I'm sure it's not really new, but I've never heard of it before.
I always figured that in Winter the toothbar would just be a nuisance--make it harder to get all the snow off the drive. So I took it off. Just put it back on again, though, because we had quite a bit of ice (freezing rain) and since I don't have a spreader I decided to try scoring the ice with the toothbar. Just turned the teeth down at an angle, pushed them down against the ice, and backed up. Soon I found it works well going forward, too. A couple of passes and the ice isn't quite so slick any more. Not quite as good as sand/salt, but pretty good in a pinch.
Jim
I always figured that in Winter the toothbar would just be a nuisance--make it harder to get all the snow off the drive. So I took it off. Just put it back on again, though, because we had quite a bit of ice (freezing rain) and since I don't have a spreader I decided to try scoring the ice with the toothbar. Just turned the teeth down at an angle, pushed them down against the ice, and backed up. Soon I found it works well going forward, too. A couple of passes and the ice isn't quite so slick any more. Not quite as good as sand/salt, but pretty good in a pinch.
Jim