Winter Driving Tips

[PILOON]

My 2 cents:
WEIGHT, WEIGHT*
Good SNOW tires (not 'all season')
For traction crushed stone (like 1/4") beats sand any day and forget salt.
A shovel.
A tow cable just in case you get a helping hand.
Warm jacket for when it happens.

*our hydro meter readers here drive 2 WD PU's and the company installs a 1/2" steel plate roughly 3 ft X 3 ft for the weight as it saves space.

AND:
Find a vacant parking lot with fresh snow B4 it is plowed and practice.

 

[Garandman]

If Add weight. 400-600# of cat litter or sand in bags in the bed will do wonders. And if you do get stuck, open a bag and spread some down.

Have good tires. Studded winter tires are best...but there are some good all season tires out there. No bald tires, or blocky tread that has no sipes. Sipes are a good thing. As is open shoulders to clear out.

Also good to find an abandoned large parking lot. Go play. Practice loosing control and corrections. Learn the limits of the vehicle and limits of driver skill.

Studded tires are best in only a narrow range of conditions and many states limit the dates they can be used.

At the winter driving school we go to, they refer to AllSeason TireS as No Seasons or No Reasons. There is no performance requirement for M+S on the Tire: If it has 25% open tread it can be called that.

There is a performance standard for Severe Snow Tires. They carry the Mountain/Snowflake icon and there are a number of year-round truck tires that have it.

All that said, many new truck tires have tread depths of as much as 15/32nd (most new car tires are now 10/32nd) which give enough compliance to be decent in snow when new. Their performance on ice can be iffy. Mud tires are usually absolutely terrible in snow: hard compounds and large tread blocks.

Absolutely do NOT do a bunch of sliding around in a private parking lot without checking local laws or getting explicit permission of the owner, preferably in writing. It’s illegal in many states and I’ve heard many stories about people getting tickets.

Hardware stores sell 鍍ube sand long plastic tubes that weigh about 60 lbs each and cost $5 each or so. They can be stacked between the wheel wells and we use 300-600 lbs in 2WD vans.

 

[Garandman]

The best thing he could do, and not kiddding here. is trade the truck on an old Subaru of any variety. The Suburu AWD system is 2nd to none. Have had several and they will run right past any 4wd in ice and hard pack snow. Very good in snow depths up to 8 inches if you get one with clearance.

I have had 4 different Subies and only do not own one now due to the Oil consumption issue with the 2010 - 2015 models. I will own one again when that is for sure resolved. My Outlander SAWD is very good but not Subaru good.

It was 2013-15 4 cyl 2.5l that had the oil consumption problem. The 2.0, 2.2 And turbos never had the problem. Subaru extended the warranty to 8 years 100,000 Miles.

The 6 cyl (3.0 and 3.6) did not have the oil consumption or head gasket problems, and also had the Subaru VTD drive system, the second-most capable of the five Subaru AWD systems.

The problem with Mitsubishi is that if you park one in a quiet area and shut off the engine, you can hear them depreciate. :laughing:

Not sure there are a lot of Subaru’s where the OP lives. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a Subaru in New England, Colorado, and other hilly snow belt states.