What is snow?

TITS!

 

You will have plenty of of LARGE parking lots to practice in Fort Drum. Plus you will have PLENTY of snow to practice in too. I was born in Upstate NY and stationed in Ft Drum for 5 years. Get some sand bags and remember to brake earlier then you think you need to always and you will be fine. Most, not all, people up there can drive in the snow and the ones that don't know how to will be in the the snowbanks or the ditch early anyhow. You will see more snow up there then you will ever want to see in your life and then some. You will go to sleep and wake up with 1' to 2' on some nights. You are stuck ina lake effect snow band up ther outside of Watertown so you will be a pro once your tour is over in Ft Drum. Enjoy your time in Ft Drum and tell the Water Buffaloes I said Hi .............. You will see what I mean when you get up there!

 

I just saw this quote and he is right. Learn to drive 2wd first then use 4wd for traction purposes only. 4wd only makes you go faster it never stops you faster! I wish most of the people down her ein NC figured that out...

 

You could sipe your tires or get a new set of winter tires. look for an AT tire or even an ASR , but with the mtn. and snowflake(means its suitable to replace studded tires in many states) on them (tire rack has em by a survey and catagory), examples are goodyear silent armor or new dura(something) , i think some B.F.G. At have them too and some michelins. If your tire says M+S it might not really be good enough, seen lots of em on lots of different vehicles fall short when the snow gets packed or turns to ice( my stock dunlop grendtrek 20s M+S). Try your current set first and maybe buy a good set of cable chains, it would be about $40-60 and $500+ cheaper than tires.( see my short writeup on my new winter tires in the tire forum if you want.)
If you are curious , i do snow and ice in Portland, i work for the city and we have an actual snow zone, plus i love to ski. Everything goes off the road with all the traction controls w/o traction.
Tactics:
1 Slow down
2 air down to say 29psi( see the door for tire psi)
3 remember on pavement you go say 0-60 in say 7 seconds 60-0 in 4....
not the same on snow the brakes will not slow you if you have no traction
4 no traction means no traction control so you just keep rolling w/o braking
5 that also means abs wont stop you, you just sorta keep rolling
6 Get traction! Chains, or the extreme weather rated mtn, and snow flake

whew , sorry for the long post

 

no death grip on the wheel for god's sake - two fingers only !

 

I like to manually shift an auto to hold a gear to take advantage of engine braking before I touch the brakes.

 

oh yea, don't use the locker on the road driving(if it even works over 15mph)! Use it to get out of a jam. My base reg. doesn't have one,woulndt mind getting one though.

 

Ft Drum in good ol Watertown, NY Home of the 10th Mountain Division
One of the things I liked being stationed there was it was a straight shot on Rt 11 across upstate NY to my home in Vermont.
The trees kinda all point towards the east from the winds that come off Lake Ontario & the lake effect snow....is amazing.
oh and the ice storms are fun too.

Pick up some winter blades when you get up here & it might not be a bad idea to get your undercarriage rustproofed now before you get up here. The salt is gonna look like this

 

ouch salt. We dont do that in our state luckily. When i went through salted roads in other states would wash the undercarraige at a car wash.

 

yes I try during the salt season to visit the self serve car washes as much as I can. Even with that this is what it looks like after 2 seasons.
No wonder you can't find a 96-2002 tacoma around here.

 

Good reminder of how lucky we are not to use salt here. We talk about the convenience of it in use, but no one thinks about that rust you showed me.

 

winterwasher fluid also helps and get a ice scraper

 

I gotta thread jack for a moment because i love this story.
I was driving I-84 around milepost 32(gets snow) back in 96 I think. I was passing a f-250 but the road had gouges in the snow(truck chains spinning I believe, no sure). I'm going about 25 mph and was bouncing as a lot ,even with a seat belt, say 5 mph too fast. As we were about even , a suuburu went to pass between us, it's a 2 lane road, so we pass a surprised look between me and the f-250. The suburu driver looked all smug like were impressed, (we werent). All of the sudden we go shooting by him ,WOW he sure stopped fast...why!!! In the passenger side mirror he is dead in the water and... his front tie rod had broke off!!

 

i dont have any advice about mods etc except a block heater is a must if your taco doesnt have it, and winter tires are a huge bonus.

But i wanna make a few points based on my experience.

Always be extra careful during the first few snow falls... always tends to have more accidents because people are still adapting to winter driving and usually warmer so the snow turns into ice. (and during this time leave for work super early to avoid rush hour because everythign will be a big mess and you will be like 3 hours late otherwise).

usually winter driving is pretty good except reduced visibility during heavy snowfall. When temperatures are on the warmer side be extra careful. Intersections, stop signs, etc... are the worst (lots of ice build up from vehicles stopping (friction). So drive slow and when approaching a red light slow down well before u would if it were summer. And dont forget your taco might handle the ice just fine but some other vehicles wont. So keep an eye on vehicles at intersections, stop signs, so you dont get rear ended or other vehicles skidding through intersections!!!!!!!!!!!! this is a must to avoid smashing up your taco.

I use a outdoor timer thingy so when i plug my vehicle in at nightime the timer energizes my block heater at around 3:30 AM. Will cost you about $25 but will save lots of coin from your electricity bill.

Safe travels
From Canada!!!!!!

 

I love TITS!

 

Be prepared for the first time your ABS kicks in if you have not already experienced it.There will be a loud buzz or whirr from under your dash and it will seem like the truck is sliding out of control.I found that the Tacoma's ABS is very sensitive and the first time it engaged,it scared the Poop out of me.

 

i have a backpack i keep in the truck year round it has a good firstaid kit maps and maglite and swiss army knife. In the winter I put 2 wool hats, gloves and a thermal shirt. I also have a liter of wind shield wiper fluid in there (a must for highway driving). I have my tools in there too and of course an extendable scraper/brush, needed for a lifted truck. I do snow blowing and plowing so we run into the deepest snow and plow berms before anything has been done. The lift and tires have gotten me out of three bad situations, where if it was stock id have been hung up and had to dig. In stock form the trucks are very capable in the snow and fun. With the mods I can go in the deeper snow and not worry as much.
heres some snow

 

Me too!

 

FYI although it IS the 10th Mountain Division.... there are NO mountains around really. Its all pretty flat around there. So do not think Colorado think more like rolling hills. Only people I had ever seen around there with Snow tires were people without 4wd. Get a good set of AT's,I never had a problem with my YJ there and I had friends with Blazers, Toyos P'ups, Fords, Dodge, Chevy P'ups and Cherokees and not one of them ever had a problem in snow with weight in the back of the truck. Just be careful not to high center the truck .... Trust me there is enough snow out there to do it too! Slow and cautious of what you and others are doing or might do and you will be fine. Always carry a "Crap I got stuck" back pack with you and you will be fine ( Sleeping bag or emergency blankets, couple water bottles, peanutbutter crackers, emergency fire starter, i.e lighter and a fire log or 2) Nowadays you have cell phones all over the place so really you can call a friend and they come get you right away back when I was out there, early 90's, you had to wait for someone to drive by.

 

I was there in the early 90s too, ice storm so bad it closed the post for a week because the civilians couldn't get to work. Nobody was driving anywhere.