ice

After my disastrous winter offroading trip, I've been doing lots of thinking, scheming, and online searching for what I could've done different. The question/theory I've come up with is whether I could have use Maxtrax or similar recovery tracks to get past an ice patch on a slope. In this...

The other day I tried to warm up my car after a snow/ice storm. I had it running for 15 minutes and the heat never got hot. I had to bring it back to the dealership today. Has anyone else had this problem ?