Don’t Buy It, Until We Try It: Tread Ahead | Video

Amy Fox | 1/25/2013

Winter weather brings snowy and icy conditions, which can cause your vehicle to get stuck. But, before you reach for your snow shovel, there may be an easier way to dig your tires out of the snow. In this week`s "Don`t Buy It, Until We Try It," I tried out Tread Ahead.

Tread Ahead is advertised as a wedge that provides extra traction along slippery surfaces, like snow and ice. It also serves as an ice scraper. But, does this product actually work? Well, “Don’t Buy It, Until We Try It.”

It doesn`t matter if its snow or ice, during the winter, tires get a tough work out.

"They`re trying to rock back and forth to get the vehicle going, and they`ll basically burn the tread off," said Minot Tires Plus Store Manager Peter Campbell.

For Campbell, that means selling more snow tires. "It`s made out of a softer compound,” he said. “So, in the winter with the extreme cold and all that will grab to the road better."

While snow tires provide extra traction to help reduce your chances of getting stuck in the snow and ice, they can be a bit pricey. So, we decided try out Tread Ahead.

Campbell said, "If you`re stuck, something like that may work for you." We placed the wedge under the wheel.

"It puts that on there, so you`re not on a slick surface. The tire can actually grip to that to pull itself out," said Campbell.

Once it was in place, it was time to drive on it.

"Well, I think you would need to have two of them,” said Campbell. “One because on most vehicles the tire with the least resistance is the one that spins, so if you put that under one of your tires, the other tire will just spin.”

In addition to helping you get out of snow banks and icy patches, Tread Ahead also helps you scrape off your windshield. As we began to scrape, the snow quickly fell off. But, there was no ice.

So, are we stuck on tread ahead?

"If you’re kind of stuck in a deeper snow when you`re spinning, you`re still going to have to shovel, that`s not going to get you out," said Campbell.

While Tread Ahead was easy to use and provided us with a little traction on a flat surface, it wouldn`t work for larger vehicles, like advertised on TV. Also, you only get one Tread Ahead, so you would need to buy a couple if multiple tires are stuck.

So, this week`s "Don`t Buy It, Until We Try It," earns a thumbs down.

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