Alright, so I was up in the snow today, in the Mendocino National Forest( for those of you who know where that is). There was about 12-16 inches of snow on the ground. There is a paved road all the way from 1400foot elevation to near 4500 feet elevation. I had the crew with me today, 3 rottweilers, and my mom and dad, and brother. I was driving my 4runner, and I could not make it up a relatively moderately steep dirt road with tire tracks from other vehicles going up there. I tried several attempts, and could not make it up. The grade was only about 22-25%, with 12-16 inches of fresh snow on it. Now I'm thinking I need some sort of locker, or true trac in the back, so I could make it up that in the future. BTW, I have 31's AT's, and I did not have chains on. I'm open to suggestions, other than putting chains on, or doing a 3.4 swap.


In other words, I'm looking to see what kind of differential device you'd recommend.


Would it make any difference if I also mentioned that a Jeep Wrangler, and a Ford f150 made it down as I was shamefully backing down the hill?

 

give her more gas!!!!!

 

put it in 4hi and give her hell

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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?

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?

 

Your tires suck in packed snow.

 

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

 

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...

 

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

 

I agree with you, however if he did this, he wouldn't have been able to drive home.

 

Well he could have aired down to 15psi with ease and been fine..

 

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.