snow and ice safety

O.K. probably a stupid question, but does any one think that there would be much difference "safety wise" between the TRD off road versus the TRD sport? Seeing as how they have a different differential I wonder if one would react better to slipping and sliding on snow and ice. Am thinking of one of these trucks and live in an area of the country with lots of bad road conditions. Any thoughts one way or the other? What do you all think?

 

The difference that you are speaking off....would be, the OPEN differential versus the mechanical limited slip.

Because, you should never use the locker (in the TRD Offroad) on the roadways as you're driving regularly.

The 05-08 TRD Sport trucks have the mechanical LSD
ALL 09+ trucks have an open diff with the AUTO LSD (Brake actuated).

In my experience... the mechanical LSD is great to have in the snow because it helps with traction. It has no affect on stopping/braking. And in terms of controllability......that's debatable. If you're gonna blame the mechanical LSD for not being able to drive in the snow - then you're probably driving too damn fast in the snowy conditions in the first place.

As for the AUTO LSD and all that other traction control devices in the 09+ trucks - I have NO idea. All that stuff sounds pretty complicated although it's supposed to be safer for you than the older trucks without all those features.

There's not a damn thing you can do for ice...period. Drive very very slow. I've drivin in major ice storms before....a normal trip would take 30 minutes ... but with ice conditions, took me 3 hours. In situations like that - I'll drive with my passenger side wheels in the shoulder where the snow is (in most cases).

 

I have 4X4, I am invincible.

As far as traction Janster has pretty much covered it. I have the Off Road w/ Locker, and only locked it when it was absolutely needed to move. I usually keep it in 4H and keep it slow. But after I install my Badland bumper I will go very fast without regard to fury woodland creatures.
Just keep it slow and steady and it won't matter what you get.

 

Thanks Janster, I have an older Taco and am really thinking of buying a new one just for all of the safety updates. For as much as I drive it would be nice to have all of the stability and traction control gizmos not to mention the side impact air bags that you used to pay extra for just to get. Wife works in a head injury clinic and has seen the worst of it. Any thing that can help you walk away from an accident has got to be a good thing.

 

What about dedicated winter tires? The rubber compounds for those provide a significant improvement in traction in ice or hard pack.

Regardless, your advice to keep speed down is on the mark.

 

They'll definately help. Blizzaks and/or studded snow tires.
But that depends on how much snow/ice driving you're doing. If you live where the roads are constantly covered in hard packed ice/snow - then buying a separate set of wheels with snow tires on....would definately be beneficial. Along with many other things that can help....

The original question was the differences between having LSD's and/or lockers & open differentials.

 

I've been driving for many years up here in northern New England, and as others have said, take it easy and you'll be fine. 4x4 will work for traction and depending on the roads in the middle of the Winter season you'll be travelling on will depend on the tires you may need. Either model will work just fine, your choice in what you want for a look. BTW, if I had to buy another truck, then it'd be another Sport. I'm not into crawling so the Sport made more sense for me.

 

The auto LSD/Traction control on the 09+ works great. I bought my 09 last winter so I got to test it out. It's actually hard to even get the truck to fishtail in the snow with the traction control on. You really have to try real hard and even when the back end does slide out a touch, the traction control straightens it back out very quickly.

You have to turn it off to have any fun

 

The ABS is touchy & makes sounds that wake the dead
Just joking (not really)
I run dedicated studded snow tires now since I found out black ice is not your friend. I've seen way more mixed precipiation & hard pack icy conditions in northern NE than large snow dumps & the cost of tires far outweigh that one accident imo.
As others said, do not overdrive the conditions, you'll be all set & possibly pick up a set of dedicated tires if you want to feel more comfortable in certain conditions. It's nice all the new features of the newer models. Mine is an 06 fwiw.

 

Tires for snow are easy to find. When you say snow AND ice you are on the right track.
Blizzaks mentioned earlier are good, there is also good snow/ice tires that are all terrain rated,or just plain all season radial.
For the purpose of sorting out, Tire Rack has their tires rated by category in the survey section, looks relatively unbiased. Consider winter tires and any tire with the mountain/snowflake symbol.

....don't wantcha running over stray Canadians or Wolverines hehe