Seems to me this is a solution looking for a problem. Drilling mounting holes and wire feed through holes will do much more damage to the vehicle than the built up ice and snow.

Thats my next issue. At least i have knowledge with cars.

 

A silicone spray would be my approach. Or maybe some of that stuff they spray on airplane wings.

Very specific conditions are required for ice to accumulate in a wheel well. We call those road boogers around here. They will not form when it's too warm, obviously, but also if it's too cold and dry. You need just the right amount of free moisture to stick things together once they hit the surface. It's the same reason cross-country skiers need different waxes for different snows, and why you can't make a snowball or snowman out of the wrong kind of snow.

I'm not sure how that helps, but knowing one's enemy is half the battle.

 

A silicone spray would be my approach. Or maybe some of that stuff they spray on airplane wings.

Very specific conditions are required for ice to accumulate in a wheel well. We call those road boogers around here. They will not form when it's too warm, obviously, but also if it's too cold and dry. You need just the right amount of free moisture to stick things together once they hit the surface. It's the same reason cross-country skiers need different waxes for different snows, and why you can't make a snowball or snowman out of the wrong kind of snow.

I'm not sure how that helps, but knowing one's enemy is half the battle.

I have done plenty of research on solving the problem and this is what i have come to. I don't want to be spraying stuff on my wheel well every morning. Plus i have read that it can "melt" the rubber of your tires

 

Thats my next issue. At least i have knowledge with cars.

Which is your issue? Mounting the thing or finding a problem that justifies this solution?

I have done plenty of research on solving the problem and this is what i have come to. I don't want to be spraying stuff on my wheel well every morning. Plus i have read that it can "melt" the rubber of your tires

So the potential to burn your vehicle down using a homemade contraption you admit you don't know much about designing to solve a near non issue seems like a better approach?

 

Which is your issue? Mounting the thing or finding a problem that justifies this solution?



So the potential to burn your vehicle down using a homemade contraption you admit you don't know much about designing to solve a near non issue seems like a better approach?

Yeah it actually does it's either all or nothing for me. Plus how are you going to learn if you never try?

 

If @KMoffett , a member here, would see thus tread, he would say, "please let us help you solve your problem, not your solution."

I foresee a car with melted fender liners and smells like a tire fire. Sorry, safety and risk/reward analysis seems o be missing from this project. There are many other ways to move forward. I know you said earlier that you don't view suggestions for other options as help. However, a high level "conceptual review" of various options is what I do best. Yanking people out of the box and making them view the problem from 10,000 feet before looking at a solution. Then look at the problem up close from a few different angles before considering any options. Sometimes a pet peeve is determined to not even be a problem and is best served with OCD medication than any engineering work (e.g. A proposed project to move a conveyor to the center of a room rather than the off-set location that was driving two engineers to distraction.

Anyhow, I'm not convinced ice on wheel wells is an issue so, until proven wrong, I'm spectating rather than participating on this one.

 

If @KMoffett , a member here, would see thus tread, he would say, "please let us help you solve your problem, not your solution."

I foresee a car with melted fender liners and smells like a tire fire. Sorry, safety and risk/reward analysis seems o be missing from this project. There are many other ways to move forward. I know you said earlier that you don't view suggestions for other options as help. However, a high level "conceptual review" of various options is what I do best. Yanking people out of the box and making them view the problem from 10,000 feet before looking at a solution. Then look at the problem up close from a few different angles before considering any options. Sometimes a pet peeve is determined to not even be a problem and is best served with OCD medication than any engineering work (e.g. A proposed project to move a conveyor to the center of a room rather than the off-set location that was driving two engineers to distraction.

Anyhow, I'm not convinced ice on wheel wells is an issue so, until proven wrong, I'm spectating rather than participating on this one.

Trust me when I say I have spent the last month evaluating all universal options and this has the most pros and least cons. I understand what you are saying about looking at everything differently, but I came here to learn about the circuitry. I learned what i needed and will post updates and pictures when ive got somthing working

 

I learned what i needed and will post updates and pictures when ive got somthing working

I look forward to seeing how it works out, good or bad. We can all learn something.

I'm wondering how to test it? I mean, the icing phenomenon is somewhat rare and unpredictable.

 

Winter driving must be different in some places. Never had a problem with ice build up in the wheel wells. Behind the wheel well yeah, from the spay off of the tires, but never in the wheel well. A well placed kick when you get to the destination, and problem gone. Been driving in Ohio winters for over 50+ years.

 

Winter driving must be different in some places. Never had a problem with ice build up in the wheel wells. Behind the wheel well yeah, from the spay off of the tires, but never in the wheel well. A well placed kick when you get to the destination, and problem gone. Been driving in Ohio winters for over 50+ years.

Same thing here. Where I live we excel at making sticky road slush and in my 25+ years of driving ice build up in the wheel wells or anywhere else to the point of being a driving hazard has been a zero concern issue no matter how pathetic of vehicle I drove.
It just does not build up into some immovable unbreakable mass of solid rock hard ice.

The worst I have ever seen gets to the constituency of a high density styrofoam at best and even then it's easily crushed under foot and certainly nowhere near the point of being a danger to tires or anything else.

I just can't see the OP's fixation on the concept and reasoning its implementation and against using anything else.

