Chris, IIRC in Canada when it gets really cold they just dump gravel on the roads as the salt has no effect, or better still when they clear the roads you can hear the plough coming from about two miles away as they just drop the metal scoop straight onto the road :D

John.

molasses is being used alot by various councils never heard of animal fat being used Leeds people need not worry though as we dont mix anything in with ours

Could the animal fat referred to be the same byproduct used in making soap? Either way whatever the Councils use makes one hell of a mess. :mad:

Had our Focus at a 30-45 degree angle yesterday on a seemingly dry slip road entrance. :mad:

Not going fast, started putting the power down out of the bend and up on to the slip road - front end washed out, reduced throttle and it chucked the rear out completely - caught it nicely and the car was superb, but a very odd feeling on dry tarmac.

John true enough I suspect - I was looking at the website for Ontario (or somewhere similar) - they did say that a saline solution was still very effective and was widely used.

As Stevey says, molasses is mixed with potash to stop it being blown away.
Short of a definitive comment from someone with direct involvement in highway maintainance I find it incredible that anyone would caontemplate using animal fat. A total no no as far as anyone with a modicum of savy will realise.
Without regular heavy rainfall the roads will be naturally greasey and particularly so at this time of year.
In addition to potash from North Yorkshire and Winsford, some UK local authorities also import urea from Russia for pavement and highway "salting".

Chris, yeah they still do use salt mixes, just in some areas, Banff etc they sometimes get so much snowfall the salt just really isn't effective once it gets hard packed so they just chuck down the heavy grit stuff, everybody out there has windscreen insurance. You'll be lucky to see a car in winter without a cracked windscreen due to the stuff getting thrown up.

John.

I had a brief 4 wheel drift last night going around the corner on a freshly gritted dry road.

Salt and animal fat are two of the key ingredients to a hearty breakfast IMHO especially if below freezing outside.

brrrrrrrr - brass monkeys out there this morning, needed a whole pint of tea before I could face it.

seems to be a few people sliding on a freshly gritted roads ever thought of slowing down cos depending what gram rate they are using there could be a fair amount put down on the road basicly leaving it like a gravel track until it gets enough traffic on it
speaking as a gritter driver i know our area dosent use any additives and certainly never heard of animal fat being used

My slide was at 30mph on a normal dry motorway sliproad bend that hasnt been gritted for over a week.

May have been diesel, but it felt very strange, and never happened before.

Spot on, urea used as a de-icer mainly on steel structures as less corrosive than salt.
molasses mixed with salt too as helps salt stick on the road also less corrosive so better for the environment vehicles etc just watch out though for all the cats and dogs licking it off the road:nono:

:thumb:

just a quick note to eveyone who has read this.

its gonna sound crazy i know but.................

BUY A COPY OF MOTOR CYCLE NEWS as it has a very interesting story about the condition of the roads this winter and the addition of a new "additive" in road salt.its called safecoat and as the name would suggest to me it leaves a coating of smething on the road. They say its been added to the mix so that the salt adhears to the road for longer.A lot of bulls eggs if you ask me.

okay its not animal fat as first suspected but it would be as well as being animal fat

soobyMADhttp://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/images/icons/icon8.gif

Safecoat is the company developing a new de-icer, which is made from molasses and mixed with salt (the normal stuff we have had on our roads for years and years).
This has been trialed in wales but is not used as yet , dont know about other parts of the country though.
As i said before molasses is a by-product of raw sugar and is a sticky thick liquid, it is also used in animal feed as well .