On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 12:42:16 PST, Eric Kuhnke <eric@fnordsystems.com> said:
For those who have never visited Fairbanks, there is a phenomena observed at -15C and lower known as "square tire". The rubber in tires of parked vehicles will become stiff and freeze into position, making the vehicle impossible to move without destroying the tires.
I can't speak for Alaska, but I've had to drive at -40(C/F) in northern NY. Yes, the tires get 'square', and will go a bit wump wump wump until they warm up (usually after a half mile or so). However, a tire should be able to deal with this without much trouble (or at least in almost a decade of trying I never actually managed to damage a tire noticably that way). What *is* embarassing and potentially a big issue is if you've been driving, the tires are warmed up, and you park on a layer of several inches of snow/ice, and return a few hours later to find the tires have melted down into the ice and then refrozen.....