Jeff_M

This past September I moved out to Portland, OR from Boston, MA. Prior to the move, I was under the impression that it snowed out here. Much to my dismay(!), Portland natives told me otherwise. Originally hailing from Buffalo, NY and then moving to not-so-tropical Boston, I know a thing or two about snow. As the holiday season came and went, I realized I missed snow. I was disappointed in the fact that my 4WD 4runner would never get to strut its stuff in tough weather. Well low and behold, snow has been accumulating here over the past two days! While everyone else was busy sliding all over the roads or chaining up (My God... 5" of snow.... Whatever will we do?!), I was scooting all over town, as sure-footed as ever. Man, I would've loved to have owned a vehicle like this while I lived in Buffalo! I'd love to here some snow travel stories from some of you 4runner owners...

Mossback74

This is also my first snow with the runner. I must say it has been doing very well. I'm running wild country tires with a street tread and I only slip when I really want to. I did put on chains once, but that was just to make sure they fit Coming home from work morning of the 29th, I kept driving out of the tracks on the road splashing snow and slush. Well I guess a bit got up aroung my shifter lever cause when I got home I couldnt shift out of drive. After a couple hours of melt time and working it a bit I could get it into park. Lesson learned I guess. Snow is wet sloppy fun and it does not come here often enough.

vudbster

I live in Vancouver BC, Canada and we got a big dump of snow too. I have BFG Mud terrain tires on my rig which are great in snow but really bad on hard packed or icy roads. I guess they're not designed for anything like that, without siping. Otherwise it's great fun with nothing to stop you from getting to where you have to go.

Mike.

OneTrickToy

I took my pickup out to the snow yesterday. I HAD to use the chains. I got into it pretty deep. Over a foot deep with ice underneath and a cliff on one side of me. I decided to take my truck out to Canyon Lake. It's up in the mountains and it was snowing like crazy! There weren't any tracks, so I was making the trail and after a bit I had to stop and turn around. I couldn't tell where the road was and where the cliff started. Decided not to take any undue risk. Had tons of fun though.

X-AWDriver

Still waiting for real snow here in Denver;the mountains are getting a lot but we've only had a couple of storms that were only a piddling few inches. Boring

FirstToy

I hit my first snow in Big Bear today and the 4R did awesome. It was alot of slick ice covered dirt roads and I felt in total control the whole time. It was really confidence inspiring. I'm really happy with how everything worked.

XREAS was on point driving down twisty hwy 38. Awesome all around

StoryR

Drove in my first snow the other night! With 4HI and my BFG Winter Slolam Studs...it was a breeze! More snow coming tonight and tomorrow night too! I saw you guys in Portland got dumped!

kyle_22r

4hi and my crappy 27" street tires work wonders in the snow...just as long as you tap the brakes rapidly when you stop instead of just laying them on

now that i have 4wd, i don't think i could live without it in the snow. that shift on the fly capability with my hubs locked really comes in handy on those slippery roads

Mossback74

This was also my first experience using ABS. Took a little adjustment to my usual lock 'em and pile the snow in front of you method of stopping I rolled past my driveway a couple times. Now that I'm used to it I dont see how I ever lived without. Yes we did get quite a dumping. Traction devices were REQUIRED on all metro Highways for a while. I consider my 4HI button a traction device

OneTrickToy

I don't want to dog on you at all. I just want you to be aware that this is how most accidents in winter conditions arise. Someone has a good experience one day and believes that each time they go out they will have just as much control. Everyday you drive in ice or snow, treat the snow/ice with complete respect and expect to slide around. I've seen too many accidents and slid around enough myself. SUV's are just as susceptible to sliding as everybody else if the conditions are right.

With that said.... Yesterday the roads were bare due to some rain. Today... THE SNOW IS BACK!! Looks like we got a few inches last night.

Roadrunner

Here's a pic of me working my way down an icy trail on our New Years Day Run in the GWNF (more pics and trail report later):

rimpainter.com

Still waiting for snow here...

X-AWDriver

Most of the vehicles off the road here are 4WDs since everybody thinks they can go as fast as they want since they have 4WD. Plus in Denver we really don't see too many snow storms so people seem to forget how to drive in the white stuff inbetween storms.

Darren

No stories here, just trail runs that make for some very good times.

rimpainter.com

I am so jealous. Ok, where are the winter photography pics Darren?

Darren

I put one up on my home page, but I have 2 recent snow run reports listed in the trail reports section here. I guess I'll go easy on you and post the links to the full reports on my site :

http://mycolorado.org/images/yankee_hill_snow/index.htm

http://mycolorado.org/images/bald_mo...snow/index.htm

Come on up, it's only about a 14 hour drive.

rimpainter.com

I'll be there in the summer. We definetly have to meet up. I want to see that beast of yours so I can dream of parts for mine.

FirstToy

Uh, I didn't say I was tearing around doing powerslides up and down the mountain. I don't know why you're picking on me when everyone else here is saying the same thing. I drive responsibly and appropriate to conditions thank you.

rjm

hey- i'm originally from niagara falls-been in charlotte,nc area for a couple of years- personally i can't stand it- i'll be moving back to ny this coming summer

Jeff_M

Hey Mossback74, we have the same vehicle! Maybe I'll see you tooling around town at some point.




So you know ALL ABOUT lake effect snow, huh? I was born after the blizzard of 76', but I've definitely seen a good share of storms in my time. It really doesn't snow in Buffalo that much, but when it snows, it snows hard!