FWD vs RWD

With FWD giving it just a little gas will either help pull you out of the slide or you will continue to understeer into trouble. With RWD giving it a little gas will either kick the rear around (same effect) or you will continue to understeer into trouble. I have 36 years of snow country driving experience in FWD, RWD, and 4WD vehicles. Tens of thousands of ice miles, hundreds of thousands maybe, and many many understeer on ice situations. If you are going really really slow one of those tricks may work but 99% of the time they are just something that fails before hitting the ditch/curb/snow bank/other car.

 

Put some inexpensive studded snow tires on the the FWD drive car and take that. No question about it.

 

Studded tires not leagal in CA.

 

^ This. I spent a couple of years as a ski instructor and would often need to be on the mountain before plows ran or before the roads were sanded. My little FWD Ford Escort with studs on all four corners was a beautiful ice and snow eating machine. Better by far than my modern high tech traction controlled Offroad Taco in anything but 8" or 10" or more of heavy wet snow.

 

Then put on Blizzaks or similar. Damn near as good.

 

trucks are better driven in the snow. so take the taco and just ease on the pedal

 

Blizzaks are awesome. Wife had on her old miata.. Nothing slowed it down

 

AWD or 4x4 is obviously ideal, but if having to choose between RWD and FWD I would go with the FWD vehicle. I've always had much more success in FWD out on the icy highway roads.

Hands at 10 and 2 at all times, keep good distance from those in front, watch for over confident idiots behind you, and when it gets bad follow the pack and avoid being the leader or from being left behind

 

I'm going to say it depends on what you're comfortable with. Personally I prefer rwd but if you aren't comfortable with the rear end sliding around and able to correct it then I would take the fwd as they seem to be more forgiving.

 

Light snow...3-6 inches ? Unless you have a running start, in 6 inches of snow, a fwd Camry will never get up a steep hill. Check the clearance on these things. Rwd truck with weight in the back and snow tires or AT tires. Even 3 inches is a lot of snow for a Camry in hilly areas. .

This Camry has 5.5 inches of clearance without a load. It can easily drop to 4 inches when loaded. When loaded, the drive wheels are also lighten up and fwd becomes very poor on hills. I predict a loaded Camry in anything over 3 inches will really struggle. A truck bed loaded, affect's ground clearance much less with the solid axle. You can negotiate up to 8 inches with ease with snow rated tires and ANY weight, helps, not hurts traction. You have an LSD too which is really good.

Good snow rated tires help . You can get much more aggressive tread AT tires on your truck then all seasons on a Camry. If you go with snow tires, still take the truck becasue of the hills. Put sufficient weight in the back of a rwd truck and it will run circles around any weighted fwd car in snow.

Still take chains but use snow rated tires for winter. Your travel speed and convenience are highly restricted with chains. They aren't funn to drive with and a truck can mount and handle them much easier then a fwd car. .

Fwd cars for commuting mat be OK, but loaded, they become poor in snow.

 

OK, lets redirect...Cables or chains?

 

Camry all the way and Tahoe isn't going to have that much snow on the roads.

 

Incorrect. You can run them 11/1 - 4/30.

 

I guess it is really a personal Question .

Myself I will take a RWD vehicle over FWD any time .

Give me a Manual trans as well

That is me learning to drive way back when When FWD was just a nightmare.

 

Chains provide better traction but are noiser, slower, and when they go wrong cause more damage. Still my preference by far is chains. I use cables when there us a clearance restriction. Most modern passenger cars, especially FWD, and the front tires of IFS trucks have restricted clearance.

 

Personally I prefer rwd. I don't use 4x4 on the truck unless I can't move forward in 2wd. Weight in the back and proper tires are the key. I prefer chains as I use them off road too and wouldn't trust cables to hold up. I have vbar chains and I don't think they would like me using them on the road, but so far I have only been asked if I'm carrying chains here in Utah.

 

Please report back with how it went. I am curious as I have the same set-up as you have (2WD TRD OR) and have been debating going up to Tahoe in the next few weeks. I don't have chains/cables so I will need to get those most likely

 

2WD trucks like to swap ends in slick weather going down hill.

 

You sound like an experienced slippery road driver. We use chains with ice bars as our dirt road frosts up and ice forms under the snow. We change over to snow tires in the winter but that doesn't seem fees able for OP. A good set of All Terrain tires can take care of most snow conditons and the aggressive treads give some trucks a pass for using chains in national parks. Weight dos make a huge difference for all trucks ven 4 wheel drive. Have a safe day.

 

They do if you engine brake too aggressively and you don't have good treads. You are right though. Engine braking in four wheel drive is much safer.