Used "Auto LSD" to unstick a 4x2 from a snow drift... not too bad!

EDIT: apparently some of my post (as in, the whole point of making the thread) got cut off, durrrr.

First things first, the reason I was stuck in the first place is solely because I am a lazy piece of crap. I was parked nose-in to a garage that got plowed in, and I couldn't be bothered to get off my ass and dig it out while it was fresh. I figured it would melt and sort itself out... Well, it didn't. It sleeted and drifted and froze into a solid barrier of icy snow a few feet deep.

Fook me right, so now I have to back a prerunner out over this which is gonna be a chuckle and a half since the drive wheels are gonna be the first to hit.
Gave the drift a whack with a shovel- it's one of those bugger drifts you need to practically hit with a pickaxe (or ice chipper) to get through.

I figured hey, I've got my Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws on, let's give this the old college try. If need be I can go back inside and cover my face to do the dig out of shame.

Out & over it she went.

First contact with it spun the wheels, I still had normal traction control on & it was bogging the engine down as opposed to trying to get grip. Move forward off it, Auto LSD on, and back into it again. I can hear the ABS doing its thing, but I'm inching over it. Lost momentum & sank into the snow, started to rooster tail some of the snow forwards. Rocked out once or twice more, and then boom, up and over the drift we go! Didn't have to rev the snot out of it, kept it under 3K the whole time. (I was careful specifically because I didn't want to be revving high when my drive wheels touched the dry pavement) It's interesting to feel the auto LSD at work. It makes the same semi-alarming noises that an ABS panic stop makes (that crunchy/groaning noise), and if both wheels are spinning it doesn't do anything (but neither would a real locker or LSD).

Pretty neat tech to be honest.

It's making me think twice about buying a locker. I had been all hot to throw one in there and go nuts, but after how well this computerized sorcery worked I'm genuinely considering saving the money to spend elsewhere.

Is there any situation (that a prerunner could get itself into and out of, mind you) where a locker could do the job even better?

 

I skipped lunch today but I did poop, which was nice. I guess what I'm trying to say here is, can I fit 35's with my spacer lift?

In all seriousness though I realize part of my post had gotten chopped off, so I edited my OP.

 

Did the auto LSD scare the poop out of you?

 

Locker? Not usually too helpful in snow. 4hi. Couldn't you have had a 4x4 for the price of 4x2+locker+tires?

But yeah...LSD is pretty cool.

 

I love the auto LSD feature, I use it on some of the beach approach trails, works every time. I'd spend the locker money on something else.

 

I put a Lock-Right locker in my 94 Ranger in an attempt to not buy a 4x4 truck. My county road is 1.5 miles of dirt and has 2 curvy hills that are 800ft long with 30+% grades and ravines full of trees on each side. Never graded in the winter and only graded 1-2X per year.

When the snow packed down the hills would thaw and refreeze and end up being ice. I'd weight down and chain sometimes every night to get up the hills. I bought studded tires and could sometimes make it.

Installed the locker and it helped some of the time but I still needed to chain occasionally even with the studs, weighted, and locker when the hills were really icy.

I think the LSD in this truck is probably at least 75% as good as my old locker was.

 

Repost pics.

 

...and from "friend who had a 2nd gen & treated it like a rented mule" experience, our 8" diff can take quite the thrashing, no need to go too easy