Deuce in the snow today

[OD_Coyote]

Had about 8" of snow today and I had to move the deuce to make room my son's Willy's pickup. Anyway, those ND tires sure do not seem to be suited to snow. Sure glad I had the hardtop though.

 

[M1075]

Sweet pic!

 

[Desert Rat]

Nice!

 

[red devils dude]

I got two feet last night just got half of the driveway shoveled took 1.2 hour's.

 

[cranetruck]

Nice pic!
Don't be so hard on the NDCC's, when you get in snow with ANY tire you'll have problems, add a hill and you'll be stuck.
As I always say, use chains in the snow, it makes an amazing difference. I have gone uphill on a 20% slope in a foot of
snow like it was a paved dry road.
To help develop all available traction from the engine torque and drive train gear ratio, add weight.
For tires, my philosophy is to get (I don't have them yet. Goodyear G177's, for example) a good
wet pavement tire and use chains off roads/snow/mud.
Around here you will never see a DOT snow plow truck without chains. Also the farm tractors and log skidders use them and you
know what those tires look like.

 

[wallew]

OD COyote,
Nice pix.

Bjorn,
I concur with the chains. Having said that, it's not the truck, it's the driver.

I can't tell you how many times I used a 79 Datsun mini pickup truck. Three feet of snow, street tires, no weight in the rear. Just chugged right up the hill in our subdivision. Not sure the degrees, but it is up.

With my 91 Suburban 4x4 1/2 ton I rarely have to lock the front up and have ONLY had to lock it in low once when we had more than four feet in our cul de sac.

But chains ALWAYS will make things easier. But they are not necessary if you've done it before. Just remember ONE THING. You have no brakes. I love to watch people from California or Texas who have never driven in snow before and own a big SUV just screaming down the hiway or freeway. All of a sudden they need to stop and they can't. It's always bent sheet metal and cursing people. Some people never learn.

You all know the old joke women tell each other, right?

"Snow is like a man. You never know how much you are going to get and how long it will last."

 

[OD_Coyote]

Cranetruck - I agree with you on the chains. Where is best place to pick up a set for a reasonable price?

Wallew - I take exception to your comment regarding that it is the driver.
I have driven many miles on snow with my 93 W250 w/o chains or issues getting to my destination. If you have the floatation an empty deuce has with 10 wheels on top of ice trying to go up a grade it does not matter how much driving skill you have. You could use momentum, but that could get you into trouble if there is not a lot of manuvering room.

 

[wallew]

OD Coyote,
While I appreciate your insight, I will tell you that when I was young and insane, I owned a Dodge Ramcharger. Lock into four wheel drive, up and down Eisenhower tunnel (12,000 ft +). Frozen road, icy, snow covered. ZERO WEIGHT IN THE BACK. 70+ mph up. 70+ mph down.

No problems. Again, driver skill IS all important. If you don't feel comfortable taking your vehicle out on ice and snow without chains, then you shouldn't. But I do it ALL the time. My Suburban has no weight in it either. Can it get squirrely if you are not paying attention?

Absolutely. But you HAVE to pay attention. But YEARS experience driving all sorts of trucks (light and heavy) in snow and ice have shown me it IS the drivers skill.

Back in 1995 we moved from San Francisco to Portland in January. Outside of Yreka, I was going up a long grade in my diesel Suburban pulling a twenty foot trailer loaded with all our heavy items, including my library. I hit a patch of ice that caused the whole setup to move over one lane in less than one second. I didn't panic, I let off the go pedal, didn't touch the stop pedal and creeped back over to the slow lane and then got off at the next exit to check everything. NO PROBLEMS, other than it took me a while to stop shaking. But believe me when I tell you, I've driven in EVERY condition (including a blinding sandstorm in New Mexico) and snow and ice do not REQUIRE chains. CHAINS DO MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE, but are not necessary if you are a skilled driver.

Are you trying to say that an unskilled driver can take their deuce out in ice and snow with chains and NOT get in trouble? Cause if you are, I'm going to have disagree completely.

And the inverse is also true. A SKILLED driver can take their deuce out WITHOUT chains and have no problems what so ever. It's who's behind the wheel, not what's ON the wheels (or type of tires) that makes all the difference in the world.

Having said all this, has ANYONE studded a set of tires for their deuce? THAT would be way interesting.

 

[cranetruck]

If you want to move around in the snow, working the truck, pulling another vehicle, logs or a trailer up and down hills, pushing snow (plowing) even on side slopes, the deuce WILL need chains, regardless of driver skill. Stop in the middle of a hill, back down chain up another vehicle that's in the ditch and pull it up that same hill requires chains. Same in muddy conditions. We are not talking high speed driving here, just slow moving working conditions.
It takes me less than 20 minutes to install the chains, no biggie. With lockers it may be some difference, but the added traction from chains is hard to beat.
Don't know about studded tires.

