Plowed Snow Defeats the Taco Redux

Tonight I got my taco stuck in snow for the first time this season. I had to use my shovel and traction boards to get free. The edge of a 6' pile of plowed snow in a parking lot stopped the taco. I was not surprised as I expected to get stuck at some point. Newly plowed snow is a big challenge. It's a lot denser than untouched snow.

The experience got me wondering again about a question I've had in my head a long time. How do light duty 4wd pickups create piles of snow that are impassible by light duty 4wd trucks? How do they have enough traction to pile that much dense snow? Why don't they get stuck?

Anyone else ever wonder about this?

I'm guessing the answer is a combination of momentum and the fact that the snow plow clears a path through the snow for the truck's tires, but I'd like to hear some thoughts from others.

 

You has me at

plowed

 

Sounds like you answered your own question, with last paragraph.

 

I've seen big plows stuck in a pile.
It's a combination...
1. The truck high centers in a pile but not on flat ground.
2. Pristine snow is not compacted. Plowed snow is compacted and re freezes in a harder version between solid ice and fresh snow.

When I was young and I plowed snow, many a night at 3am while I was digging out of some nameless parking lot I had plenty of time to contemplate this very question.

 

Perhaps, but I'm still amazed that that effects of momentum and snow clearing allow so much slow to be piled up. I've also watched trucks plowing parking lots and it seems so effortless. It's not like they are getting up to extreme speeds before engaging the snow with the plow.

Another effect might be dedicated snow tires. It's possible that running dedicated snow tires has a greater effect than I would expect. I've never run them.

 

I'm jealous. I would love to plow snow some night. The sound of plows in the middle of the night after a big snow storm makes me giddy. I don't think putting a plow on my taco is practical though.

 

I guess it's also possible that the density of the snow doesn't doesn't change appreciably until it's piled up, but I don't know why that would be (assuming we are only talking about minutes to hours of sitting and limited temperature changes). I'd think it would get compressed mostly from the effect of the plow pushing on it.

 

Just ran at's on plow truck when I use to plow years ago.

 

One other thing to report... the LT255/85/r16 dick cepek extreme country tires in 2wd with no weight in back and traction control disabled were embarrassing a fwd crossover SUV with unknown all-season tires on my drive home. I was a bit surprised, because I'm used to being embarrassed by fwd cars unless I'm in 4wd.

 

I've always wondered what's its like to get stuck in the snow. Oh well maybe this winter.

 

The best things about getting stuck in snow are 1) you can always shovel down to solid ground and 2) your truck doesn't require a 1 hour wash afterwards. The same is not true of mud.

 

Mud tires have a pretty bad reputation for snow performance. Reason I stuck to AT when I got new tires.

 

Yes I'm aware, which is why I mentioned it. My winter/road tires are A/Ts and they seems to do a little better in shallow snow and ice, but I've never tested them side by side in the same conditions.

One of the reasons I choose the Dick Cepeks over the other (limited) tall skinny mud terrains is that they advertised snow performance (M+S) and they had more siping, albeit not as much as my A/Ts.

I'm planning to go wheeling up north this weekend, so I don't plan to swap tires until next week.

 

Toyota needs to put Xdrive on the new Supra!

 

What is snow?

Jk- when we get it here everyone drives with white knuckles.

 

When I used to be a bodyman for a living I also plowed snow for the owner of the body shop. My truck was a 3/4 ton 1976 Square body Chevy. That was 40 years ago. Got stuck then. Get stuck now. High centering takes no prisoners.

 

Goodyear used to make a dedicated snow tire and that is what we ran. About a million sipes and it did great.

 

Same here. I've needed 4low, but haven't needed my rear locker, nor Crawl Control, to get me out of deep snow. I don't put weight in the rear.

 

I wasn't even high centered tonight. I was a bit baffled why I was stuck. Shoveling didn't help, but I only had my spade not my snow shovel. The traction boards under the front tires popped me right out. After getting out I noticed I had an orange road construction cone trapped under the front skid plate. It must have been buried in the snow. I don't think it's capable of high centering me, but probably wasn't helping the situation. Snow day fun day.

 

Plowed with Atv’s for years, fast and effective. You just have to plow more often with bigger storms, and make sure you push it back far enough. Now I plow with a big tractor much easier.