I have to agree with the poster from Montana spending a few winters in the Mountain west.

The colder the temp the less moisture in the snow Kind of like skiing in powder as compared to wet slop.

The warmer it gets the less traction you have . That is why sometimes you can get up a hill with no problems try the same thing in the afternoon you have all kinds of problems.

i really don`t feel comfortable driving very fast in the snow any more because I really have no place to go.

I will stay at home way to many idiots out these days.

 

Good post loislane,so how is clark kent,chloe sullivan and oliver queen doing?

 

Dry you say, the largest desert in the world is,,,,,,,,, yup Antarctica, as defined by lack of precipatation. Brrrrrrrrrrrr

 

My pizza-cutter narrow tires kick arse in the snow.

 

What are you running for "pizza-cutter" tires? I was thinking about going to some 215/85-16s, something like cooper weathermasters or mastercrafts, That should get me around an inch narrower than the 235/75-15s i've got now.

My current winter tires are BFG Winter slaloms that came with the truck and i'm not real happy with them...

 

well, matt, superman is off fighting for truth justice and the american way, and the others i'm sure are fending for themselves and doing just fine.

btw: snow driving is fun, but i'd rather do it for recreation and not during my daily commute. and as for the kinds of snow, we knew as kids the best snow for building snow men, snow balls (or ice balls depending) and forts (loved those forts) and sugar snow, best for sledding. same thing for driving on. its not just the snow, its all the other stuff that either gets in the way or makes it a blast. and having the right equipment doesn't hurt.

 

As a poor frozen Canadian I'll chime in here.

Snow doesn't really care what we think about it and even in my relatively short life I've seen snow falling when it was -44*C/-47*F. It isn't going to get much colder than that anywhere except Siberia or Antarctica, so for all intents and purposes it doesn't need to warm up to snow.

In my area it doesn't snow often when it's below about -25*C/-13*F, but it happens... just like it has been known to snow in June or July. Our weather is insane, but it can be fun.

Back on topic, I drive within conditions. Every day is different, sometimes you can go 15mph, somedays 65 is safe but I generally never go any faster than about 65mph during winter because I've got a sports car and summer to enjoy going fast (on a track of course, please obey all posted limits and rules of the road)

 

x2 on the pizza cutters. In the snow, at least on-road, narrow tires give much better traction.

Bridgestone Dueler A/T REVOs do great in the snow and amazing on ice. Best ice traction of any A/T type light truck tire I've ever driven on. I spent the 99-2000 winter on an Algonquin reserve in Maniwaki, Quebec and on the day I arrived, they had an ice storm that left 3 cm glare ice on the roads. The Algonquins don't use salt because it gets into the streams and lakes and causes a lot of harm to the aquatic life, so all they used was sand, which quickly got swept off the roads (it got down to -30 F that winter). When I left at the end of March, the roads were still almost completely covered in hard shiny ice except for a few small bare spots. I was amazed at the traction the REVOs provided, after a couple months I was driving at almost the same speeds as I did when the roads were dry pavement - even on the corners. Amazing.

Here in the northeast, many of the light truck snowplows run on REVOs.

The other factor, already mentioned, is weight. Put 400-500 lbs in the bed and you'll have incredible traction. (Sand bags are best because they are really useful if you or others are stuck.)

And, as mentioned, the 4wd will do nothing for your stopping. Only using "common" sense* and keeping speeds down and following distances up will help with that.












* In my experience, it ain't all that common.

 

My brother had a geo metro with pizza cutters and my dad had a classic VW beetle. Both did great in the snow and could go anywhere my 4x4 suzuki could. That is, until my brother burned out his clutch to bare metal and then I had to tow him to my parent's house.

I'll admit, his geo metro probably handled better than my 4x4 suzuki.

