South Texas. We have ice one day every couple of years, but there’s more salt on my fries than the roads.


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What I find REALLY interesting is states/ communities that don’t salt but have snow & ice...was in the garage at Toyota and they showed me the undercarriage of an older Taco from Alaska and no rust - or undercoating. Owner said they only use sand. I hear they use gravel on roads in Scandinavia. In my VT neighborhood the overuse of salt is killing cars and local joke is that the hippies are trying to make our dino-powered vehicles go extinct :rofl: Maybe it should be pointed out how many trees are dying (people wrap their ornamental trees) and deer getting hit who come to eat salt. The new thing on our local Class 4 roads is to NOT plow and just salt....to save gas :flame:

 

Wow I wouldn't have guessed Alaska,They are doing it right!

 

I am outside the Philadelphia suburb area and they use a lot of salt on the roads here. I owned my 08 FJ since 4,500 miles and currently at 185k miles on it. Every time after a snow event and it's at least 35 degrees out I am hosing my FJ undercarriage then back in my garage. My undercarriage has minimum rust on it. I believe as an owner I go over the top in maintenance including getting my FJ washed and waxed. I am possible going to put my FJ for sale this summer and with all my service records and how the exterior, interior and undercarriage looks like almost new I should get top dollar.

 

I live up in the mountains in So Cal. We just got our snow last night. They don`t salt up here they use cinder rock. 11 1/2 months a year California is dry

 

They salt here in KS, but it only snows/ices a few times a year and is gone in a few days so no big deal.

 

I'm very surprised all those people that seem to be against everything haven't zeroed in on road salt yet. It can't be very good for the bears or fishies. >

 

It's a mixed bag with a lot of trade-offs and no magic answer. Out here in Colorado they use sand and salt mixture and in places use mag chloride. They use a salt/sand/chemical mixture out here they refer to as 'cutter' that will melt ice up to -20F -- or so they claim.

The mag chloride was initially advertised as wont rust your car...we all knew it was BS...and while it will rust less than NaCl, it does a number on alum, magnesium and other car finishes.

Colorado DOT,environmentalists, and even regular people see the issues. On those roads that are used in the winter, all the trees that get the snowplow clearing spray of snow/salt/sand from the roads and salt/rockloaded snow pushed into large snowbanks show die off from the salt/chemicals. Those roads only open in summertime, have beautiful vegetation right up to the edge of the road (examples, Trail Ridge road, Mount Evans, Independence Pass).

The other issue that comes up is even if you just use sand year in and year out, we are finding that the piles of sand and decomposed granite are loading up the streamside runoff. Believe it or not, it becomes an immense about of debris that needs to be removed and not just pushed down the mountainsides. So there is no one size fits all solution if you want to keep the roads open. And if you dont use salt or deicers snow will just get compacted to rock hard ice at least on the north/east facing sides.

All that being said, out here in Colorado we dont see much rust out from salt used on the road because we dont have high humidity BUT you have to be vigilant about spraying off the underside when you wash them otherwise you can get some rust issues.

Those people that live in Colorado mountain communities may see snow from October through April and are very limited on how often you can feasibly wash/rinse the salt off. For example, why wash it when it snows every three days and it will just be a mess within a day...or if temperatures never get above freezing for weeks/months at a time. You definitely see some service vehicles in those communities that have rust problems.

 

It's a bag of doodoo here in Mass. too. The very hint of frozen precip, brings out the 'presalt' spraydown, then the salt follows that. I spray my undercarriage with 'Fluid Film' in the fall, and in the spring, with a air spraygun they sell for it. A gallon can is a lot cheaper than rattle cans, if you have a compressor. I tried hydraulic fluid once, but it wore off too soon. You have to stay on top of it year round here on Cape Cod, because the air itself is filled with salt, year round. Mighty tough on any metal ,including corrosive resistant metals, such as aluminum and SS.:grin

 

I just bought an absolutely rust free car from Spokane, WA, way over on the east side of the state and out of the rain forest.

I'd gone shopping for a rust free project car, expecting to find what I was looking for in any of the obvious, rust free states: S. California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, inland Florida, hell, even south and central Indiana has some amazingly low rust cars, since they don't get snow all that often. Anyway, I was hoping to find a rust free body shell and prepared for a sun-cooked interior (the big tradeoff in those sunshine states). Also, knowing that coastal Florida, Texas and beach side California, that the rust on the cars can be every bit as bad there as in Mamaroneck, NY, I knew that the only way to be sure was to inspect each prospect carefully, underneath, before selecting.

Instead, I found this car in Missoula, MT, which had spent 20 years in Spokane, and the last 5 in Missoula (near each other, and similar, dry, high plains weather). Not only was the body perfect but also the interior trim and all of the moldings are like new as well. What a lucky find, I'd never suspected to get such a rust free car from so far north.

