Taco 4x4 Winter Stories (Virgin Edition)

If the tale below is too obnoxious, please delete it Otherwise, use this thread for Tacoma winter stories and / or Tacoma "first time off-roading" stories that involve Tacos.

After driving an open-diff 2wd Ranger and being terrified of anything but dry pavement for 10 years... I broke my 4x4 tacoma cherry on ice yesterday. With dealer-standard all-seasons (hankooks). Only a little poop came out.

You know what happens to 1.5 inches of snow on a super-cold but bright and sunny day with zero salt treatment? It turns into 0.9 inches of ice and 0.1 inches of hatred.

For <Reasons> I had to go visit NC last Sunday, after a whopping 1.5 inches of snow got dumped on the great state of North Carolina. NC's 3 snow plows were able to keep the main arteries clear, but google maps decided that my pants needed shitting and told me to take an exit 15 miles earlier than my normal one, because of "traffic" on I-95. "Death by GPS" is an actual thing, and I think my phone might have been trying to kill me by directing me down unplowed, iced-over back roads to avoid the gridlock on I-95.

I was quite justifiably scared to go any faster than 25 or 30 in 4hi on these ice-over-snow-over-ice roads, despite getting passed by several lifted redneck trucks going 50 like the ice wasn't there. I counted 5 redneck truck full-throttle passes, and 3 of them in the ditches ahead of my slow ass a few minutes later.

Then there were the terrified AWD SUV/Crossover drivers there were going idle-speed. I felt like an asshole passing them at 15mph.

The true "Ah HAH! I paid good money for 4WD and it was WORTH IT!" moment came when some local folks closed a bridge on my GPS route because it was unsafe. I pulled up to see a line of stopped cars and 4-wheeler ATVs trying to pull the lead car up the hill, only to slide backwards. Everyone was out of their cars and the person in front of me kept waving me back and yelling "TURN AROUND!". I pulled a 3-point turn praying to whatever deity would listen that I didn't dip a wheel into the ditch on either side of the road... and then I did exactly that, the driver's side rear wheel took a dive. I felt it lurch down, then kinda panic-stomped it a bit in 1st and got out and on my way before I could think about it. 4hi the whole time. When I looked in my mirrors driving away slowly, I saw the civic previously in front of me try the same thing, only to slide laterally into the same ditch I'd fallen into, with no hope of recovery.

I felt bad about his plight, but... Yeah, that moment alone was worth the extra cost of 4wd on a basic-ass 5spd 4-cylinder tacoma "budget truck". I never had a problem getting moving.

I proceeded to drive like a grandma the rest of the day. Even with that geriatric driving style, I got very familiar with the feeling of the anti-lock brakes plowing a few feet further than I meant to into the first few stop-signs.

TL;DR: 4wd is nice on bad winter roads. All-Season (no-season?) tires are scary on bad winter roads. But 4wd on all-seasons is better than rwd on all-seasons, and better than fwd on all-seasons without a clue.


Question: When you're trying to go from 5mph to 0mph and the anti-lock brakes kick in... Does stomping the pedal harder make a difference? I know letting off the brakes makes a huge difference if you're trying to steer, but what about straight-line stopping? Is it better to stomp the brake so hard your ass comes out of the seat, or just press hard enough that the ABS kicks in?

 

wut lol

 

With abs your not supposed to let off the brakes until your stopped. Your vehicle will still steer while abs is doing its thang......that's sort of its specialty

 

So does stomping harder on the pedal make a difference in a straight line?

When in 4hi if you need to make an "oh SHIT!" turn to avoid hitting something, are you better off doing so riding the brakes? or coasting? or flooring it? I Titled this thread "Virgin Edition" for a reason Plaese Halp.

 

Foot on brake normally. Steer as need be. If you ever feel all four lock up, off and back on brake to keep the abs working. One other tip, when braking, clutch in to prevent drifting due to engine torque.

 

When the roads are slick, I drive in S-mode and keep the gearing low in order to minimize the use of the brakes and to prevent that initial loss of traction. I'll frequently downshift as I prepare to stop or to take a turn. It's not uncommon for me to downshift all the way to 2nd or even 1st gear by the time I stop or enter the turn. When driving a MT, I did the same thing (i.e., favor using low gearing instead of the brakes). Also, if I'm entering into a turn and the front end wants to forge straight ahead (I.e., speed is too fast for conditions), I find that a quick blip on the throttle will cause the front wheels to pull the front end around and into the turn. The better method, of course, is to just keep your speed down so that you don't slide.

 

Some of those mid-east states in the winter really do get just downright scary.
Couple of years ago, got outselves into a freezing rain situation somewhere on I-79 in WV in the middle of a night. Craptory tires on a Subaru Forester, and at any speed above a crawl it just really wanted to drive sideways. Slow or not, when you're pointing down some of those hills and you're not sure if the brakes are even going to overcome *gravity*.... well, just don't want to be doing that all too often.

Same spot just the year prior to that, heading the opposite direction, and in the Tacoma. Just as bad of conditions, but having much better tires... made a world of difference. Well it did to US, because everybody else on the road was having a hard time. Have you ever seen a transport rig sliding BACKWARDS towards you down a steep ice and snow covered hill? Ended up making a trip into the median to save our lives from that one.

I generally don't consider it necessary to buy winter tires. In fact, I never have except for a pair on an ex-GF's car many years ago. BUT, if you're going into bad conditions, you really do need to at least have **REALLY GOOD** all season tires.

The thing with all season tires is this; there is no minimum winter performance metric that they are required to pass in order to be called an all season tire. As a result of that, the winter performance on them varies wildly from one tire to another. So my suggestion, if you're going to go for all season tires, is to make sure that you get ones that are branded with the mountain+snowflake symbol: https://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=125 -- that symbol means that this tire, whether it is a dedicated winter tire, or an all season tire, meets certain minimum winter performance metrics.

For example; https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...1&autoModel=Tacoma Access Cab&autoModClar=4wd -- note the part of the description that reads "Light Truck (LT) versions of the Wrangler TrailRunner AT featuring a 5-rib tread design (245mm and wider section widths) meet the industry's requirements for Severe Snow Service and are branded with the three peak mountain/snowflake symbol."