Driving the Charger in the winter (Northern Charger owners)

[Charger440RDN]

Is there a certain date set in stone that the charger has to be put away for good until spring, or do you base it on the weather? I know some winters here in Illinois it doesn't snow until late December or even January

Do you drive the charger in the winter when it's not snowing and just cold out? I don't think I could just put the Charger up and not be tempted to drive it at all until April. 

[Dans 68]

I drive my Chargers in northern California year round, and see no good reason to put them away. Rain won't hurt them and snow is a non-issue for us valley dwellers.  

Dan

[Hemidoug]

The first snow usually does it for me...then I just use it to melt the ice in the driveway.....

[Charger440RDN]

Salt can do some bad things to a car up north, look at this Charger  

[tricky lugnuts]

Agreed on the salt - that's the big killer. I'll drive my Charger until the first major snow that leads to salt on the roads. After that it's off the streets until spring comes and all that corrosive salt is washed away.

[Charger440RDN]

The sad thing is here in Illinois I see newer cars like 1999 to 2003 rusted out down at the bottom just like that charger, so that salt does some fast work too.

[472 R/T SE]

When my wife rear ended someone with my daily driver I drove my rotisserie restored '70 Bee while the dd was fixed several winters ago.  Only got rained on a couple times.

But then again we don't use salt so my car's are never officially retired for the winter.  Any nice day out is an excuse to take one out.  

[Charger440RDN]

People out west and down south are just SPOILED!!!   I can only dream of a winter with no ice, no snow, no sub zero temps, no scraping ice off the windows before work in the morning, no shoveling snow   I'm starting to get depressed thinking about it  

[69bronzeT5]

My Charger sits in the garage all winter....and spring....and fall....oh and summer too The Duster we'll see, depends on what they use here in Vancouver on the roads.

[Dans 68]

People out west and down south are just SPOILED!!!  

Yeah, so what's your point?    We do miss the 4-seasons, though. I need to drive 3-hrs to get to the snow in the winter if I want that fix. 

Dan

[NHCharger]

First salting of the roads is it for me.
I did drive my Charger once in February after we had some heavy rains wash the salt off the roads. It felt really weird to be cruising with the windows up and the heat blasting. The suspension was making some funny sounds, probably not use to working in the 20º temps.

[ITSA426]

They're really not much fun to drive on an icy road.  Particularly, big block four speed manual steering cars.  I try to put the last one away just as the snow is falling.

[Todd Wilson]

The first time they lay down the liquid salt spray that they put on the roads in Kansas here  the Chargers are officially in for the winter. After that everytime theres a snow or ice storm witnin 3 days in the forecast they go spray this liquid back on the roads again. Then during storms theres salt trucks everywhere. All this makes for nasty roads all winter long. Dont want to take a chance of slinging stuff up underneath.


Todd

[squeakfinder]

 
"Spoiled in the Northwest because of the mild winter's?" Huh?

Nope, we have plenty of ice and no road salt to dissolve it. They throw tiny ROCKS on the road that's supposed to break up the ice. Unfortunately it does a better job of breaking windshield's, paint, and any 40 plus year old plastic parts on the front of your car.
 
  And when the temp's hit 33 to 34 degree's Fahrenheit which it so often does it starts raining like a two cu_ted cow pissing on a flat rock, so that thick layer of ice on the road becomes a skating wring.

[Ghoste]

If there is snow mine gets parked because snow here means lots and lots of salt on the road.  We had a real mild year once whre I managed to get it out at least once each month for an entire year.

[69bronzeT5]

"Spoiled in the Northwest because of the mild winter's?" Huh?

Nope, we have plenty of ice and no road salt to dissolve it. They throw tiny ROCKS on the road that's supposed to break up the ice. Unfortunately it does a better job of breaking windshield's, paint, and any 40 plus year old plastic parts on the front of your car.
 
  And when the temp's hit 33 to 34 degree's Fahrenheit which it so often does it starts raining like a two cu_ted cow pissing on a flat rock, so that thick layer of ice on the road becomes a skating wring.

Pretty much the same story here.

[Charger440RDN]

Does anyone just sit behind the wheel of the Charger in the garage and dream about driving it, when those real long periods of snow and ice on the ground hit.  last winter it stayed so cold that when it snowed it would take over a month for it to melt. 

[Ghoste]

Frequently!

[bordin34]

I drive mine whenever there is very little to no salt on the road. I took it out Christmas and February last year when there was some slight salt. But before the winter I lather the underside in oil and wd-40, rinse and repeat each time its taken out. This winter its going out in the snow.

[CharcoalCharger]

Here in PA they spray the liquid salt (some PennDOT employees call it liquid rust).    Once we get the first snow, my Dart doesn't see the roads again until spring  .  The Charger isn't done, so that isn't an issue.  The spray works very fast at rotting out your vehicle.  A guy I carpool with had a coolant line that runs to the back of his Caravan for the heat in the back.  The line got a hole, coolant leaked out and we overheated.  He took it to a garage and the mechanic told him he sees a lot of newer cars with issues with coolant, fuel and brake lines due to the spray.

[Charger440RDN]