So, in answer to OP's question: the rust free areas are wherever they can be found, is where they are.

 

What is rust? It is ferric (iron) oxide, written Fe2O3. The iron is in the steel of your vehicle, but how does the oxygen molecule attach to the iron molecule? After all, the steel surfaces (mostly made of iron) on a vehicle are treating with a coating to prevent rust.

Salt and water create an electrolysis. Over time electrolysis exposes iron surfaces to react with oxygen to form rust. Moisture (splashing up from the highway from melted snow or ice) is an accelerant for the rate of reaction. Note that the splashing not only contains water, but salt as well. If you let your car sit for several days, water evaporates and the remaining salt dries. If you live where annual precipitation is high and/or you live in an area where humidity is high, the dried salt absorbs the moisture.

One of the best things to do after driving on salted roads is to go wash your car, including the under carriage. This cleans away most of the splashed salt. Note that salt is natural occurring in some soils, and driving during non-winter months kicks up dust (that contains bits of salt) that settles under your vehicle. Hence, it is a good idea to wash the under carriage and inside the wheel wells, whenever you cash your car.

Back to the original question. There is no such thing as a rust-free state, but states that have warm, dry climates are less rust prone. I live in Arizona, but southern California, parts of Nevada, New Mexico and Utah are also better suited to have vehicles without rust.

 

I have always got a laugh at "Texas Car" being in an advertisement. 1/3 of the Texas population is along the Gulf of Mexico - a warm body of salt water. I remember 4 to 5 year old cars & trucks in this area, in the 70's & 80's, that were rust buckets.

Which part of Texas is really important, to determine how rust it may be.

 

Thanks to all with real knowledge who have checked in. It's a no win here in the north east. People complain if the roads aren't clear an hour after it snows.
While at Toyota dealer recently I was under a TRD Pro Tacoma on the sales floor (yes,i'm that guy). The frame appeared to be fully coated.Might be some hope for future cars. Anyone my age (60) remembers seeing the road through the floorboards.HaHa

 

I find Oregon (not along the coast) to be very good. My 13 with almost 100K miles is pretty rust free. I find few spots on the underside, some from where it has been hit or rubbed and those easily touched up with a rattle can.

Portland has been talking about using salt. It will save THEM money... I hope they come to their senses..

( I have NOT written the politically charged statements about Portland that come to mind with what they DO spend money on) >

 

Here's my other toy. Rust free because it winters in a garage.

 

Idaho cars are pretty good about being rust free. We get quite a bit of snow, they only seem to use sand.

 

Southeast New Mexico. I'm in the middle of the desert and it snows about every other year. My '78 Hilux was sold new here and has no rust.

 

Almost anywhere in NM is a safe bet. No coastal regions with ocean salt spray. The mountain regions (ski TAOS!!!) use sand almost exclusively.

 

Up until the about 10 years ago Washington State did not allow use of salt on the roads. Well founded environmental concerns and rust were the reasons. Over the last 20 year there was a huge influx of newcomers from Northeastern states and they demanded salt on the roads. The policy was changed. A coworker from NY got in an accident on an icy stretch. "It wasn't my fault, the roads weren't even sahlted". I drive over the Cascade Mountain about 40 times in the winter each year and have noticed a lot more rust on the undercarriage on my cars than before. Oh well, nothing lasts forever.

 

New Yorkers ruin everything!!! Bastards

 

Arizona, central and southern New Mexico, west Texas are probably your best bet. Everything in California is too high...lol I have a 14 fj that has spent its whole life out here in west Texas, really does make a difference long term. They never salt here because it snows 1/2 inch a year and rains only about 18 in a year. One of my good buddies worked at the Jeep dealership in Abilene, Tx and he would always be amazed at how far people would travel to buy the used jeeps on the lot. Mainly because of what we are talking about here. Apparently, you can get a new one anywhere, but everyone wants a rust free used one.

 

Surprising to me when I was looking for my FJ this summer, was that Florida wasn't too bad! I'm in New England so obviously very familiar with the rust problem (it's why we got rid of our 260,000 mile '05 Land Cruiser ... sad), and so thats not a terrible option for east coasters. We did think about going to Arizona or Nevada as well. But at the end of the day there's almost no substitute for low mileage. After about 10 FJ's seen in person and another 30ish that I had the seller send me underside pics of, we found one in (relatively) great condition in Mass with 52,000 on it, and just immediately brought it to a place in Springfield, MA to have the underside totally wire brushed and coated. It's like new now, honestly super impressive, and I'm sure they could've gotten similar results for trucks in much worse states than mine.

Good Luck!!