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Archiver > MEMORY-LANE > 2007-02 > 1171163906


From: Ruth Barton <>
Subject: Re: [ML] Tire Chains
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 22:02:46 -0800
References: <20070207.100831.3772.0.Wallace26@juno.com><004401c74b26$ca773940$e6822340@eozfaqvf><00ba01c74b4c$193b1a90$77ae1318@yourxhtr8hvc4p><65d66f240702101114t4527e402r2769390f3cb240e@mail.gmail.com><000e01c74d65$0004d1e0$18832340@eozfaqvf>
In-Reply-To: <000e01c74d65$0004d1e0$18832340@eozfaqvf>


I have never heard of sawdust tires either, but then there are a lot of
things I've never heard of. They would seem to be the same idea as the
tires a lady told me about that came out during WW2, they had walnut shells
impregnated in the rubber. She said they were the best snow tires she ever
had and she saved them as long as she could since she couldn't get them
after the war. Ruth




At 2:44 PM -0800 2/10/07, Mary Putman wrote:
>I had a hunch someone would ask. Sawdust tires were regular rubber tires
>with heavy tread and impregnated with sawdust. On an heavy car like the
>old Buick, they would put you through heavy ice, freezing rain, or deep
>snow with no problems. I doubt they would do as well on today's lighter
>weight cars. I've told this story on the list before. Where we lived at
>the time, you had to go over a rather steep hill to get home, as the house
>was in the bottom of a canyon. My husband was coming home from town and
>it was terribly icy. He got almost to the top of the hill and several
>cars were off to the side of the road. He pulled up and stopped, in spite
>of everyone telling him not to stop. None of the cars could quite make it
>over the top of the hill. He told them that he would go get the wheel
>tractor, so just eased out the Buick and over the hill he went. About 10
>minutes later, here he came on the wheel tractor and pulled everyone out
>and on their way. They couldn't b!
> elieve that those sawdust tires would go at all on such a slick road.
>That Buick had that old slow Dynaflow system and you could floor-board it
>and it would just ease out at it's own speed, but once the car got up to
>speed, that car would pass just about anything on the road. I remember
>going to a wedding and coming in Harvey Shaw road. It was 14 miles to the
>pen, then through town about another 3 miles. I was driving 85mph on a
>2-lane paved country road, but made it to where I was to pick up two more
>women on the south side of Walla Walla in 12 minutes flat. I would not
>drive any modern car at that speed. My husband said when he bought the
>car, he waited until it had over 500 miles on it, then took it out on a
>straight road west of Prescott and opened it up. He said that the Buick
>went 105mph that day. Wish I still had that car...that was one
>road-hugging machine! When we lived out there, the hill was called
>Crocker hill, nowadays, they still call it Putman hill,!
> though we left there in 1960. Mary P. in Washington
>
> ----- O
--
Ruth Barton

Dummerston, VT

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