Drove through the Valley of Trucks

[timb]

<font color=blue>So which cars/trucks/SUVs qualify..?</font color=blue>

My info is from a few years back when I was buying, but at the time only Jeep (Select-Trac and Quadra-Trac) and I believe Rover SUVs had "true" full time systems. Suburu, Audi (and by extension VW) systems were legit "full time". Far as I know each of these systems are still in production (now "Quadra-Trac II" on the Grand Cherokees).

The Ford Explorer (and I believe GM's equivalent) "full-time" systems of the mid-late 90's hooked up the "on-demand" button to the ABS computer and made it a self-actuating on-demand system after they detect wheel spin. Not truely front/rear split 4wd all the time. That may since have changed.

Mercedes and BMW's current SUV's use the ABS computer to "touch" the brakes on a spinning wheel. It's a neat trick in demos (traction on just one tire will move the vehicle) and probably fine in real snow or mud but not doing a thing for you in normal driving until again, something is already spinning .

 

[grandad]

It seems the once ubiquitous 'snow tire' has been largely replaced by the 'all season' tire in many areas like the midwest, where there are periodic 'snow events' (sounds like the weatherman, doesn't it?). If you live in true snow country, however, it probably makes sense to continue with the 'summer tire/winter tire' thing.

Unless you have a pickup or SUV, that is, in which case you need the widest, knobbiest off-road tires possible, so you can look butch driving down the interstate all year-round.

 

[Egon]

Do I have to keep the raised white lettering to the outside too?

Egon

 

[Boondox]

<font color=blue>you need the widest, knobbiest off-road tires possible</font color=blue>

Interestingly enough, snow tires are tall and narrow. In fact, many of the SUVs that leave the road have VERY wide tires that float on top of the snow and lift the vehicle off the road surface. One winter I had to borrow a friend's Jeep with aggressive off road tires and found it had the worse traction imaginable. It lost traction at the drop of a hat. Here in Vermont if we see a tourist with tires like that we back WAY off and give them plenty of room if there's more than a couple of flakes on the road. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Pete

 

[timb]

Tires are critical.

I'll put in a vote for my favorite all-around SUV tire, B.F. Goodrich All-Terrain TA. (and no I don't work for BFG or whoever the parent company is now)

I bought the first set based on various magazine test results and more important to me the unanimous recommendation of several friends with small SUVs / Jeeps / Trucks used around here.

Have to say I've been very pleased with the performance in everything from dry highway to heavy rain at speed to snow/sleet to off-road dirt/moderate mud. Also - I have 65K on this set and they still have about 7/32-8/32 out of the original 16/32 tread. I plan on replacing them with the same (slightly updated version) tires when these finally do wear out.

(And I mounted them white-letters in!)

 

[snowman]

I've driven 4 WD's since the late 80's; I'm in the CNY area.

My pimary reason is for those one or two times per year when we get socked with a heavy snow, whether it's lake effect or a nor'easter.

The benefit of the 4WD is that I can go as slow as necessary (ie: crawl in traffice) and know, pretty much, that I will not get stuck. That's different than with 2WD, where you need to keep some momentum going and you need to plan ahead (ie: look in front of you as far as you can and plan on where you're going to drive the car).

When using one of my last front wheel drive cars during a snowstorm, I came to an intersection that had been plowed perpendicular, but not on "my" road yet, so I had a nice wall of snow that I needed to get through (was early in the morning; not much traffice). I gave it the gas so that I could get through, but didn't make it. Hung up the rear end and had to shovel it out. A 4WD would've crawled through fine.

We had some lake effect last night; coming into work this morning I saw fresh tracks of someone that went off the road in front of my house; they weren't there when I snowblowed the driveway at 9:00 last night. Could tell it was a truck due to the depth of the tire tracks.

 

[Wingnut]

Well, I grew up in snow country and always did the tire rotation come snowtime .... but not anymore ... becase
(a) snow is no longer a big deal .... haven't seen a windrow at the side of the road as high as the power poles for 30+ years.
(b) the taxes we pay seem to make sure that the roads are plowed before you get to enjoy the snow.
... and since snow tires suck swampwater when driven on dry roads, or on ice .... I'll stick with the all-season tires. At least until I see 2 feet of snow prevalent on roads for months at a time again. (This ain't your daddy's winter!)

 

[timb]

The problem around here is that the roads are usually very well-plowed and salted. Only that's about two hours after rush hour in the morning. Get on the road before 7 am and you're on your own. And because of localized road crew management we get many cases of dry-snow-dry-ice-dry within 5 miles on the same road. You never know what you'll find over the next rise. That's why I went for a full-time system.

And we still get the occasional winter around here that gets the plowed banks up over my head along some of the rural roads - but not as often as even 25 years ago.

 

[MJB]

I'll second the tall skinny tires vote. Four wheelers call them "Pizza Cutters". The biggest problem I see on 4wds in the winter is that many run a tire that is too wide for the weight of the vehicle. Driving on snow or ice on the road, the absolute last thing you want is to float up on top of the snow. The skinny tires will cut right down to the road surface and give much better traction. BF Goodrich makes their All-terrain and Mud-terrain tires in a 33x9.5-15 size that works great on full size trucks, although some trucks may need a slight lift in order to fit them.

 

[turnkey4099]

Of course there are the really badly designed 4wd systems that consist of nothing but a transfer case with no differential action at all between front and rear. These were the common ones back when and there are still some in production. These lock front and rear together forcing both axles to turn at the same speed resulting in one wheel (at least) in a slip/skid situation when going around a corner. Just what one wants on slick roads. Use it to get moving and as necessary to keep moving but stay in 2wd otherwise.

Better than 2wd with rwd but according to (I think it was) Brock Yates back in the ?80's? a 2wd with fwd would perform equally well exept in deeper snow.

Harry K