I did not engage 4wd when I started fishtailing because I was doing 65mph. The owners manual advises staying below 50mph while in 4wd. As I was slowing down, I still felt the vehicle want to kick the rear out. When I finally got below 50 mph, I was going to engage 4wd but I was nearly hit by a truck traveling much faster than my self, so I decided to get off of the interstate and take the highway home. I did not experience the problems on the highway probably because of the lack of crown and the snow that had begun to accumulate on the pavement.

I have looked at my tires, and nearly all of the siping has worn away, and I don't think there is enough tread to have them re-siped. I will have the tire place take a look at the tires when I have them check the alignment. I have not noticed any problems with the alignment, but it makes sense. Perhaps it was a combination of alignment, tires, and crown in the road.

 

Dude, don't feel bad for posting your experience...atleast you didn't wreck out. Look at all these guys who post on here that they've totalled their rig and want to part it out...they don't get criticized for their driving because it's overlooked by all the vultures who want to gut out what's left lol. The important thing is that you corrected and saved your rig.

fyi nice pontoon...gotta head down here and flyfish the S. Platte sometime! (my stomping grounds)

 

My manual states that you need to be going 62mph or slower to ENGAGE the 4WD, but says nothing about how fast you can be going while in 4WD. I think my 98's manual stated the same.

Anyway, I can pretty much guarantee it's your tires. As your tires wear, the compound usually gets harder, which means less grip, which results in your rear end fishtailing. My friend's BFG KO's were doing the same thing and he had about 20% tread left.

 

My 1996 SR5 says 50mph or less to engage into 4wd. Manual that is...just FYI...

 

best bet is to just shift into 4wd, slow down a bit and get some weight, i have about 300 pounds in the back of my truck. 4wd doesnt help you stop any better but it does help with fishtailing and generally keeping it in control, but on ice you gotta be extra careful.

 

I only have about 75-100# of gear in the back right now. I will add some more and continue to avoid the interstate when the weather is bad.

I am sorry for my earlier frustrations. I posted to hopefully gain some constructive feedback on my situation. I was not expecting such harsh comments from some of the members of the group. Perhaps I overreacted when I was called stupid and an endangerment to children, but I do not believe anybody would want be called these things.

I do appreciate those who did provide the constructive feedback I was looking for. Those comments included checking the tire alignment for problems, new/re-siping the tires, adding additional weight to the back, and utilizing 4wd - although I will have to do some additional investigation on driving at highway speeds in 4wd.

 

I'm with Dublin, Ice is Ice regarless of how many wheels you have

For ultimate Ice traction i suggest chains on tires or cleats on shoes and thick winter coat. All though when i lived up in central BC in Canada in the mountains, i had exellent traction with my Pro Comp Xterrain! in 4WD, 2WD wasnt bad unless i put my foot down to much. but in 4WD i could get up o 70MPH no problem on ice and not slip or slide. and it helped stopping on ice with those tires too!

 

YEP
http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/...Hayes/home.htm

http://www.corneliusfd.org/news.html?nid=1493

 

OK, first of all you aren't the only one who has had issues driving a 4Runner in the winter.

I live in a wintery zone of the continent and have owned many different vehicles.

I found the 4Runner pretty hairy to drive in the winter and there were a couple of reasons for it.

First off; I do agree with the comment that if you continue to fishtail repeatedly, you are driving too fast. Slow down and use 4WD.

Secondly, replace your tires. My tires when I bought the truck were newer BFG A/T's. Despite what many will say, I think they are terrible on ice. On snow they are wonderful, but they are too hard and not enough sipes for the ice IMO. I considered a dedicated winter tire, but stumbled on some brand new take-offs from my neighbor (Hankook dynamic radials), and I have to say they are dramatically better. As far as an all-season goes, it is great. It hooks up well in the winter on snow or ice, and the ride is MUCH more comfortable on rough roads.

