How's your 2WD 3rd gen in the snow?

So as the 2018 tacos are starting to arrive in my area, I need to decide on weather to get 4x4 or not. I've had a 4 cylinder 2WD chevy s-10 for years so I know what to expect with a 2wd pickup.

My real question is about the new (to me at least) automatic transmission setup in the Toyotas, and how much better or worse they are in the snow. I'm used to the old Park-Reverse-Neutral-Drive-3-2-L style. When I was at the dealership I noticed every car, truck and SUV all have Park-Reverse-Neutral-Drive, and then the shift on the fly feature.

Is it any help when your spinning the wheels to shift up to the next gear so you're getting less RPM's? In my old truck it at least helps some to shift from drive to 3 to get going at the red light.

Thanks for any help!

 

Are you planning on keeping this truck forever? If so, this doesn't matter. If not, and you're in an area where you get enough snow to be wondering about getting 4WD, I'm willing to wager that 2wd is going to have crap resale value compared to a 4wd. When I'm looking at Tacos online, whenever I see one that looks to be a really good price, it's because it's a 2wd. I then click to the next ad, because nope, I don't want a 2wd truck.

I think, and I may be wrong since I do not yet own a Tacoma, the differences in shifter positions are pretty standard now. In the old style 4 speed autos, you had D (or D with a box around it if you had a GM product)which was drive, which allowed you to go through all 3 gears and into 4th which was the Overdrive gear. Then you typically had an "OD OFF" Button (or simply a "D" with no box position in a GM), which would hold you to 3rd gear. Then you had "2" and "1", which would hold you to first and second gears. Sometimes they were called "Low 1" and "Low 2", in reference to being the lower gears in the tranny. My 73 Chevy K10, with a 3 speed auto, had Drive, Low 2, and Low 1 on the column, for an example.

My Volvo with a 5 speed auto has Park, Reverse, neutral, drive. Then, when in drive, if you nudge the shifter to the left you can then toggle it up or down to change gears manually. So, me nudging it over and shifting down into 2 would be the same as selecting "2" on the older style tranny. I think this is a tad more cumbersome than with the old style, but that's just not practical anymore with transmissions going up to ten gears and beyond now. It works fine the way it is now, I find the manumatic feature helpful in the mountains so I'm not riding the brakes all the way down steep grades. I don't need to use it in the snow to get going though; it's AWD so I just pretty much just stomp and steer.

On, and your point about shifting up while spinning wheels to get less RPM... well, it may drop your engine RPM down, but your spinning wheels speed will probably go up.


Honestly though, if you're springing for a BRAND NEW truck, just spring a bit more for the 4wd. You won't regret it. "Man, I really wish I'd gotten the 2wd so I'd be stuck in the snow right now" said NO ONE EVER.

 

Amen to the previous poster on the diminished value --Just look at this guy --notice how long he has had his for sale-- more than a year.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2017-tacoma-sr5.461748/
Although It is a nice looking truck, if you are in his area --and it looks like he has taken great care of it!

 

I had studded tires and weight on my 16 4x4 and still didnt enjoy driving on snow in 2WD. It's fine on groomed roads.

They suck, too light, but S10's are terrible too. Wouldnt you want to be able to flick a switch and rocket away from a green light?

 

I live in Phoenix AZ now so 2WD is fine, I'm confident that my chances of seeing snow are... minimal.

However when I bought my 3rd gen, I lived in Pennsylvania, and my 4x2 handled snow just fine. Not as good as 4x4 obviously, but acceptably well with the right tires.

Hell, I even managed to back out and over a large iced-up snow drift that I was too lazy to clear before it iced up. Auto LSD button FTW.

I would say it boils down to this: if your area gets snow, how often? If we're talking "we might have 2 or 3 snow days in a given year" it's less of a concern.

And regarding your shifting question, the traction control systems (Auto LSD and so on) are going to be more helpful than shifting the transmission, for the most part.

 

I've gone through I-70 in Colorado in 2WD. It did fine. Only one part where the ground was slippery.
No 4WD will ever get you out of that. The big rid in font of me was sliding diagonally to the side, then we both caught traction.

I live in Southern California where we see 1" of snow every 5 years.
If you see snow every year, get yourself a 4x4, buy another set of
wheels with proper snow tires. If you don't buy another set of wheels
and hit another car, that 1k deductible could have been spent on
those wheels that I'm talking about.

Edit: I had OEM tires when I slipped too. (Toyo A30s, all season/highway tire)

 

4x4 and also for resale...

 

We didn't get much snow last year, but when we did I could barely get out of my neighborhood in 2wd. If you buy some decent snow tires you *might* be ok, but I'll pay the extra money for 4x4 for piece of mind alone. Nothing more embarrassing than being the "truck" guy and getting stuck.

 

The only way I know of to be able to actually start in a taller gear than 1st is with a manual trans.

And this is actually a good feature to be able to use on the slick stuff. Even slipping the clutch a bit works wonders on the slickery.

 

A 2WD truck is going to do like any other 2WD rear wheel drive truck does. It will suck in the snow. Put on good winter tires and some weight in the back will cause it to suck less. Gearing won't affect it as much as good tires and weight. It is what it is.

 

also you could probably safely air down a bit in snow since youre not going to be going as fast, that could help especially in the rear with losing traction during takeoffs... Other than that as others have said get good tires, and try to conserve speed on snow versus speeding up and slowing down a lot. Try to coast whenever you can instead of fully stopping and that sort of thing. If your tire and wheel are sized right you should be able to go down to 10-15 psi easily on snow without worrying about popping a bead unless youre hooning

 

Shifting the Tacoma auto into s2 or s3 won’t help as it only limits how high it will shift, it always starts in 1st.

 

Thats where not putting the Truck in ECT mode helps.

 

I fail to see what ECT mode has to with my statement. When I had my 16, all the S mode did was limit the max gear, ECT or not.

 

There is a lot of people who as soon as they start there Truck put it into ECT mode. By not putting it into ECT mode when it's slippery helps maintain traction. Some vehicles have a snow button which will start the vehicle in 2nd and make the throttle response lazier in order to keep traction.

 

I have had three Tacomas. My first was a 2wd access cab with the 4 cyl engine. With weight in the back it did much better than my double cabs in 2wd. That said, it wasn't very good in the snow. I did get book value for it when I bought my first DCLB. I work for the power company and am always driving into work in blizzards. A 2wd would leave me stuck.

 

I'm pretty sure it will upshift on command. You may have to start spinning the wheels first.

 

I never could get it to shift on command, but that might do it. I traded it for 17 with the MT so now its always in the gear I want.

 

Ah, that'll do it. haha

 

Thanks for all the input, I plan on owning the truck forever like my chevy, but the extra resale value is something I wasn't even thinking about. One more reason the the 4x4. Seems and extra 3K MSRP option on the 2018's

I live in Rhode Island, where during winter we often get snow, then rain as it warms up during the day, then it all freezes up at night. (reason for the 4x4)

Not usually big amount of snow, and when we do get hit the governor basically shuts down the state and urges everyone to stay at home. In the 18 years I've been driving the chevy I only got stuck once, and that was trying to pass a semi that was stuck. OTOH, there's been plenty of times that I had to fishtail my way to into work. One day I swear with I must've put an extra mile or two on my 20 mile commute.