How Thick Does Lake Ice Have To Be To Support A Car's Weight?
While it seems like a car lover's fantasy to spend an afternoon sliding a high-performance car atop a frozen lake, there's real danger looming right beneath your four tires. It's crucial for anyone venturing out on lake ice to know the thickness of the frozen surface. While there isn't a single magic number for ice thickness that supports every car, there are established guidelines to stay safe. Before we start, if the ice is less than five inches thick, don't even try to drive on it!
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has published depth guidelines to help you stay safe out on a frozen lake. The agency stated that new, clear ice should be at least five inches thick to support a snowmobile's weight. The recommended minimum thickness understandably scales up with vehicle size. It's a nine-inch minimum for a small car. That figure goes up to 11 inches for a mid-size SUV and 16 inches for a heavy-duty truck. If you want to tow a shelter out on the lake, you're going to need 20 inches of ice. Double these numbers if the ice is white.
Planes are pretty heavy too
It's important to remember that ice doesn't freeze uniformly. It freezes from the shoreline inwards and from the top down. You have to be aware that the sheet of ice atop a lake may be uneven. The story of a 2023 ice-fishing trip gone wrong is a decent illustration of why ice thickness matters. Two people were flying in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk to Upper Red Lake in Minnesota. The pilot overshot the landing strip, slid onto the lake and fell through the ice. According to Cessna, the plane's maximum takeoff weight is 2,550 pounds. That's roughly 160 pounds heavier than a 2026 Mazda MX-5.
Luckily, the water wasn't too deep. The pair were caught waist-deep in their surprise ice bath and were helped out of the water by other anglers on the lake. The local sheriff's office believed that the ice was only one or two inches deep. As long as you do your due diligence, you should have nothing to worry about when driving across a frozen lake.