Driving habits of rural folk

[LouNY]

And a front wheel drive car with good tires will get you pretty much anywhere you want to go if you drive with a grain of common sense. AWD has been way oversold IMHO. Ground clearance was the biggest issue I ran into with FWD cars, especially if it was wet snow that built up.



So many people think that 4/AWD makes you invinceable. 4WD will get you going, but isn't going to help you stop.

It all depends on your roads and driveways, I always run 4wd/AWD with studded snows a front wheel drive can do fair with good tires but a couple of the hills on my way home will stop thema couple of times a year till the town crew gets out and sands it. And front wheel drive won't make my driveway most storms till I plow and sand.
And 4wd wisely used will help you slow down when it is really slick, if you use your engine to slow down a heck of a lot better then abs.

 

[oosik]

Snow is just one of the reasons I bought the Taco Wagon( 2018 Ram 2500 Power Wagon). High clearance, 4WD and it's very heavy. Even with these advantages - I drive defensively in the snow. Let the yahoos break the sound barrier. I won't use the Taco Wagon to pull them out of the ditch either, when I find them up the road.

We had a lawyer in our 4WD club in Alaska. He spent over an hour, at one of our meeting - explaining the inherent liabilities involved with pulling a vehicle back onto the road. That's what commercial towing companies are all about.

 

[Norm W]

If you can't get moving with two wheel drive, you won't have to worry about stopping with four wheel brakes. I've driven in winter snow all of my driving life. I watch the 4wd folks fly by and usually see them in the ditch down the road. For most of my winter driving, I didn't have snow tires. Just go easy on the clutch, speed and turning. The folks with auto shift, rear wheel drive and an engine on high idle, will go right through stop signs etc. and never think to put the transmission in neutral. Traction control with the right foot works much better than electronic traction control and an impatient driver. The "White Knuckle" driver is more dangerous to others than themselves because they will do the unexpected at the worst time possible. They then have others trying to avoid them. Heaven forbid they get to an open parking lot, at the beginning of snow season, and practice getting out of skids. All they want to know is, the right pedal is go, the left pedal is stop and the round thing they hold on to is for aiming. If the situation goes t.ts up they have no clue.

 

[MossRoad]

I have been driving a 4WD of some sort or another for the past 44 years in all conditions, and I have to say POO POO to folks that say 4WD doesn't do this or that most of the time.

I found it gets you started easier from dead stops. It recovers faster from one wheel or the other losing traction in slush piles, or driving off the pavement edge on unplowed roads. It lets you accelerate out of the way of cars sliding towards you that are out of control (think icy stop sign areas, hill bottoms, etc...). Many 2wd pickups will lock the fronts or rears when braking hard on slippery surface. When 4wd is engaged, this is greatly reduced. I've never hydroplaned in 4wd either. Have many times in 2wd cars and trucks, both front and rear wheel drive.

And 4wd will go through much deeper snow than the same vehicle in 2wd.

To summarize, better traction, acceleration, road holding, less hydroplaning, and better braking in 4wd vs 2wd is what I've observed in my vehicles over the past 44 years.

 

[MossRoad]

If you can't get moving with two wheel drive, you won't have to worry about stopping with four wheel brakes. I've driven in winter snow all of my driving life. I watch the 4wd folks fly by and usually see them in the ditch down the road. For most of my winter driving, I didn't have snow tires. Just go easy on the clutch, speed and turning. The folks with auto shift, rear wheel drive and an engine on high idle, will go right through stop signs etc. and never think to put the transmission in neutral. Traction control with the right foot works much better than electronic traction control and an impatient driver. The "White Knuckle" driver is more dangerous to others than themselves because they will do the unexpected at the worst time possible. They then have others trying to avoid them. Heaven forbid they get to an open parking lot, at the beginning of snow season, and practice getting out of skids. All they want to know is, the right pedal is go, the left pedal is stop and the round thing they hold on to is for aiming. If the situation goes t.ts up they have no clue.

I have experienced this in all of my Chevy trucks when in 2wd. 4wd eliminates it better than tossing it into neutral (which I'm proficient at, due to Chevy ownership).