 

[wallew]

OD Coyote,
First I would like to apologize for mouthing off. I did NOT mean to offend. If I did, I'm sorry.

Cranetruck,
I do understand and do agree that driver skills being equal, chains are MUCH better than no chains. And chaining up doesn't take all that long. Plus I'm sure that the type of tires you run also have a lot to do with it.

In the mountains here, the snow plow truck drivers only chain up if it's really bad (more than two feet of snow with ice). And down here in 'the flats' we've had two to three feet of snow and the plows don't chain up. Of course, they are carrying who knows how much weight with the sand and the chemicals they put on the road.

I've spent a lot of time in the Rockies at altitude in the snow and ice in or on all sorts of vehicles. Trucks, cars and even my Harley - unintentionally in the snow - but sometime you just gotta push on. Again, I may have had an angel on my shoulder on a few occasions, but I have found not panicking in a given situation goes a long way.

I would also like to say sorry to everyone else if I came off harsh or anything. jim

 

[mangus580]

I will say that even here where the Yankee Grass is real prevalent, they dont use chains on the town trucks when plowing.

On a different note, I think this topic is getting a little out of control.

 

[Recovry4x4]

With all this talk about tire chains, I'm thinking about getting some. How are they in beach sand? LOL

 

[ken]

Snow? It was 83 deg here on sat, And 75 deg yesterday. I'm with kenny, I wonder how well chains will work in east texas gumbo mud?

 

[wallew]

We are at 20 degrees and have had eighty mph winds. That means it's about 60 below out in the wind.

I hate you guys. Not really, but I sure wish we would be a little warmer here. jim

 

[rmgill]

Chains are good in mud too. The Brits had special racks just for stowing tire chains on their trucks in WWII just for the muddy conditions of europe.

 

[cranetruck]

I use them off-road. Makes a big difference in mud or wet grass.
Here is a source for chains (about $100/axle):
http://www.joetrapp.com/pages/958686/index.htm

Joe says that he has "a few left". He is near Charlotte, NC.

 

[tommygfunk]

Sweet

That is a sweet pic. I just joined the S/S and have admired these trucks since I was a kin. I’m into fixing up my 79 Cherokee chief but one day want to pick up a duce.

 

[Ugg013]

Bjorn:

I can truthfully say that I have NEVER in my life used chains on tires. There may have been some times that it'da been easier on the ole brain if I did, but, the only places I ever got stuck, chains wouldn't have helped. I've plowed snow for way to many years too. I've worked at O'Hare airport, plowing runways, and also worked plowing expressways.

Granted the winters have been getting milder each year (which is one reason why I quit plowing), but I have plowed thru 3'+ snowfalls. I had a 1/2 ton Suburban which I modded to a 1 ton, and was able to push a load of snow with a Volvo in it over 100 yards with no problem, and that was over 2' of fresh snow (in a supermarket parking lot). We used to joke about the Burb being like an icebreaker, cutting a path for the other plows to work off of. In the big plows (also an Osh Kosh blower) I never even kicked in the front axle.

I'm sure that plowing up in the mountains would be much different than plowing here in the flatlands and maybe you'd need chains, but I also watched them up near Denver when Independence Pass was closed down (sort of) cause of snow. The stateies were tellin people that ya needed chains to go thru the Pass, but the plow guys weren't usin em. Tire technology has advanced so much that I really don't think that most people will ever need them anymore. That being said, it is always better to be safe than sorry. However, the tires that came on my Durango would slip when it just looked like it was gonna rain, and the Yokohama's I replaced them with aren't much better.

While in the service, they trained us in serious off road driving (being that we were building the roads). Never did they use chains. Never did they mention them. I think someone did ask about they're use, but he was hushed up. Not Needed was the response I think. If ya choose your course and don't go charging blindly about ya should be okay. In most cases, even bald tires will get ya thru if ya inflate or deflate when needed. The again, some of us like a little extra thrill when driving.

Later
Ugg

 

[cranetruck]

I don't want to get into an argument about this, but may need to clearify that I'm talking off road driving,
actually working the truck where chains make a lot of difference. Driving up and down snow covered logging trails would
just not work without chains.

 

[Wick246]

I like crane's idea of selecting tires that are good (as possible) on wet pavement and having chains available for the more extreme stuff. It's like dressing in layers for the outdoors - keeps all your bases covered.