladders, and as such, it is fragile and deteriorates quickly. That said, these panels could be quickly and easily attached to the sides of a touring top on any car and served to cut the wind and keep out "most" of the rain. This was still a huge improvement over rain slickers and coats.

This 1930s photograph in Colorado shows just how bad a combination of slush and mud could be. The only thing worse than a mud "gumbo" road was one that was also partially frozen.

Another huge improvement was the addition of tire chains and other traction devices. Gaining traction on snow, ice, or slush with a 3" wide tire was a nearly impossible task. The simplest solution was to simply wrap the tire with rope, passing it through the spokes of the wheel. This gave a rigid, ribbed texture to the tires, allowing them to gain more purchase on the terrain below. The drawback to the rope is it was time consuming to apply, didn't hold up for long, and would often stretch or come untied. The improvement to this was metal tire chains. There were many varieties on the market, from simple loops that attached around the tire, to full webbing chain sets that one had to drive the car over and fasten around the wheel. There were also many varieties of straps and webbing products meant to serve this purpose, some better than others.

Weed Tire Chains was the leading brand, and made chains that actually worked well. In fact, this is the same principle used in modern tire chains today.

Eventually, every driver who braves the elements in these old cars, will get stuck. Even today, the hubris of many drivers who feel too confident in wintery conditions will get the better of them. Getting unstuck in those days presented a new set of challenges. Although AAA existed in the 1920s, they didn't have tow trucks in every town on standby. In fact, outside of the cities, a tow truck would be a pretty uncommon sight, and it would have the same pitfalls as the stranded automobile it was rescuing. Far more common, available, and effective was the local farmer and his plowing team. A pair or four heavy draft horses would easily pull out a stuck car. Some farmers felt this was just the right thing to do, and would gladly help a stranded motorist, often refusing offers of cash for the trouble. Some felt it was the driver's own fault that they got into this mess, and would expect an offer of payment for services rendered, and some would even charge upfront for the service. There were also cautionary tales of underhanded farmers who would deliberately water the roads in front of their farms to encourage stuck autos as a way of making a profit, but this really seems to be more "old wives' tales" than anything.

This intrepid young lady has reached the end of her adventure in a snowbank that has caught her Packard touring car. She has side curtains, and superb driving togs, plus a warm fur coat.

Tire chains were not enough, and a team of horses had to pull this car out. Note the very nice side curtains!

If no horses were available nearby, one had to just make do with the shovel, as demonstrated by these lads in their Singer Six trying to make a winter's journey through Newfoundland and Nova Scotia for a publicity stunt.

When all else fails, and you don't have any tools, raw manpower is the last resort!

There were many little tricks that folks used to make these cars operate in the cold. One of the hardest things was starting the cold engine. "Winter weight" oil wasn't a thing yet. Nowadays, we use oils like "10w30", which means the viscosity of the oil operates differently in sub-freezing temperatures. Historically, they were just straight oil weights. You needed a certain amount of lubrication when the engine was hot, so you couldn't use a thinner oil in winter. Thus, the very cold oil would become thicker and almost sticky inside the frozen iron engine. It could be very difficult to actually turn the engine fast enough to get it to start. Furthermore, cars like the Model T Ford have a series of pressure plates inside the transmission clutch that will seize together when "glued" with a thick, cold, straight-weight oil. The result is that even in neutral, the car is in gear because the clutch plates won't slip.

A man pours boiling water into his 1935 Chevrolet truck to help warm the engine before starting. He is also covering most of the radiator with a tarp to keep the engine from cooling too much in the frozen air.

One solution for this problem was to jack up one rear wheel of the Model T. This would remove friction with the ground (no posi-traction in those days) and allow the car to start "in gear" without running away. Once the engine was warmed up, one could apply the brake, effectively freeing the clutch plates. The jack was then removed and the driver was free to go his way. Another solution was to drain the oil from the car upon completing the last drive and then warm the oil in a bucket on the wood or coal stove before the next drive. This warm oil was then replaced into the engine, providing a pre-warming to the engine and transmission. Likewise, the car's radiator water could be pre-warmed, especially if it had to be removed anyway to prevent the radiator from freezing and bursting. Imagine having to drain all of your car's fluids after every drive!

Aftermarket automobile heaters existed even in the brass era, but didn't become really practical of affordable until the 1930s. Most early designs used exhaust heat to warm fresh air, however, by the 1930s, a safer and more effective version using radiator coolant and a heater core became common and is still in use in today's cars.

Charcoal heaters like this Clark Heater were very common and usually the only additional heating source in early automobiles. They would keep a passenger's feet warm for a while, but that was about it.

Of course, no discussion of winter weather and muddy, slushy, icy roads in the first quarter of the 20th century would be complete without mentioning the very first 4-wheel-drive system. Invented in 1914 by Jesse Livingood, this was a true game-changer for winter weather. The module was designed specifically for Ford cars, and was popular mainly with rural postal carriers in the 1920s. Basically, it replaced the front steering axle with a steerable drive axle, taking power off the main shaft. It was highly effective. These components are very rare today, although Livingood's grandson did make a batch of new units in the end of the last century. They are still incredibly hard to come by today. It is a shame that Livingood's name is not remembered and enshrined in his invention the way Rudolph Diesel's name was, for the Livingood 4x4 truly opened the door to the off-road, all-weather vehicle.

Jesse Livingood, the father of the modern 4x4.

In addition to the Livingood four-wheel-drive system, another addition to the versatile Ford was the snowmobile kit. Again, designed mainly with rural mail carriers in mind, this setup allowed the user to turn a Model T Ford into an unstoppable snow machine. The kit added an unpowered second rear axle and wheels that allowed the carrying of tracks, designed much the same as the Weed tire chains, but designed to go over two wheels instead of one, making them more like tank tracks. The front wheels were replaced with skis, allowing the car to steer as the track pushed it across the snow. Pretty ingenious!

The Model T Snowmobile.

Many other sorts of innovations, often homemade, were tried in order to gain traction and function in winter weather, some with more success than others...

Even with these innovations, it was still treacherous to go out in these primitive machines in winter weather. Some traveled for the adventure, others out of necessity. Many cars, and many drivers, didn't make it home. Nonetheless, this didn't stop some from getting out for a drive in the snow, and it is still a popular winter pastime today.

Going out in winter weather, even with the right equipment, could still end in disaster, as it did for this Chevrolet and its occupants. Regardless, the best option is to stay home.

These ladies are having a grand time with their Oldsmobile in the snow. Look at those slick tires! Those were not very common by 1920, when this photo was taken. It does appear that they have a good, paved road underneath, and the snow has melted away from the tracks, so that certainly helps this situation!

Navigating Donner Pass in a Packard.

Thanks for reading! Stay safe, stay warm, and check out Logsdon & Co. for all your vintage outdoor adventure needs! Comment below with your own antique car snow stories!