How to 4wd in snow?

I turn my 4wd on in November and it stays on till march

 

Commuting in CO I'm in 4HI a lot, even if the road is partially clear, some pavement showing. Not a big deal, 4HI won't grenade. Often what happens is you have some pavement showing where the vehicles travel in the lanes, but in the middle of the lanes and between the lanes there is snow/slush built up. In 2HI, if your rear wheels get caught on those builtup areas the rear end kicks out and you're gonna have a bad time. Downshifting on slippery surfaces is fine with me, but not in 2HI, the rear end tends to kick out.

Another thing is the TRAC OFF button, I like to kill the engine cutout portion of it. One more thing is the ABS on slippery surfaces, that takes some getting used to.

If I have to hit the brakes hard on slick surfaces, hard enough for ABS to kick in, I put the vehicle in neutral. For example, my concrete driveway is very steep. Pulling out of the garage with snow/slush/ice on the driveway the ABS kicks in every time, all of my Toyotas with ABS.

The buggers would go "thunkathunkathunka", then proceed to slide down the driveway into the street. Finally figured out if I put them in neutral the ABS doesn't kick in. Go figure.

 

4wd gives you a ton more control.
These trucks understeer hard when on throttle too much without any lateral momentum. To rotate best in 4wd, initiate with throttle liftoff vs brake dive tho, especially with AT tires, it's way too easy to overcome the grip limit of the fronts while on the brakes... but eventually, with practice a little bit of lfb after liftoff will help you tighten up your corners.

Also, best control with AT tires has your wheelspeed almost 25mph over groundspeed! With snows it's closer to 15mph lol. Studs are best for ice, but you'll lose em eventually. Chains aren't practical/safe imo for more than ~45mph wheelspeed, even with static tensioners.

Pickups, especially Tacoma's liftoff oversteer really reliably! I'm usually a good deal quicker than most of the subies in the same tire class, their weight transfer and torque bands are nowhere near as favorable as a Taco!! They also tend to rely on the hand brake too much and over rotate all the time lmao. (The few skilled drivers are still faster than me )

2wd and ATs in a pickup in the snow means you are going waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy slower than everything else on the road if you are still in control. With snows and weight in the bed, you can at least get moving, but your wheelspeed will be almost double groundspeed when you are getting it, but the weight transfer with 400lbs in the bed is poor, and it's much easier to understeer or over rotate vs in 4wd with no weight in the bed.

 

On dry pavement, avoid using 4wheel drive. Straight line driving not a problem, but in turns there is a problem.
Specifically our 4wd system does not have a center differential, therefore front, and rear axles are operating at the same speed. When turning though, each wheel travels a different distance through a turn requiring a different wheel speed. With 4wd drive engaged, something has to give, usually wheel spin to allow for the different speeds. When there is no wheel spin, then the slippage has to occur elsewhere, and your tires, gears take the abuse. This is also why when replacing tires, ideally should replace all four with the same traction and overall diameter size.

On surfaces that allow wheel spin, slip ie snow, gravel, ice, 4 wheel drive is no problem.

Engage 4 wheel drive before you may get into traction trouble.

For winter traction, do put some weight in the back of the truck centered between the wheel wells for traction.

Winter tires not only include tread pattern changes such as siping, but are also made of a softer rubber compound that stays flexible at below freezing temperatures. That is where the main advantage to winter tires is.

Using chains is rare, but is sometimes the only remaining option on ice, or at times in deep snow/mud. Your speed is going to be limited to well below highway speeds with chains on. If a chain comes off while driving it can do a lot of damage.

Carry a shovel, and saw as the most elemental basic recovery gear.

 

Exactly what I mean! That was an excellent post and one I learn from and will change my mind because of the expressed wisdom.