 

[Jim Nelson]

When I was in high school I lived in a little mountain town in Co. that was about 15 or 20 miles from a pass over the Continental Divide and I had an old '42 Jeep with a rag top. Every time it snowed I would head for the pass with a load of tire chains and a tow chain. I usually had at least one buddy with me. We would find flatlanders in the ditch and make a deal to pull them out for an embarrassing amount then offer to sell them a pair of chains for an even more embarrassing amount. About half the time the people we pulled out would be too scared to drive the rest of the way to the top so one of my guys would drive them on up to the top and try to give them some driving lessons.

We all had jobs but made a lot more money doing this. I always had to carry 2 gas cans with me because there was only one gas station up there and once he found out that I was getting into his towing business he wouldn't sell me gas or anything else. He was a lot worse than me with his prices.

 

[Sigarms]

I have been driving a 4WD of some sort or another for the past 44 years in all conditions, and I have to say POO POO to folks that say 4WD doesn't do this or that most of the time.

I found it gets you started easier from dead stops. It recovers faster from one wheel or the other losing traction in slush piles, or driving off the pavement edge on unplowed roads. It lets you accelerate out of the way of cars sliding towards you that are out of control (think icy stop sign areas, hill bottoms, etc...). Many 2wd pickups will lock the fronts or rears when braking hard on slippery surface. When 4wd is engaged, this is greatly reduced. I've never hydroplaned in 4wd either. Have many times in 2wd cars and trucks, both front and rear wheel drive.

And 4wd will go through much deeper snow than the same vehicle in 2wd.

To summarize, better traction, acceleration, road holding, less hydroplaning, and better braking in 4wd vs 2wd is what I've observed in my vehicles over the past 44 years.

I don't disagree with anything you've said, which is one reason why I have a 4wd truck along with a AWD "family car" (when the weather gets bad and we get a 5-10" dumping in winter and I have to go out, I wouldn't even make it out of the driveway or up to the main road without the truck). That said, we didn't even have any snow last year to speak of.

My only point is it seems people with 4wd seem to think they can drive as fast as they want.

I was in my mid 30's in northwest Pa when we had a snow dumping. At that point, I had driven regularly in bad weather in NY and WV and learned that speed is geneally the issue, even with 4wd. I was in 4wd with decent tires going home, snow packed covered road. Small bend in the road and I was probably driving no more than 25 or 30 in a 45. As I came around that small curve, I could feel the truck start to slide on the packed snow. Didn't go off the road, but did slide closely into the other lane and luckily no one was coming in the other direction. It dawned on me that even with good tires and in 4wd, if the surface area is slippery (such as hard packed snow), the inertia of the truck in movement can still cause it to slide if not going in a straight line. It was a learning experience that I never forgot.

Point being, if you live on top of a steep driveway and it's covered with ice, don't even bother trying to go down the hill no matter what you're driving

Perhaps I'm getting older, but as daugen said, I just feel better not going out at all in bad weather unless I have to. I tend to take more "snow days" now than 20 years ago with work as I don't feel like I have to prove anything by making it in bad weather if I don't positively have to. That said, working in NC is a lot more different during winter than working in Watertown NY:laughing:

 

[CobyRupert]

When it comes to fast and slow drivers, we tend to see it through our own filters. Usually along the lines of:
“Look at that guy driving faster and passing me. What a reckless ***hole!”
“Look at that guy going slower than me that I’m going to pass. What a ****ing moron!“

Nothing beats studded snow tires.
I’d take a 2 wheel drive with studded tires over a 4wd or awd in snow. In fact I literally do. Until ground/snow clearance becomes an issue. (~10”+/-).
IMHO 4wd trucks are the worse when it spotty snow and you don’t want to drive on pavement in 4wd all the time. Don’t get caught in 4wd on pavement and ruin drivetrain; but also don’t get caught in 2WD or you’ll get passed by your....rear end when you spin out.

 

[Jstpssng]

Aside from a motorcycle, there's nothing worse in snow than a pickup with no weight in the bed.
Although that Iroq Z I drove once with 60's on all 4 was also pretty useless.

 

[Oaktree]

Although that Iroq Z I drove once with 60's on all 4 was also pretty useless.

Even a regular Camaro was pretty useless in snow...a ladyfriend had one back in the 80s, that thing could (literally) get stuck in a puddle. Sure was nice on the highway though.