Snow Fell in the South

I purchased my truck a few months ago in November and traded in my 2006 pre-runner. I was anxious to try it out in the snow and being in the south this is something that may or may not happen some years. Well it happened here today, a whopping 4-6" which stuck to the roads pretty quick and cause some major delays and a lot of minor, low speed accidents (sliding into ditches, other cars etc.). I had to make a liquor run (just in case) when the traffic was starting to have some problems and was thoroughly impressed with my truck's performance on the snowy roads.

The best little incident was on the way home. There is a minor hill, a slump or dip, then another moderate hill, about 1/4 mile long. Not really steep, just a steady climb. On the second hill 4 vehicles were in the ditch, a Z-71 owner was stuck in the slump and not able to back up or go forward over either hill and advising everyone to turn around and find another way home because "if his 4WD couldn't make it, no one else's could either"... I said I'd give it a try, he smarted something off and on my way up the hill I go. I never lost a bit of traction, no issues at all. After getting on top of the hill, we asked if we could help anyone out but they all had help coming to get them. Honked the horn and waved good-bye to the Z-71 owner and rolled on home without incident.

I know there's nothing outstanding to this story, but I do want to say I was first of all impressed with my truck tonight (or last night), and say that I am glad I made this purchase over the other choices available. It's a great truck with great snow performance here in Arkansas!!

- 2014TSS
- 4,500 miles

 

That's cool. The Z-71 rear end must have failed from the axle wrap under stress during the climb from the stacked blocks they are known for..ha.ha.

 

I really don't know what the deal was. It looked like a 2007-8 model truck to me but I've been out of the Z-71 loop awhile to be honest. He wasn't happy about it though and I can't say I blame him either. Would suck to pay $40k or maybe more for a 4WD truck that can't climb a hill in a little snow.

He had good tires too, or appeared to have anyway. Who knows...maybe he'll get a "Toy" next time.

 

I just know I'm sick of the ice and snow. At least we got snow last night but it will probably cancel my Father / Daughter dance tonight.

 

It's all about tires. Just because they appeared to have good tread doesn't mean they were suitable for snow conditions. Many "all seasons" have a rubber compound which is too hard, and lack sufficient siping.

For example, on packed snow or glare ice a front-wheel-drive car with snow tires will often out-perform a 4x4 with all-seasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfuE00qdhLA

 

That reminds me of a couple years ago, we got 2ft+ of snow and I had to go to work. I just had BFG AT's put on so off to work I go. It was nice actually, not many people attempting to drive. I get there and an hour later they decided to shut down for the day. On my way home, there is a line of traffic on the primary road so I decide to use the secondaries that weren't plowed yet. I line up and bust through the mound from the plow and start down the road. I look in my rear view and the guy in the Ranger behind me tries to follow. Poor guy got stuck in the plow mound. These trucks with good tires handle snow excellently.

 

He probably had mud tires on it which are going to be pretty much useless in the snow. Might look beefy but you need more than that to grip in the snow.

 

x2.

I love watching the brodozers around here in lifted 2500's with mud terrain tires slide around in the snow and go nowhere

Meanwhile I zip past them no problem on my "wimpy" A/T's LOL

 

My wife's 2500HD has Nitto Trail Grapplers on it, and it does awesome in the snow. Better than my Tacoma on ice for sure, but in deep snow it gets buried pretty easy. It also weighs twice what my Tacoma does though...

 

We don't get enough snow here to really get "good" at handling it...funny to watch it though

 

Do you suppose he stopped at the bottom of the slump to enjoy the view, and then found he was stuck? Perhaps his ego would not allow him to admit it was actually driver error.

Many years ago in my area, a driver came over the top of a slump to find someone had parked his vehicle at the bottom, and was outside scraping his windshield. The resulting collision caused the driver of the stopped vehicle to end up underneath one of the wheels. He lived for a little while before dying at the scene. I heard that stopping at the bottom of the slump to get out and scrap his windshield was a habit of his.

 

I could see something like this happening even at this particular location because you couldn't see the bottom of the slump before you started going down the hill. If you couldn't stop, there's not a lot you could do. I had my truck in H4 in 2nd gear. My top speed was maybe 20MPH although I really didn't pay as close attention to that as I did the tachometer. This method worked great for slowing down too...but if you couldn't do something to get slowed down this could easily have happened here.

 

nice work, were you in 4 high ? 4 low? traction on or off ?

 

z71's suck if it was an older one it uses a vacuum controlled 4wd, so only works half the time anyway, lol!

best z story i have is right after i bought my truck i was seeing this girl who was from the country and would never shut up about z71's, one night we were at a stop light with a z71 in front of me and fx4 in the right lane they took off to race, then so did i when the z71 got enough ahead of the ford i switched lanes and passed the z and told her to shut the f***** up about z71;s


cheers,
disco

 

4H auto LSD on and off just playing with it a little when no traffic was around.

The setting for just 4h without anything else was doing just fine though. I've always owned 2wd vs 4wd so I'm not real familiar with the settings yet but I did have a chance to play around a little that night and the next morning without having to worry too much about traffic. Any of the settings I used work well, although I couldn't tell much difference since I wasn't having any traction issues.

 

What do you have done to your truck? I'm assuming the supercharger? I guess I need to get a quote on having one installed on my truck before long...that would be fun!!