 

I run kelley wintermark snow tires in the winter in my stock size (195/75/r14) and never have any problems getting around. Even with my 2wd and open diff as long you keep moving and keep your accel/deccel/ and turning light with no sudden movements there's not much trouble getting around at all. I atke alot of trips up north to ski and haven't gotten stuck yet. I think it's hilarious when people in 4x4 suv's/trucks get stuck in snow banks and end up in peoples yards. I see it all the time around here, people try and drive like it is summer time and mash on the gas/brake and take turns way too fast. My truck is great in the snow as far as i'm concerned. With snow tires I haven't gotten stuck yet.

 

Deep snow- Wide Swampers
Few inches- Skinny tires with lots of sipes (biting edges) In other words swampers and mudders are a bad idea if you are trying to get to work on time with 4 inches on the ground.

I love my BFG ATs in the snow. They give me pretty decent deep snow traction. And they give me amazing on-road snow traction. If you drive smart with those you really only need 4 wheel every so often.

 

i had a blast yesterday were having a huge snowstorm we got about 2 1/2 feet in 24hrs ive been playing in it ditch diving through drifts and driving through snow piles i love my yota and it handles great on the roads i finally talked my friend into getting a yota haha

 

Man I wish it snowed here. Last time we had any "significant" snow (ex. snow that stayed on the ground for more than a second) was like 25+ years ago. Kinda hoping that when I get to go up to Denver Colorado next year for my cousin's spring break (late February) that there will still be some snow and that we'll get to wheel some!

 

Clint you're alive!!! Where have you been man?

 

Oh been busy trying to kill myself on my new Raptor and started screwing around doing circle track racing (which is a blast, just costs way too much to have a race car with no sponsors). Haven't had much time to wrench on the yoters. That and been looking into getting a chopper since I had to sell the crb900rr cause I did nearly kill myself when I wiped out trying to do a wheelie @ 90mph... Skinned off half my ass on the gravel before sliding into a grass bar before being gently stopped by a barbedwire fence. Fun stuff lol.

 

My worn 39.5 iroks kick arse in teh snow too!

it depends on the tire and the type of snow.

 

Jesus Clint you'll never change! *LOL*

I have/had a friend (long story... he lived with me rent free for a year and was pissed when he had to move out when I sold the house even though I gave him months to do so) that runs dirt track, I think it's the same as circle track although my terms may be off, and he has a hell of a time buying parts and fuel to keep running. I even bought him 20 gallons of race fuel for it so he could make a weekend run and that stuff was EXPENSIVE.

Chopper huh? Well I have another buddy that hit a deer on one and had a fence stop him and the deer. The deer got away with no unjuries (that he could see) other than an antler stuck in the fuel tank. My buddy had stiches and all kinds of road/fence rash. His biggest gripe was that he didn't kill the deer and had to watch all that meat trot away.

Back to the original topic. It's about time for tires on the rig and although I'd like to go 35's and regear etc. I'm sticking with 31's. I need some advice on another set of TreadWrights. The AT's look pretty good but I've never liked the look of them on a rig that was set up for rock crawling (although I don't do that anymore the rig still has the look) so I'm leaning towards the Wrangler MT looking ones. Anyone run Wranglers in the snow and like them both on and off road?

 

I am running little Blizzaks, studless ice + snow. They ROCK. The above pic, the snow I'm in was just packed down with a snowcat on top of it. I thought I could ride on top of it, but alas... LOL. 4wd low, had a friend jump up and down on the hood, and I backed right out!

 

Awesome pics ^^ and nice Runner too .

Snow tires really do make a big difference. I've got some Goodyear Wrangler Territories on mine, I was driving on the highway with snow and you can just feel them grip haha. In deeper snow I still seem to get stuck easily.








I kept driving on this fresh trail of snow until I got to this gate...
This snow trail was not deep, but had to use 4x4 in some spots near the bottom of hills etc.. When I was spinning tires, the tires dug right down to the dirt in some spots.




Good thing the 4Runner is fairly short.

 

You know what ice is if you live up here in AK. 4" solid sheet ice on the parks hwy.... bad bad day....