Tacoma necessities for cold weather? Just moved to ND

This is what I was getting at with ATs vs winters. It's the reason I have ATs on my truck all year round. My wife is an on-call surgeon and we live in the sticks down a series of gravel roads that can be days before they are ploughed. During/after storms my truck plow through it all.

But...in town (or even our roads after they've been plowed) its usually packed snow. We can go months without seeing pavement in some places even if it hasn't snowed just from vehicles driving over the snow and packing it down while never melting. At -30 or 40 ATs are pretty near useless. Winter tires excel here. I hate driving my truck around town, or on the highway, in winter.

Tread isnt the only thing. The compound of winter tires makes them usable when it's cold as hell.

Another but.... Her 4Runner with winters on can plow through almost as much as my truck anyway.

So I'll double down... Ignore @cowfootball (*) and anyone else who says ATs are fine. Winters are super nice to have. ND gets far less of those 10ft snowfalls. The mountains are far different from the plains as far as winter goes..and I suppose everything else.

* Just giving you a hard time @cowfootball

 

Just stop at any gas station along the way and fill up with the good stuff.

Or just add alcohol to what you already have in your reservoir.

 

Put winter tires on all four wheels. I'd recommend Gislavid Nordfrost or Nokian Hakkapeliitta. They know winter in the Nordics and they don't stay in when it snows and is cold out.

 

Totally agree with this premise which is drive to the conditions. Personally going from 35” tires to 31” winters is a downgrade but I suppose I could try to find my Hakka LT3 in 315s

We’re lucky that town is usually plowed. I’m dealing several ft deep in my street out to a plowed highway and town.

We run Nokian Hakka R3 SUV on our SUV in winter, though.

 

I can tell you what I’ve done. I live at the 64th parallel.

AGM battery- replaced the battery on day 1 of owning the truck. I plug my vehicle in most days. But when I forget, the truck still starts at -40°C.

Winter tires - obvious. On separate rims so I can swap them out with summer tires.

I had my undercarriage sprayed to protect from salt, has worked well. Totally your call. I don’t have easy access to fluid film or any other rust prevention up here.

30” light bar - as there’s 4 hrs of sunlight per day in winter, and no street lamps in most areas.

Ditch lights - for more light.

Led headlights - for even more light. Not concerned with them freezing as I have several light sources.

 

Just for shits and giggles I compared South Lake Tahoe to Fargo because I'm a weather nerd.

In January for instance both places have the same amount of days with precipitation but you get double the snowfall in those days. But...your average high is 42.8 vs -7.7 in Fargo. Those days of melt you get versus three months of winter where Fargo stays well below freezing make tire choices, and winter driving conditions pretty different. The snow that falls never goes away.

 

AGM is an ok upgrade but I didn't change my battery day one and it'll still start at -40 with no issues on the stock battery. Cold crank amps are more important than battery type.

 

@Fargo Taco

 

Move?

 

say goodbye to your truck, if you dont rustproof your truck then its good as gone

 

Correct me if I’m wrong here but I’m fairly certain AGM type batteries have more cold cranking amps than stock-type batteries.

Impressive about your stock battery though. I used to live in Manitoba. Winters there can be just as cold as up here. Sometimes colder with your wind chill.

 

I live in Minnesota and my truck sits outside all year since 2017

The three best things I did for winter was Goodyear Duratrac tires, Northstar battery and good winter ice melting windshield washer fluid.

My truck sat out on the iron range in northern Minnesota when the windchill was below -50F and my remote start worked flawless.

Another trick is turn your sest heater on, defrost on high, mirror heaters on before you shut the truck off and when you start it the next time they will still be on.

Also let it warn up before you drive it.

 

I grew up in Fargo. It's not that bad, but it has never been winter anywhere I've been since I left. And I live in Vermont! ;-)

Rust proofing is not an issue, it's too dry, and in winter, it never thaws so water stays ice. (here in VT it thaws every other week) In Fargo, they never salted the roads that I knew of. maybe things have changed.

Winter tires are a must, but it's FLAT so driving with due care on all seasons works fine.

An engine Block heater is a MUST HAVE. Plug it in on a timer. Give it a couple hours before you need to go. It's SO nice to have HEAT first thing.

Sheep skin seat covers, and heated seats! Bonus!

If you don't have a garage, a windshield cover is nice. It frosts about 80 nites out of 100 during winter. Scraping windscreens gets old. Keep a small hand held scraper for the side windows.
ALWAYS CARRY A SHOVEL! The ditches are deep and the roads get slick. A simple slide off is big trouble without a shovel.

