As some of you may know I"m moving from Houston to north Ohio
in two weeks. I plan on buying a fifth wheel and I"ll need a car while I"m up there. Like most guys I"ve got several dream cars, most of which are out of my reach or just impractical for what I would consider daily driving but there is one I"ve always wanted.
An old VW Bug rag top. They are air cooled, very light weight and rear wheel drive. My wife says its a horrible car to have up there in Ohio but I thought it was a great idea. What do you guys think? Is a light weight, air cooled, rear wheel drive car not idea for cold, snowy, winter weather? Wes
The little bugs are unstoppable. But I'd rather have something with a heater.
I had one for a short time in Fairbanks. The intake manifold just below the carburetor kept freezing up.
Carry a good ice scraper as you will need it for the INSIDE of the windshield as you drive down the road.
05 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT SC DRW 4X4 CTD G56 373's CAI,Edge Juice/Attitude,Jake,Rancho9000x,Torklift tie downs,Superhitch,Stable Loads
04 S&S Avalanche 9' with slide 26th Marines RVN 69-70 Semper Fi M-14 was the only Woodstock I saw in 1969.
Had a Bug in the 70's in PA and drove through many snow storms.
If the snow gets too deep then have one or two people stand on the rear bumper for even more weight. Maybe new models have no bumpers.
Loved it.
OMG, I figured those cars had some sort of heater. OK now my wife is laughing at me but I'm still interested. She wants me to just leave the car in Houston and I can play with it when I"m down every other week but I"ll need something up north too.
An old VW Bug rag top. They are air cooled, very light weight and rear wheel drive. My wife says its a horrible car to have up there in Ohio but I thought it was a great idea. What do you guys think? Is a light weight, air cooled, rear wheel drive car not idea for cold, snowy, winter weather? Wes
I never had a ragtop bug, but I had three VW Beetle sedans, in the '60's, up here in the Western Canadian Prairies....two provinces Manitoba and Alberta. It doesn't get much colder (down to more than 40 below) or snowier than up here. Winter can go for 5 1/2 months.
You can get a gas heater in the VW, which will keep it real warm, but if I recall my gas heater when I switched it on, if I used it a lot, the ole VW would eat gas as if it had a Chevy 454 with 2 X 4bbl carbs under the hood.
But it was very hard to get the VW bug stuck, because the engine is over the drive wheels, (traction), the wheels were tall, thin 15 inchers which would cut throught the deep snow and the underside of the VW was a sheet of metal which was like a toboggan and would slide over the deep snow.
I oput weight in the trunk, usually heavy burlap bags with sand in them. If i didn't the VW wouldn't turn too well on the icey, snowy roads, but with a bit of weight in the front near the front axle would help quite a bit.
But then, I'm relying on my memory and that goes back about 40 years. The old Beetle, seemed fine back then, but that was a long time ago. Original VW beetles are pretty old cars now and I'm not sure if I would want to drive around in a 40 + year old car in cold, snowy weather. It's ability to defrost the windows was pretty marginal, especially with a number of people in there breathing away and I used to have a ice scraper handy clearing a spot on the inside of the windshield. Also I used to have to put frost shields on the inside of the windows and I haven't seen a frost shield for at least 15 years.
Ahhh....the more I think about it, your wife is probably right. Get one, but just drive it around in the summer. Remember that probably one reason that VW had to drop it from the line, was probably due to the fact that it wasn't a good car to be in, in the event of a head on collision, so be careful.
Boy lesmore49, you sure bring back memories with this post! My Mom had an old original bug back in the 70's and she tooled around Fairbanks in it. She loved the car but with three teenagers, it got a wee bit tight inside! And I also remember those frost shields - you're right, they haven't been seen in years! It was a real trick to get them to seal properly so they would do their job...more often than not they were a waste of time!
As far as a ragtop bug for cold weather, well there are other more practical cars for that. I don't know that ANY convertible is a cold weather car but then when I talk about "cold weather" it has a whole different meaning than Ohio!
"There's no such thing as too much tow vehicle!"
Wes, Linda, & kids
"Tow Twuck" - 2008 Ford F350 DRW CC LB 6.4 Powerstroke
"Cougar" - 2006 Keystone Cougar 289EFS Fifth Wheel Our Website
OK, they did have what they called heaters. Not what I would call them. Mine was a 1960. It had a knob on the transmission tunnel that you would crank open and closed. You turned the "heater " on by closing two vent doors that would route the "heat " into the canals leading to the cockpit/windshield. There was NO fan. Moving the heat from the air cooled engine depended entirely on forward motion of the car. I hated that car!! But while I was in Fairbanks I traded it for a 4 year old 1960 Chevy Impala convertible. Bright red. Man, how I wish I still had THAT car.
Seen many a "Bug" driven around Michigan roads in the winter. Germany is about the same weather as Southern Mich/North Ohio so.. Why not
I do have a few suggestions, I'll tell most of 'em in the form of a true story (I should know.. I'm party of the last part)
Where I used to work we parked at the bottom of a fairly steep hill.. Showing up for work on day,, The pavement looked like August, clear and dry.. However while we sat on our chairs it snowed a bit.. about six to eight inches.
Well one of my co-workers, (Dispatcher McBragg we sometimes called him) was laughing at "The Kid" who had just gotten a brand new FORD Splash pickup with "Roller Skate" wheels (The extra wide kind) Now first, understand that though Ford may well build a "Tough Truck" they are very, very light in the tail.. Dodge or GM does much better with weight distribution unloaded in my not very humble opinion (I've driven all 3). He was laughing and saying how much fun it was going to be watching "the kid" and his splash go up the hill (He was right on that count,but read on) then he told us about all his expierence driving in SNOW (Michigan's Upper Penna) working for the Air Force (on US-government purchased JEEP tires.. He forgot that part)
Well, first up the hill was "The Kid" About 30-40 degrees off straight ahead
Next was McBragg in his lincoln land barge.... Exactly the same angle
Then came two young ladies, One from Georgia one Texas, front wheel drive, Might as well have been august as they headed straight up the hill.
I brought up the rear in my Chrysler midi-wagon (Aspin as I recall) and also headed straight up the hill.. McBragg says it's because of all the heavy boxes I had in the back (I was carrying about 50 pounds of tools)
What did it: Kelly Navigator 800's.. When I bought tires I took a good look at the tread and got the most aggressive all-weather tire the store carried.
McBragg had summer crusing tires on his land barge, might as well have had racing slicks for all the good they did him.
So the advice
But tires with an aggressive thread, Buy the proper width tire (NO ROLLER SKATE WHEELS), SLOW DOWN, and increase following distance.
Summer or winter I see cars on the freeway here in Detroit so close you could dang near step from one to the other and never touch the ground.. STUPID! to the max.. Then when something happens.. they are all standing around scratching their.... End,... wondering why the radiators are leaky
(Not a problem with a VW right)
Nothin adds excitment like something that is none of your business John is Near Kenwood TS-2000 housed in a 2005 Damon Intruder 377
I highly suggest you to purchase a set of winter tires. I live across the river from wa8yxm and we do get quite a bit of snow. The winters are usually mild here but we consistently get 8-10 inches of snow at a time. Then it'll rain and all the snow will melt away and then it'll snow another 8-10 inches. Freezing rain is another problem around here too due to the mild winters.
When buying winters, I usually go w/ the dumb down rule. I also prefer buying strictly summers and winters. All-season = no season.
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" on by closing two vent doors that would route the "heat 
