Traction question...Possibly moving from GA to NY...

Hey guys.

My fiance and I are teeter-tottering on possibly moving to NY south of Buffalo. My truck is a static-dropped 4"-4" 2wd Tacoma with 5speed. Naturally it has the stock open diff. I have enough of a hard time with traction up hills in rain here in GA. My question is: If we move to NY, would I benefit from keeping my truck and welding the diff for winter traction (and occasional drifting) up there or should I consider selling my truck and getting a Subaru or something AWD? I can do the work myself, I was just curious if it would be worth it?

 

You're a dead man in the Southern Tier when the weather gets bad. You'll need 4X4 and good Winter tires but I'd be keeping what you have for Summer cruising.

 

Well, we would be moving there in August. But i'm sure Winter comes on a lot earlier there than down here. I wish I could afford a winter beater, but we're just starting out so it'll have to be one car for now.

 

Definitely need 4wd

 

Don't weld the diff, it'll actually make it even more useless in the snow. I'd go for a 4wd or AWD vehicle. At the very least, get rid of the lowering kit and get some good snow tires but again, I wouldn't weld the diff.

 

My last Tacoma had a 3/4 drop and I lived through ~10 Wisconsin winters with dedicated snow tires and bags of sand in the bed. Air bags would've been nice because the truck would bottom-out quite a bit in the Spring after the roads started buckling from the freeze/thaw due to the weight in the bed. There are days that I wished I had 4wd, but considering that I don't need it 95% of the year, I just can't justify the extra cost of having it.

 

gonna be tough...if you cant afford a beater id sell the truck for something else...even if you keep it and try to drive it in ny much less buffalo ny winters its gonna get destroyed if not from accidents and horrible roads the salt will eat away at it...its much harder to clean the salt out of them slamed rigs

 

Here in Pittsburgh, we don't get nearly as much snow as the area you're heading to. With that said, I wouldn't think of having a 2WD truck around here. We have a lot of hills, so I wouldn't go anywhere. Not sure of the terrain there, but I know the snow they get, and if you want to even have a chance in driving in the dead of winter, IMO I think you need 4WD.

From what I understand, they are pretty efficient cleaning roads, well, because they have to. So height probably is not an issue, as much as traction. It's a proven fact that rear wheel drive sucks in snow. Even though, there will be a few who say they can drive soooo good without 4WD in the snow.

 

My fiance is going to be coaching girls' softball @ Houghton College in Houghton, and I'm going to try to transfer to another dealership towards Rochester. I think we're going to try for somewhere around Mt. Morris or Avon area. Somewhere where we both have an equal commute

 

yeah i'm thinking as well that welding the diff would be a bad idea. might mean certain death.

don't people in cold places use weights or something in the bed to help? dunno, I'm pretty useless since it never gets below 65 degrees where i live lol

 

So, seeing how it was looking like i wansn't going to be able to keep my truck for moving to NY, i had been trying to sell the truck here (GA) as well as IL, without luck. Got a few offers, but nothing to really shake a stick at. My Fiance brought up a good point the other day. Looking at our finances and how much our living expenses will be up there, she thought to herself: "theres nothing wrong with you keeping the truck and us getting you a subaru around thanksgiving or so", lol, this made me so happy. So all looks to be working out. I'll get to keep my truck, drive it up till snowy season, then get a subaru for my winter mobile ;-)