It never snows much in North Dakota, but Man, can it blow. A Half inch, State wide ends up being a ten foot drift where ever you happen to park.
I went into the NDSU Phys ed complex one stormy Saturday and played a couple games of paddle ball, When done, We couldn't find our car! There was only a row of antennas sticking out of the drift to start our dig out.

Spare gloves, spare parka, flashlight, and a sleeping bag.

Don't trouble yourself about RUST, it's a non issue.

Oh! Keep your fuel tank full and add some HEET.

eta

And don't forget the carboard wind block in front of the radiator.

Real estate for sale signs and political signs work the best (weatherproof)! Keep the blank side facing out for best results ;-)

 

Welcome to TW and ND, @ajg928!

Based on your Air Force designation, I'm assuming you're stationed in Grand Forks or Minot?

I've lived in Fargo for 39 years. I've looked into dedicated winter tires, and I understand the benefits, but I've never felt the need to go that route. The stock tires on everything from my Tacoma to a Civic have been fine and leaving extra room for stopping is really all that's needed.

I haven't had a block heater in a vehicle since my very first car in high school. My cars are parked inside at night and when they're outside, I can't plug them in at work anyway.

A shovel, specifically a long handled aluminum grain shovel (like this)and good jumper cables are a must.

Agreed with all points, even if I don't practice them myself like I should.

Like conventional batteries, AGM can have different CCA so you can get a conventional battery with more CCA (750) that an AGM (710) but there's also this big boy (800).

Salt is definitely used now.

That's all relative. Sure, we don't get lake effect like Buffalo but we get twice as much as Omaha. You're spot on about the wind, though!

I never go below half a tank in the winter but I've never used HEET.

 

The other folks have covered most of the bases quite well, and I recommend going with the most conservative options, including dedicated snow/ice tires, but I would emphasize having a serious winter survival kit on board at all times - not only including the winter wardrobe stuff, but also non perishable foods, emergency candles, and make sure you have drinkable water with you at all times, especially for lengthy road trips. A good basic first aid kit is also a good idea, as it can be easy to get cut or scraped digging out. Many places can become quite remote, depending on the storm, so I try to make sure that I'm good for about three days, just in case. Not entirely necessary, but a small backpacking cook set is not a bad idea, either, should you come to needing to melt snow for water.
I know that all sounds pretty apocalyptic, but I'm a big believer in having it, and not needing it, rather than not. It's not at all unheard of for people to become stranded for two or three days, even on an interstate, if the conditions hit that way.
Best of luck to you!

 

Average annual snowfall in Fargo for Jan/Feb/Mar is 8.7, 9.8 and 7.4 inches. South Lake Tahoe is 73.0, 75.0, 84.6. A little more than 2x. (& South Lake is at ~6500ft whereas all of the mountain passes you have to drive daily to exist here often go to >8500ft and see a lot more snow.)

Places in CA, CO, UT tend to get a lot more snow than out east but driving out east tends to be a lot worse because of the temperatures and the windchill. Driving in snow is pretty fun. Driving on ice is very unfun.

I'll also add that remote start is a godsend for helping loosen up the windshield if you park outside.

 

As a Canadian and as someone who has gotten caught in a white out, broken down, and grid locked due to thousands of stalled cars on the road in the winter.

You need the following in winter.
(Im not going to mention the obvious stuff like winter tires and stuff.)

• Snow brush and scraper
• A tarp (even a small one just needs to cover the windshield)
• Shovel (even a small one)
• Snow chain (sometimes winter tires won’t cut it)
• Jump leads
• Portable battery jumper
• Tow strap
• A winter blanket
• Water
• Snacks
• Block and transmission heater (if frequently below -10c)
• Fuel Can
• Tire inflator
• Cold weather work gloves
• A small blowtorch lighter thing
• Chem lights

 

ah yes I use this one (840). https://www.northstarbattery.com/product/nsb-agm24f

 

Funny cause I lived my whole life in tampa and never once had a vehicle with rust but you better damn well believe those clearwater, st pete parking garages were full of rusty shit that looked like it came from nj.

 

Block heater, battery heater, and oil pan heater all ran to a 3-1 extension cord and then out the front grill and plugged into a cheap outdoor garden timer set for three hours before you need to leave in the morning.

Warm clothes, blanket, shovel, etc in the truck to keep you alive if you slide off a back road and no one comes by for a while.