Third, check out your front end for problems with your steering / suspension. Last year when I bought the truck, it mustn't have been bad enough to notice, but my tie rod was starting to go. The first snowfall this year (I had the new tires on) that truck was steering itself all over the road. The back end wanted to fishtail on the ice, and I was only doing 50MPH in a straight line. Upon closer inspection when I got home, I discovered tie rod end was badly worn. After replacing inner and outer rod ends, it drives like a new truck.

The above issue COULD be your problem. No one else really mentioned it, so I thought I would. Steering geometry can make a vehicle really twitchy on ice.....

 

yeah, i didn't mean to sound like a jerk, sorry about all that up there

i just think it's being overthought. you can shift into 4wd going surprisingly fast - i've done it over 100km/h easily, when it was absolutely needed right now. and once you're in 4wd you can drive as fast as you want, which is why i generally just drive in 4wd on the highway during the winter (if there's any snow or ice, that is).

if you're fishtailing it's because your tires are spinning; let off the gas a bit. also, your spent tires don't help

 

I don't know about the stiffness, but a solid axle has much poorer suspension geometry than an independent suspension. The main disadvantage of the solid axle is the lack of camber gain, which means less grip in corners. Also, if one wheel goes over a bump or a dip it will affect the other side, whereas with an independent suspension the effect is much smaller.

What it boils down to is our 4Runners are tail happy. You have to be aware of this when driving.

 

I have a simple answer.....Sell the 98 and buy a 2000+ Limited with the multi 4WD system. Click a button for AWD shift for 4hi and 4lo. I drive all over CO. Back and forth to Breck and to Steamboat constantly and down to C-Butte and Wolf Creek. Mine is a beast in AWD on the interstate and highway through whatever conditions. Had Revo's before which were better than the Geolanders that I have now but both work. But seriously- sounds like you need new thread and I would engage 4wd if worried. It will only help.

 

^ It started with 99 Limiteds.

 

But 99 sounds so old.

 

jeez, i guess you learn something every day! i always followed the directions on the little card on the sun visor, never knew you could switch while moving. i've been doing this all the time now since it snows here every day for the last week. what a nice feature to finally know about. thanks a bizillion!
yeah, and gas... i got about 80 miles on this tank and i have about a 1/4 left, WOW!

 

winter blend fuel?? do you have a diesel in your toyota?

 

I took the 4Runner in to Les Schwab to get the alighnment check, and they found the tired to be toed in. Not enough to cause problems while driving on dry pavement, but with patches of ice it would cause the front end to want to change directions as the front tires individually passed over the ice thus causing the rear to begin to fishtail.

 

Winter blend = 10% ethanol for cleaner burning fuel. If your area requires winter blend, your gas pump should have a sticker on it that says "10% ethanol" or something like that on there.

Nice. Hope that fixes the problem.

 

[QUOTE=cackalak han;50734843]Winter blend = 10% ethynol for cleaner burning fuel. If your area requires winter blend, your gas pump should have a sticker on it that says "10% ethynol" or something like that on there.



what would a cleaner burning fuel have anything to do with winter.. shouldnt they call it year round fuel?? if you mean its got an additive for freezing temps?? i wouldnt waist my money if they charge you more for it.. its just a joke.. a way to get more cash from you.. im pretty sure we dont have that up here.. and i dont think it gets any worse anywhere else then it gets around here... this kinda reminds me of Cali.. the places they MAKE you use snow chains.... i always get a chuckle out of things like that...

 

My rule of thumb, drive the speed of the weather, not the speed posted on the sign. That includes one other rule of mine, drive a speed where your comfortable then back off 5 mph.

2wd or 4wd doesn't matter. You get people thinking that they can do the speed limit because they have 4wd or AWD so they use the other lane. Well, the guy next to you might not have either or if he does, he could be using 2wd. Doesn't take much for him to spin and take the other person with him.

I had a guy last night pass me in a turning lane. I looked down and I was actually doing the speed limit on snowy/icey roads. This guys was doing 40-45 on a 35 mph road in bad traction.