To answer your question, we have mild winters with occasional storms which leave snow covered downed trees icy hills and no services including power or county trucks for days. 18f below 0 is the be coldest we have seen and a single snow storm of 24” over night the worst snow (not counting the 57” snow fall at higher elevations in one single storm). Often water covers the roads in the daytime and freezes at night. Shaded spots may stay iced for days. Services are better of late with our expanding population. It is way more mild than northern Wisconsin winters I was accustomed to but the steep and narrow winding roads are a whole different animal. The snow up north was traction snow that crunched below your tires, our NC junk is like a snow cone on packed ski hill ice often times. If you want to stay at home for a few days now and again you don’t need 4wd around these parts. I have existed without it driving for over 50 years and here for 35. Now that I have it, I’ll be looking to get my moneys worth! Hello ditch!

 

I hope the OP enjoys this latest burst of insight, I know I do. My son has an older Sequoia and I wouldn’t mind having the Toreson differential in the transfer case of our Tacomas with the ability to lock it out it would seem a nice thing for people often commuting on poor roads.

I like the Tacoma for perusing around the back roads in summer for sure!

 

That looks fun! We do some autocross in our Miata but alittle snow play would be cool. That kinda practice would improve ones road capabilities in normal road operations too.

 

1. depends on grip tires already have. Leaving in 4wd, costs you a small bit in fuel mileage. Really depends on the type of snow/ice conditions, no harm in leaving in 4wd, as long as surface is not dry/wet pavement.
2. if surface is slippery not a problem, but if you feel a lot of resistance to the turn, sure, go back to 2wd.

 

Regarding fuel mileage: I get 20-21mpg in summer, 18-19mpg 2wd with winter gas, to 16-18mpg when I’m in 4WD all the time in winter (and therefore usually below 0*F). Double Cab v6 auto, stock suspension, stock sized 245/75r16 Cooper AT3 4s.

 

Yeah mang, little bit of ice racing & winter ralleyes!
SC'd 1st gen MT is a serious powerhouse out there that no one see's coming!

 

I guess you never wintered in the Mts of New Hampshire. Around here it snows before thanksgiving and that snow is the very last snow to melt. Once it starts snowing it doesn't stop until late April or early May. Right now we could go to Tuckerman's Ravine and have a grand snow ball fight

I run 2W until I need to run 4W, and hope I don't need 4WL .......

 

Im curious to know how you do donuts in a gen 3 tacoma with all the ridiculous nanny features it came with? I tried doing them after pressing the button for 3 seconds, as well as after doing the sequence to get it in to service mode (I was told that is supposed to turn it off completely) and no dice. Its super frustrating. I can't believe some one hasn't figured out a work around to be able to turn off TC and abs for the gen 3's yet! Its honestly got me thinking of selling my truck now. I love most everything else about the truck, but I like to drive fast in the dirt/sand/gravel/snow some times and all the "safety features" seem like they could potentially do me more harm then good.

 

Use your 4wd whenever you are unsure. Hate to crash cuz you were unsure. So long as the wheels are on slippery surface, you can do turns. Snow ice wet roads, hell even dry gravel will be ok. So long as the wheels can spin independently, then you wont mess up your 4x4

 

I drove thru many a snow storm in a ‘81 Chevrolet Chevette...slow down and don’t be an idiot and you’ll certainly be ok in a 4x4 Tacoma.

 

Dude. The heat from the firewall and floor board was intense on those old rigs! My buddy had one. He ditched it. In a ditch...

 

THAT'S IT!!!!! Burn your fucking feet.

 

My friend had one and he would say , do you want to take the Vette ?

 

Just curious, where are you in MN? I travel the whole state for work so I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what winter is like here haha

You can turn 4x4 on in any sort of fresh snow or slippery condition. I can end up leaving it on for weeks at a time here. So I’d say for your two questions, the answers are yes and yes. Leave it on in both those situations.

That said, as some other guys have mentioned, good tires are going to get you farther than 4wd. If you don’t want to run a second set of dedicated winter tires then it’s worth looking at the Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S. I’d be running them year round if I weren’t running Blizzaks in the winter.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cooper-discoverer-at3-4s-review.557727/

 

Maybe it's 5 seconds for the button press? IDK, my truck does donuts just fine in the snow, maybe it being a manual helps too.