Driving Snowy Environment

[chris2fer6148]

howdy yall ! grateful to have all the wonderful insight from the kind folk here at Rokslide !

curious as to what set ups you guys and gals have for getting around in a snowy environment

will be traversing up Mt Baldy come Winter time and looking at my next vehicle purchase to get this Adventure completed in a safe manner

so far in my line of sites is a 3rd gen (96-99) 4runner with rear locker 4wd . uncertain if this is overkill for I will be driving on paved roads that have recently ish been snow plowed .

hoping to get some advice on what kind of tires you all use , chains and car / truck in general would be suited for icy snowy conditions ! planning on Winter camping out there and would like to make the Journey up and down the Mountain as safe as possible

kudos to you all have a fabulous day

 

[chris2fer6148]

Locker on the road can make things interesting sometimes

oooh interesting sometimes you say? would you Feel it makes the car more stable and able to creep up the road easily ? or would it make the vehicle tend to slide and lose control of ?

 

[Thinkingman]

oooh interesting sometimes you say? would you Feel it makes the car more stable and able to creep up the road easily ? or would it make the vehicle tend to slide and lose control of ?

Makes the rear drive wheels step out sideways more easily.
For your purposes, a proper set of narrow snow tires would be much better than the oversized MT tires that seem to find their way on so many Toyota vehicles.
I would also avoid the excess lighting you see on so many Toyotas...It's just reflected light back into your eyes during bad weather and extremely annoying to everyone else on the road.

 

[6mm Remington]

Cooper AT3 XLT or AT3 LT are great tires for all conditions. I'd get the 10 ply tires also. I ran these tires for years with great success and was happy with their snow and ice performance on highways and hunting.

Cooper ST MAXX I am running these tires currently and have been very pleased with them. Really good performance on and off road. I had them Siped to help improve performance on ice. Great tires. Running 10 ply in this model also.

 

[Wrench]

I would be SUPER careful with a locked up rig. Open, one tire stays planted while one loses traction. If both lose traction AND you're on any bit of side hill.....you WILL shit your draws.

 

[CorbLand]

Look at the Falken Wildpeak tires as well.

 

[mtnwrunner]

Look at the Falken Wildpeak tires as well.

This ^^^^^^^^^^.

Randy

 

[fishinnut30]

I always carry a pair of chains just Incase. Pretty cheap insurance.

 

[cjdewese]

This ^^^^^^^^^^.

Randy

This ^^^^^^

Best all around tire ive found so far. Extremely durable as well.

 

[Snowhunter11]

Look for “snowflake symbol” tires in all terrain. Chains if the roads are sketch and you are mere ft from possible death my 2c anyways. Ask someone in the know what kind of chains your rig can handle.

 

[Poser]

Tires are the wild card. Everybody is going to bring up the tires they havent crashed on. LOL

Narrow and more smaller lugs, sipeing is a good thing too. You pick the brand. Studded tires are even more of a good thing.

Studs are an advantage in a narrow range of conditions, but they actually reduce the contact of modern compounds. That’s why so many winter tires are going stifles these days.

 

[yfarm]

There are snowflake rated tires and then true dedicated winter tires with extra siping and low temperature rubber compounds. Drive in awd with ‘ice radials’ and you will never go back if you live in an area where the snow never leaves the pavement all winter. Same place where studs work well with snowflake rated tires on trucks. I do think studs improve braking performance on packed snow or ice. Used to run in the winter on packed snow and ice and would wear carbide studs over my running shoes, never slipped. Also rode dirt bikes on the ice with screwed tires front and rear,was like being on rails.

 

[Gutshot007]

Not sure who did the math problem , but once read chains increase your traction by 700% . Gone through some amazing stuff with chains .

 

[Poser]

Definitely don’t use your lockers when the road gets twisty, especially downhill as the locked rotation will make the vehicle want to get sideways on you. I’d also be very leery of driving more than 5-10 mph with your lockers engaged.

 

[Poser]

Will also add that just because your tires say “M+S” have have the snowflake doesn’t mean they are great snow tires. I have Cooper Evolution M/Ts for the summer and they have that rating. They do ok in deeper snow aired down, but they can be downright terrifying on icy hardpack. Mud tires don’t have enough sipping and the big lugs don’t have enough surface contact for effective driving on ice and packed roads. I have seen people add aftermarket sipping to mid tires, but I doubt discount tire or Walmart will perform that task for you and it voids the warranty.

 

[NCTrees]

Have put thousands of miles on packed snow / ice roads and haven’t found anything close to Nokian Hakkapeliitta tires. Not much lug at all on them, so if you’re going to be in bad mud part of the time you’ll probably want to go a different direction, or look at pairing them with a good set of off road chains. But on icy paved roads they are the bee’s knees.

 

[BBob]

I’ll second I’m not using a locker on pavement in snow unless I’m in deep running slow or near stuck (assuming selectable). For paved roads and snow nothing beats true snow tires, not 4 season but true snow tires. The difference is night and day. For intermittent use and super easy to put on AutoSocks are quite surprising as to how well they stick. I used AutoSocks last year instead of chains when chasing snow getting to and from the ski resorts. Still had the chains but never needed them with the socks. Off road, chains are tough to beat.

 

[Marbles]

For Big Bear, Falken Wildpeaks and anything with 4x4. The Wildpeaks do not compare to a dedicated snow tire like Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10s, but that would limit your ability to drive in warmer weather.

No locker on the road, good breaks (Hawk LT pads are great), get a set of easy on and off chains like Thule CS10s or RUD Grip 4x4.

Honestly, unless the snow is deep, on paved roads a front wheel drive with winter tires does pretty good. A higher vehicle is nice though.

Get good street legal fog lights, like Diod Dynamic SS3 Pros in amber. Avoid light bars.

 

[Macintosh]

Yeah, never ever use locker on snowy paved roads—every time you turn the wheel it CAUSES one tire to slip. Once you break traction it’s much easier to slide. There is a good reason cars made for snowy paved roads are AWD not 4WD.

Also I think I know of at least 5 different “mt Baldy”’s, all in different states. Where are you going?

 

[Castle Rock]

Is it better to have traction control on or off