What have you done to your Tacoma today? 1st Gen Edition

Yeah its tape.. im just painting the lettering white.

 

Did my grill all black!

 

Lol. Yes that is what happened!

Oh man I could hear it now!

Surprisingly the guy didn't give me any shit for pulling out a Toyota, though he did find it pretty funny when I said I had to get a pic of a jeep pulling me out.

 

Put some L track in the bed

 

Finally got some snow. Couple inches of powder then turned to rain. Drove a few hours in it. I'm not as impressed with my duratracs as the reviews seemed to lead me to believe. (main purpose was for snow traction) I felt just as solid as with the old BFG all terrains. Did not feel confident unless I was in 4wd. Maybe because they weren't studded? Maybe I just haven't spent enough time in it yet? Maybe I'm just crazy and expect too much...lol

 

I only ran, and knew, BFG ATs for 20 years. Never had an issue with them in snow.

Recently bought Goodyear Adventure All Terrains and they are vastly better in snow than the BFGs.

 

In 2wd and no weight in the bed even a snow tire isn't very impressive for traction. I thought my Goodyear adventures sucked compared to my dynapro mts. What matters most to me is traction on ice. 4wd will get you through 12" of snow just fine with all terrains. 4wd will get you further in the ditch on ice.

 

How much weight do you have in the bed?

RWD in snow isn't that great regardless of tire choice. Felt more in control in my '78 Ford Fiesta with it's FWD than I do in my Tacoma in RWD.

 

X2 on the FWD. My 91 eclipse did better than my truck in RWD. I'm going to assume because of all the engine weight up front. I guess it's time to move the engine on the Tacoma to the bed haha

 

It is also a stability issue. RWD pushes the vehicle. FWD pulls it.

 

Didn't think about that

 

Yeah... no weight in the bed. Lol. I understand what your saying. And it makes sense, i guess i was just expecting more.

Has anyone studded their tires? Does it make a difference?

 

Not worth it imo. Dura tracks are awesome in snow and ice. The key is a light foot. Having weight in the bed helps too. And empty truck bed isn't great for traction. Go to lowes and get a few 50 lb sandbags. They are only a few bucks each.

 

The only thing that will help you on ice is studded tires.

4wd, Awd, 2wd... doesn't matter really.

 

But other than ice studs are useless.

Imo in southern new england where op lives studs are not going to help in our normal winter conditions. Some weight in the bed and a light right foot are the best things after a good set of tires (which duratracs are for winter conditions around here).

 

A set of stud less Blizzaks are frickin amazing on ice. It's like night and day compared to a normal tire. My mom had them on her RAV4 that had extremely sensitive abs and you couldn't get it to activate with the Blizzaks. It just stopped.

 

This.

I know BFG ATs don't have the best reputation for snow/wintry conditions, but I drove over 220,000 miles on them in Colorado and never had an issue with them. Always got them siped.

But the Goodyear Adventure ATs I'm running now are much better. They come siped from the factory and have self-clearing treads on the outside, versus the BFG ATs that only had them every other tread on the outside.

I'm only speaking from my experience, of course. Which includes 20 years of driving in Colorado, snowboarding every season and dealing with very intense wintery mountain driving.

 

Correct. Preparing to do some wrc style snow drifts and you will have no problem.

 

Any experience with Canadian Snow?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StlMdNcvCJo

 

Being a prerunner in Co. I have to add weight in the bed to help with traction. It handles pretty well when I do. So weight out here is what does it for me. Plus I'm an auto with rugged trail tires. You learn real quick what your truck is capable of. I really have to invest in better tires. So it comes down to yourself as the driver paying attention to your truck and understand what it's limits are. I've also had the privilege of riding with other taco owners out here and see how other tires handle on their trucks. So a good set of tires helps a lot. But don't relay solely on tires. Relay on your personal driving capabilities.