Best way to get out of snow?

Glad someone said it! I was thinking "well I hope nobody starts airing down before heading out in a couple inches of powder on the road."

 

Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what to do. Shovel, traction boards, snatch strap are all good things to keep in your bed. Airing down always helps increase traction in my book. Except for maybe ice.

This isn't directed to you OP, but I think alot of people mix up the concepts of friction & traction - friction is what you want in icy conditions and is a direct function of the weight of your vehicle distributed over the contact area of your tires. Coefficient of friction is literally the tangent of (normal force (weight) / lateral slip force on surface). Higher weight means higher lateral slip force in most cases. This is the reason why you see ice rally cars w/ pizza cutter tires.

Traction is a function of the aggregate interlock strength of your material beneath your tires. Materials with a low aggregate interlock force are easily displaced & moved (think sand as opposed to compacted gravel). If you take the weight of your truck and distribute it over a larger bearing area (IE - airing down your tires), you lower the amount of force you apply to the material and displace/crush less of the material when trying to move your tires. This allows you transmit force from your tires into the ground more efficiently and move your truck without spinning your wheels.

 

Lots of people do mix this up. It's why when I buy winter tires I buy ones that are good for ice not snow. Where I live the roads are ice-covered most of the year. It's why I use narrow Blizzaks and not wide Duratracs. Some tires are good for winter ice. Some are good for deep snow. Rarely is that the same tire.

More to your point....skates are good on ice. Snowshoes are good in snow.

 

All good posts ... a little bit Bill Nye the Science Guy, but valuable explanations if folks take the time to read, understand, and digest.

So, if you skipped here 'cuz it's a short post, go back and read the long stuff. Good information is a valuable commodity.

Respect
Rob

 

Not all snow is the same so there really isn't one answer.

I'm sure the fact about airing down in the snow not helping was not considering deep snow and off roading. Under normal conditions on the road, it's not a great idea. In your case, absolutely.

I have a shovel attached in my bed in the winter time for high centering on snow banks or snow that's just plain too deep. It's a feed/grain shovel which is great for moving a lot of snow at once.

 

Real Beadlocks even possible?

Rich

 

Lots of good advice, some ? Shoveling out of snow only thing I can add is make sure you're in good health. It's easy to get exhausted with cold and frustration.

 

Although I have never aired down to 2 psi(to afraid to try), I have aired down to 15-19 psi and it has helped me many a time in many conditions including snow. But have not done anything in this taco yet. Up in Breck at 11,500 ft, I was pulling two suburbanites in suburban and tahoe, out of the snow with my F350. Airing down helped me yank one out. The other was so stuck that I had to put chains on to get enough traction to pull them out. It almost always seems that it is a competition in the mountains on who can get to a stranded truck to help them out. Everyone wants to try out their rig. lol.

In your case, I would get a strong harness for the wife along with spikes for the shoes, nice tow strap and have her help pull you out.

 

“Honey I need you to ass-up the back of the truck”
- yeah, no recovery at all from that!

 

Are you saying you aired down to 1-2 lbs or that you let out an additional 1-2 pounds? If you aired down to 1-2 pounds you are lucky you didn't pop all 4 beads.

 

And to that point, always turn trac off before you hit the deep snow. Depending on conditions, that extra wheel speed without traction control cutting power can make the difference between pushing through or not.

 

That last paragraph & video please

? Don't think so.

 

Damn dude thats a genius idea. So simple. Also I love the fact that yours is cracked in the same exact place an mine

 

FWIW, I've seen some amazing YouTube videos of folks using Crawl Control to extricate themselves from some serious "stucks" but usually in sand. I have been wanting to try this myself, but we haven't gotten any noticeable snow since we got our truck in December. Of course, if you don't have Crawl Control then you couldn't try this either. I always carry a snow shovel in winter too.

 

This method seems to work and is a cheap DIY. Works pretty well for sand and mud as well.

 

Lol, thanks. Not sure if you can tell or not, but I have a hose clamp on it too as a "just in case." But it still works! Years of cold and just being loose in the back of my last truck lol

 

It's definitely good "big picture" info to have for all situations if you take the time to digest the concepts behind it. This is the type of useful science that's beaten into your head in engineering school.

For the record, Bill Nye the Science guy is an engineer, not a scientist. Scientists think of shit while engineers do shit

 

Tire chains are cool

 

I've actually done this with some small logs and some rachetstraps. Worked like a charm.

 

Im up to 2 on mine