Anyone else have a 2WD in an area that gets snow?

Blizzaks are probably best winter tire there is. Unfortunately for 2wd vehicle which is also RWD there is not much you can do to make big improvement in traction for winter. Your idea with mud terrains is good, not sure which ones you have but I can tell you my Wrangler MT\R are awesome on snow. If you dont want to deal with screws I would buy widest MT\R's I can fit on the rear axle and when winter comes in I would deflate them to 10 Psi or lower. Add some extra weight to the bed ( probably no more then 200 LB)
As the weight goes, it is best to figure out how much weight you need to balance beetween front and rear. So if you have truck scale around, weight your front and then back. add difference to the back to have equal weight between axles.

 

Wider tires and airing down will only really help on fresh, deep powder. For most snowy conditions narrower tires are much better.

 

Specific mud terrains, like G.Y. duratrax, are severe weather rated, good for snow,maybe not as good as a blizzak for pure winter , but still very good. Either a winter tread , studs , or severe weather rated will do for the most part as far as tires go. tire rack has a good comparison system of tires by catagory.

 

MQQSE.. thanks for the study. Very good information. I am leaning heavily towards some good studless snow tires.

 

Your welcome...glad it helped!

EDIT: Forgot to add you still run them as dedicated winter tires...need to have a set of summer tires. Reason is the rubber compound is so soft it'll wear really fast on hot roads. No problem in the winter...mine have 1 season on them and look nearly as good as when I first put them on last October.

 

Living in Western New York and splitting my time between Geneseo and Buffalo (65 miles apart) I think I am qualified to answer. I have more than 25 Buffalo winters of driving under my belt and no accidents in all of it. Yes, I have been the ditch rider a time or ten but most of those mishaps were due to ice, not snow, or being forced off the road by idiots.
I think it all depends on how you drive, not what you drive. Attitude is everything, you simply must respect the conditions and drive accordingly or you are going to lose, period. It's not a game. Ignore the obvious and take a cavalier attitude and that could mean finding yourself sideways in the wrong lane and getting t-boned by oncoming traffic.
I have never owned a 4x4 in my life and have lived here among the lake effect snow belts all my life. Most of that time I drove front wheel drive four cylinder compacts and never felt at a loss for it, honestly. I have had V-8 rear wheel drive full size pick ups and would take a front wheel drive car over them for winter driving every time. I have never run studded tires either, all season radials, the cheap ones more often than not.
I do however prefer a stick over a standard and absolutely abhor ABS but that's just me.
I got my Tacoma 2WD four banger automatic with stock rubber just before the snow flew last fall. I loved it, great winter driving vehicle -IF- you know how to drive that type in the snow. That is key, you have to know your vehicle and how it performs in different conditions. I like that it is not as heavy as an F-150 or a Scottsdale and a little shorter.
For someone who has no winter driving experience I recommend going to an unplowed parking lot or some other secluded large space and cut loose a bit, go nuts and see what happens. Not a rural road because roads have ditches, parking lots don't (but they do have light poles). This is the only way to gain a feel for how to operate and react. You can't learn it from a book.

 

This might help, or it might not. I was in Fairbanks, AK for three years with my 98 Tacoma. It pretty much stayed in 4WD the whole winter, which was about nine months out of the year, but I did put it in 2WD occasionally. As long as I let off the gas on turns, especially at highway speeds, there wasn't a problem with the ice. I made a little rig to put some bags on concrete over my axles for extra traction and it was fine on straightaways. All it really did, even in 4WD, was make me start to fishtail around turns because of all that extra weight in the back. Overall, as long as you know how to drive in the snow and not act like an idiot then 2WD will be fine.

 

All I've read about 2wd "vs." 4wd is quite interesting.I believe the 2wd's LSD(limited slip differential)is key for the 2wd Tacoma driver....my 1992 Ford F-150 did not have a LSD and was a nightmare in the white stuff.But,I'm still debating with myself on 2wd or 4wd when I purchase a Tacoma.....time will tell.

 

my 99 2wd does fine in the snow. Its the ice thats the problem. When the roads were iced over it took me an entire green light to crawl at 2 mph through an intersection from a dead stop. Good thing i was the only one at the light. It also probably doesent help that i have street tires, and didnt have any weight in the back because my tailgate was off being fixed. But even with sand, ice is an absolute nightmare on anything other than 4wd

 

I'll have a 2wd here in a couple weeks. I am coming from a WRX that I ran blizzaks on in the winter. That thing was invincible in the winter. But I really only needed the AWD, 2 MAYBE 3 times during the winter when we got alot of snow. My plan for the 2wd taco is to drive it differently (it's a truck afterall, not a sedan) and to get a second set of rims and snow tires. Driver skill is a big thing, but snow tires are a close second.

 

2wd '95 was our snowmobile before we got 2011 4x4 Acces. I lined the spair rim with cardboard then plastic filled it with concrete. That was my winter weight that didn't take up bed space and was removable in summer. Tires are 4 season with cables when needed. Still have 2wd '95 to haul firewood out of mountains.

 

I've driven 2wd small trucks living in WI, IA and CO over the last 23 years and rwd cars in WI since 1978.

I add 4 bags of tube sand to the bed each winter and haven't gotten stuck yet.

 

I got around just fine last winter in Denver. 3 tubes of sand + 1 bag of salt by the tailgate, with studded snow tires. I had to intentionally be a hooligan to slide it out and around.

Prior to the Taco was an 1987 Porsche 944 (RWD) with snow tires, similar experience.

Good tires and weight distribution, slow and *smooth*, plus experience/skill is all you need.

If your 2wd gets stuck past that, consider it a safety "fuse" - you shouldnt be driving in that weather, and stopping could be very difficult in an area that requires 4wd for forward progress.

 

New owner, and I’m too curious how this handles. I will update this winter. But so far below is what I’ve found…

Out here in Colorado.
Running BFGoodrich Trail Terrain T/A
Stock 265/65/17

Hey Engineering Explained has a great video that breaks down the maximum traction by weight. It looks like for my truck it’s like 55/45 weight distribution and with the engine and cabin weight on front wheels vs bed on rear, I’ll need about 300 pounds. Any more weight and you’re just compromising gas mileage and increasing mass so when you do slide, you’ll slide faster and longer.

 

Drove an ambulance for 6 months over an arctic winter last year, 2WD chevy crestline. Weight in the back, good snow tires and driving in slow motion. No problems at all.

 

You may wanna get a set of winter tires too in CO. Or duratracs

 

one word: real snow tires

 

That's three words.

 

"that's the joke"

 

Like rocket surgery. I get it.