Originally Posted by mr toytech

so air them up once you get to a safe place.

Originally Posted by mr toytech

if the snow is that damd deep then you shouldnt be driving fast enough to matter if the tires are aired down or up.

Originally Posted by Whitey13

I personally wouldn't drive my family down the highway with aired down tires. If he's just going down the street, that's another story.

Originally Posted by to4menon4u

give her more gas!!!!!

Originally Posted by Elton

put it in 4hi and give her hell

Originally Posted by Matt16

Keep up the momentum and don't stop for anything.

Originally Posted by Whitey13

Going up a snow covered road in a heavy truck with 200,000 miles on it, loaded with people and only 150 hp under the hood is not a good combo. I wouldn't bother with a 3.4 swap, IMO that's way to much $$ to spend on 30 more ponies.

Originally Posted by notanymore

well if you had the money go for an arb or elocker, or you could go for a lunchbox locker, when i first got my locker some of my friends who are just getting into wheeling couldnt believe how much traction i was getting in just 2wd, its really quite a difference

Originally Posted by mt_goat

Rear locker and more agressive tires would probably help a lot.

Originally Posted by ovrrdrive

Any sort of locker will have you walking up that hill with ease...

You can get a Lockright or Aussie shipped for about $250 and install it yourself in an afternoon. You won't believe the difference it makes. I can litterally go places in 2wd now that before took 4lo and a lot of pedal. In 4wd the truck is nothing short of amazing.

An ARB or Elocker would be your best option of course, followed by a full Detroit or Trutrac, and last but not least, a lunchbox locker. Those options decline in price in that order too. Go figure.

Originally Posted by ovrrdrive

Having to turn around and head home early because you don't have the traction to make it up a hill sounds like not fun to me...

The argument of tires vs traction is a tough one. Ideally you need both, but if I had to choose one I'd choose a selectable locker in your case. My truck climbed great when I put the locker in but still had my Bridgestone dueler at's on. Of course it got better a week later when I put the iroks on, but still it wasn't half bad with the At's...

Of course, being a Florida boy I haven't driven in any snow, but it can't be that much worse than some of the gumbo mud we have around here...

Originally Posted by SKNKWRX

A 22-25% grade is damn steep. 6-8% grades on I70 in the rockies seem really steep.

Originally Posted by SKNKWRX

A 22-25% grade is damn steep. 6-8% grades on I70 in the rockies seem really steep.

Originally Posted by ulfr

You could get a locker, but I'm not sure that'd help so much. I have no lockers, and I'm goin' quite much of anything I want to go. (Of course, I have 38" or 44" tires to ride on...)
BUT, what the problem might lie in, is that all the cars' weight is applied on the rear axle when goin' uphill. So, a rear locker would do something, also, getting your family standing on your hood would help, haha. (I've actually done that once, put it in 1st low and stood on the steel bars in front to climb uphill)

Or, if you have the skills to fabricate yourself, you could move the rear axle 14cm backwards. On 31" it's not really worth it, but it gives you a little hint on what's goin on, so movin' the stuff in the rear, more in front of the rear axle, and try to get all the weight applied on front wheels.
F-150 has longer wheelbase, and is rather light in the rear, but heavy in front... As well is the wrangler, pretty heavy in front.

We know this problem VERY well in Iceland (that's why my rear axle is already moved 14cm, and is goin' 27cm (almost 10") backwards later this month)

Also, on 31" tires it's usually quite okay to lower the PSI of the tires to say, 12psi, maybe as low as 8psi. It adds the traction in snow alot.

I hope you got a little bit better idea of this stuff, otherwise I've just been writin' useless nonesense, haha.

Originally Posted by stormin94

Please, enlighten me a little more on this "elocker". I've searched, and they don't seem to have it for my axle(2nd gen 4runner). Did I not try hard enough, or is there some sort of axle swap going on here that I'm missing???

Originally Posted by Albert.G

lol change those AT's to yoko AT's and your golden....

Originally Posted by Albert.G

lol this is SNOW...not mudd or grass... when you go over it a couple times...it becomes ICE... locker will do you no good...you will juist slide slideways...TIRES come frist

Originally Posted by hross14

I can see the icelanders point--but some of the other--not so much. Considering you had all that weight in the truck you should have had great traction. So, you were spinning your wheels trying to make it up the hill?
Yes
If that is the case and you had all that weight in there i would figure you need better tires. Fresh snow=more of a mud like tire, Ice=Blizzak type tires (ice tires/winter).

I used to live in the Cali mountians--Steep Hills and ice from all the drivers when it snows. Tow trucks without cars on the back slid all over the place. With a car on the back they did just fine even without the chains.

Snow on the other hand--we drove wide self cleaning tires and low pressures. Are you bottoming out on the snow?

Originally Posted by CJM

Your tires suck in packed snow.

Originally Posted by Elton

ahh yes locker plus snow and ice not fun i been there it made it worse

Originally Posted by ZUK

Ulfr from Iceland is right on the money.....low tire pressure is key in deep snow. Single digit pressures will result in the best traction. If you could upgrade to a 33" tire(better footprint) and air it down to 5~7 psi then nobody would be able to follow you

I've been in snow roughly 3~5 feet deep....1995.....My Sami with 32x11.50 tires and 1.5 psi managed to stay on top of it for many miles.....otherwise, I might not be typing this today.(I was on the backside of the LaSalles Mountains near Moab, Utah and they had a snow storm that closed down the mountain....except to me. )
ZUK
ZUK

Originally Posted by GV27

I'm not sure that a locker would help at all. My guess is that those tracks were more or less the same friction and he was sitting there spinning all four. Like Elton said, I've seen a locker make the situation much worse!

Originally Posted by My99

Better tires, chains, and lowering your pressure is your best bet. Locker is not worth squat when you have pretty even traction (snow/ice) among all 4 tires on a slick surface. Anyone that's tried a locker in snowpack/ice without chains can attest. Very dangerous and gets more dangerous as the road gets slicker.

Originally Posted by CJM

People dont carry air compressors? In every car or truck I had, I had one inside, even a cheap pos..

Originally Posted by EWAYota

You need to purchase an E-Locker from either a dealer or from someone parting out their 4Runner/Tacoma, then modify your current axle housing to accomidate for it. The Elocker comes equipped in certain 4runners and Tacoma's and is a selectable locker, along the lines of an ARB air locker.

Originally Posted by apalmer1

Yea, there is a writeup on here somewhere for elocker swap. You need to cut out a small section of the pumpkin on the axle housing to accomodate for the larger size of the locker motor, then drill some additional holes and use a different gasket. E-locker is a really awesome tool though, its better then an ARB because you have no compressor or air lines to worry about, and if worst comes to worst you can actually engage or disengage it manually by hand at the differential.

Originally Posted by 1990Runner

hey my sis and bother in law live up in mendo(the gass always grow greener in mendo) but anyway, can you put an arb in a stock 2nd gen housing or is the elocker better? i am leaning towards an arb so i can have an on board compressor on my truck for airing down/up. ( they have the high output compressoir for both)

Originally Posted by stormin94

Thanks for the info!!!!! I have very little knowledge about the elocker. Do you have one installed on your 2nd gen runner, or similar pickup model years???