 

Same here at the Illinois/Wisconsin border. When conditions are right the road boogers collect on the flap behind the tire and up, rarely reaching above 4 o'clock or so. On rare occasions they can shrink the clearance to the tire to almost zero, and you can feel and hear them when you turn.

My main problem with them is when they plop off onto the garage floor and melt.

 

Same here at the Illinois/Wisconsin border. When conditions are right the road boogers collect on the flap behind the tire and up, rarely reaching above 4 o'clock or so. On rare occasions they can shrink the clearance to the tire to almost zero, and you can feel and hear them when you turn.

My main problem with them is when they plop off onto the garage floor and melt.

These two issues are exactly why i want to create this device. I dont want to stop my car in the street and kick off the chunks then pull in my garage every time. Plus it can freeze hard and fall off in a parking lot then you drive over a rock hard chunk of ice, not good for my car.

Testing shouldn't be too hard

 

C'mon Gopher. I would like a booger remover, wouldn't you? It comes down to what it costs for a working solution versus the value to customers. Would I pay $20 to never have those chunks melting on my garage floor? Sure I would. $100? Hard to say.

 

These two issues are exactly why i want to create this device. I dont want to stop my car in the street and kick off the chunks then pull in my garage every time. Plus it can freeze hard and fall off in a parking lot then you drive over a rock hard chunk of ice, not good for my car.

What about all the other stuff stuck to the underside of the vehicle?

The buildup behind the tires is just a small part of a much larger accumulation under the rest of the vehicle on what I drive.

Sounds like you drive a vehicle that wasn't built for the conditions you live in if it can't handle driving over snow chunks without the potential for damage.

 

The buildup behind the tires is just a small part of a much larger accumulation under the rest of the vehicle on what I drive.

The front wheel wells account for most of what my cars bring in. I don't care as much about the rear because it's closer to the door and easier to shovel out.

 

What about all the other stuff stuck to the underside of the vehicle?

The buildup behind the tires is just a small part of a much larger accumulation under the rest of the vehicle on what I drive.

Sounds like you drive a vehicle that wasn't built for the conditions you live in if it can't handle driving over snow chunks without the potential for damage.

It's not a potential for immediate damage but excess wear on your car. Plus I drive a volvo s80 and it sits fairly low. Anyways nothing really builds under my car so im not concerned about that.

 

Park backwards and the snow that falls off will be closer to the door.

What wear does snow slush create on a vehicle anyway? Just asking being I have ran 5 vehicles to over 250,000 miles before they were wore out beyond rational repair and 'snow slush wear' was not only never an issue but as far as I can recall not even a visually perceivable blemish.

Is Volvo building their vehicle bodies with cardboard now? ?

 

Park backwards and the snow that falls off will be closer to the door.

What wear does snow slush create on a vehicle anyway? Just asking being I have ran 5 vehicles to over 250,000 miles before they were wore out beyond rational repair and 'snow slush wear' was not only never an issue but as far as I can recall not even a visually perceivable blemish.

Is Volvo building their vehicle bodies with cardboard now? ?

Haha no, it has happened to me many times where I will park at a store go inside for 30 mins and the chunk of slush falls off of the wheel well then freezes into a hard brick (sub zero in minnesota) then i drive over it. After doing this many times it can have the same affect as driving over a curb every day which clearly isnt good for a sedan.

 

I'm a born and raised rural living North Dakotan so I am full well aware of what Minnesota winters are like and I've ran three sedans to over 250,000 miles each here.

I call BS on driving over parking lot fender slush chunks being a problem let alone something that could cause suspension system damage.
As others here who have applied engineering backgrounds and experience have pointed out all this looks like to us is a solution looking for a problem being form an experienced driving and design standpoint none of what you have proposed has shown a single grain of justified merit.

If you want to build it and put it on your vehicle go ahead. No one here will stop you but don't expect any of us with any degree of engineering experience to buy into your justifications. We've ran the numbers and it just doesn't add up. Power consumption is likely going to be way high, accurate thermal distribution and control will be poor and the reasoning behind the whole concept just does not add up in the eyes of any experienced driver.

Other than that go for it! It's your time and money and your vehicle that potentially burns down when your design goes wrong not ours.

 

I'm a born and raised rural living North Dakotan so I am full well aware of what Minnesota winters are like and I've ran three sedans to over 250,000 miles each here.

I call BS on driving over parking lot fender slush chunks being a problem let alone something that could cause suspension system damage.
As others here who have applied engineering backgrounds and experience have pointed out all this looks like to us is a solution looking for a problem being form an experienced driving and design standpoint none of what you have proposed has shown a single grain of justified merit.

If you want to build it and put it on your vehicle go ahead. No one here will stop you but don't expect any of us with any degree of engineering experience to buy into your justifications. We've ran the numbers and it just doesn't add up. Power consumption is likely going to be way high, accurate thermal distribution and control will be poor and the reasoning behind the whole concept just does not add up in the eyes of any experienced driver.

Other than that go for it! It's your time and money and your vehicle that potentially burns down when your design goes wrong not ours.

Have you seriously never driven over a rock hard ice chunk that has fallen off of your car? I can garentee doing that is in no way good for your car unless that is you drive a truck.