Snow Performance Fail

This blizzard has been my first opportunity to get my 2007 TRD Off Road Taco in the snow. I must say this first, I feel like my 2008 Frontier did better in big snow, when I had it. I don't know how that's even possible. My Tacoma is supposed to be a more capable vehicle. I didn't have the locker in my Frontier either, but I do in the Tacoma. Long story short: I had to pay a backhoe to pull me out of my own driveway. We broke several straps as my friend tried to pull me out in a 2004 Silverado, before the backhoe drove by and let me hire him. At one point, with the locker on, the truck just sat and rumbled. All the while, the left front wheel sat limp as the right front smoked itself against the blacktop driveway I had cleared. Is there something wrong with this truck? I'm gonna jack it up and check the A.D.D. system when some of the snow is gone. Has anyone else gotten stuck and this happened? That left front is ticking me off, because I don't feel like the truck was in such a bad spot, that the 4wd couldn't have got me out.

 

Tires

 

The tires are crappy Cooper Discoverers but they were aired down quite a bit. Came with the truck. Too meaty to replace yet.

 

Tires make all the difference. Pull of the old ones and sell them on craigslist to subsidize the new ones. Doesn't matter how good your 4wd is if tires cannot get the traction to the ground.

 

All about the tires man

 

TIRES....TIRES.....TIRES.....

My Taco could get stuck on a banana peel with the old rubber, with a new set of LTX MS2's it seems almost unstoppable.

 

Tires yes - cooper AT/W's on my truck. No issues in the snow here in the Kelowna winter. That being said, did your tires dig into the snow and leave the truck high centered? If the snow was up to the frame rails the tires cannot do a heck of a lot!! Cheers

 

Well there is your sign.

 

Nothing is wrong with your truck. Your tires suck.

Swap them out and sell them to someone who wants them while they're still 'meaty'. It'll help offset some of the cost of your new tires. I'm sure you could sell them on here to someone who does just highway stuff, or on your local Craig's List.

A good set of tires is the difference b/w your truck sucking and it doing stellar.

 

ummmm.... if you were breaking straps trying to get it out of there maybe you were high centred and frozen in place? Pictures next time.

Tires make all the difference in the world but if you were breaking recovery straps (though maybe the straps were shit) I'm not sure tires would have done the job.

As for the front wheel spinning freely while the other one didnt budge, thats just because you don't have a front locker. Neither did your Frontier. 99% of people don't have front lockers.

An old school trick my grandfather taught me: a shovel.

 

I foolishly put General grabber ATS' tires on mine 3 years ago. In the snow it honestly was completely useless unless it was in 4WD and even then it wasn't fantastic. I just put some Dynapro ATM's on it and the thing is a tank now. Can't believe I let myself get talked into highway tires after over 20 years of going with primarily some sort of aggressive A/T's.

 

Operator error

 

15+" of snow here and it didnt skip a beat...even with terra grapplers which some people complain dont do well in the snow. i tend to agree with everyone here and suggest you concentrate on the tires first.

 

If you have the locker, I am assuming you have the TRD OR. You should turn on ATRAC next time and that should get the other wheel turning for you better.

 

Weird story. How much snow fell/drifted on your rig?

Get yourself some decent tires and a shovel.

 

Frontier? Never heard of her.

 

Something isn't quite right there. If you got a wheel to smoke, then you had rubber right down on the driveway and with traction. The other part that is... interesting... is what it did with the locker on "sat and rumbled". I presume that this means that NONE of the wheels were spinning.

Stuck brake maybe?

 

no ATRAC in 07's.

 

It sounds like you were high centered? Or did I miss something. My sr5 always has all 4 tires spinning in 4 wheel drive. I don't get stuck till I'm high centered which is about 2 ft of heavy snow.

 

You know how an open diff works? If one tire is spinning freely under power the other one doesn't.