HMMWV In Sandy's Snow!

[steelsoldiers]

We ended up with about 7-8" of the heavy, wet snow from Sandy. Our road was a sloppy mess with tree limbs down everywhere and more branches and tree tops breaking off every few minutes. As you can see, a pretty good sized limb fell across my M1101 trailer. Thankfully, the trailer is fine outside of a tweaked soft top bracket. I decided to fire up the HMMWV to move it away from the big maple that was shedding limbs before one went through the hood or top. I fired it up and moved it up the road a little and then figured I would venture off of our road to see what the rest of our neighborhood looks like. The hill heading up out of our hollow is really steep, so I figured I may have a little difficulty getting up the road. I started out in 4H and got about half way up the hill before the rear end lost traction and started to go a little sideways. I put the brakes on and thankfully, they held after a little backwards slide. I put the t-case into low lock and after a good amount of churning the tires started to bite and the HMMWV began making forward progress. Once I gained a little momentum, the rest of the hill was no problem and I churned all the way to the top.

I'm curious to know how the rest of you guys do in the snow in your HMMWV's. I think most of my problem stemmed from the huge tread voids on the Baja TA tires and the deep slushy snow. A set of all terrains would have had better grip with the extra siping and smaller tread blocks. Any other tips to snow driving in a HMMWV? I think getting some more weight over the rear end will help with traction too. I have an airlift bumper, spare carrier, fuel can carrier and spare tire to add to the back so that should help get some weight on the rear tires!

 

[neilhendrix]

Glad you folks are ok. I`m going to follow this thread to see what people say.

 

[gunboy1656]

Glad to see you didn't have much more issues.

Only 3 trucks I have ever had sideways in 21 years of driving were a blazer and 2 HMMWV. The blazer I did intentionally, the others were not.

One HMMWV was a cargo, other was a shelter carrier fully loaded. Niether did well and I was going very slow when they slid.

Only good idea I can give is swap out the aggressive offroad tires for all terrain.

 

[RidgeRunner609]

I remember a couple years ago back in 04 I was in the Reserves in Wheeling and we got called out for a storm and I distinctly remember sliding a hard top HMMWV that we had gotten from the MP unit all over the place. Including sliding sideways down one of the hills in Wheeling trying to get to someone. I personally think that the HMMWVs aren't that good in snow but you may have better luck that we did.

 

[Flyingvan911]

I turned a corner in my '88 E-250 once and hit ice. It started sliding down the road sideways. That's a scary feeling.

Glad your area wasn't hit too hard. My prayers go out to all the people affected.

 

[M715VFD405]

Went on a rescue mission for a female friend needing to get away from an abusive bf I was on my way home from Austin Tx to OKC in a sloppy rain. I had borrowed my friends 01 Nissan P/u doing around 65mph. My mistake was not taking a good look at the tires before I made such a trip and I paid for it in the chunk my bum took out of the seat when the "racing slicks" that use to be normal tires let loose and I went spinning around about 5 times in the middle of I-35. Thankfully no one was around me and I landed in a nice soft ditch and was able to drive out after collecting my wits.
Checking your tires for wear air and rot is always a good idea. One tread pattern that I have always liked is the BFG All Terrain T/A The only time they have never gotten me out of something was when I went in a hole after a higher truck and high centered they never made contact so there was no fault on the tires. Rain snow ice mud and anything I put them through they worked very well and I would recommend them to anyone.
Adding weight to the back of the truck is always good in a low traction situation. The rear end is always going to be light unless you have a load equal to the weight in the front. I recommend sand bags. They tend not to shift around so they won't scratch up the bed up as "junk" or cinder blocks and won't move off your axle where the weight is needed. It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a bag of rock salt back there too, that way if you did spin out and couldn't get free do to the ice the salt would help out.
Glad to hear you fared well Chris. My prayers go out to those that didn't.

 

[m1010plowboy]

Snow Wheeling

It's a relief to hear that folks got through this and with such great spirit, glad you're ok.

A friend grabbed a bunch of Milcots (Milverado) at an auction and spared one for a training toy out in the bush. He saved a bunch and decided to beat one that had previously been 'flown' by our training forces.

These trucks came with 'mud terrains' and they are the best. Claims that the muds don't do well on ice can be personally refuted by ice racing with them.

The weight displacement in the HMMWV can't be much different then the Duramax which does slightly better with weight in the back. 400+ lbs of snow.

Front wheel push is compensated by more power to the pedal when cornering. The instinct is to lift off the pedal while cornering but throttle control and getting into the corner means pedaling and feeling the wheel's bite through the foot. Come on up and practice.

Once you get comfortable being out of control, sliding backwards, it's a whole lot of fun.

When it snows and doesn't melt for 6 months, what else you going to do?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmPrXea4-ho&feature=youtu.be[/media]
The snow is fun but I envy the southern boys who let it melt and go fording in 6' of water.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np-AxPUaotw&feature=g-all-lik[/media]

 

[jeeplvr247]

I second the comment on the BFG AT's, those are my favorite tires of all time. I will have them on every civy truck I ever own. One thing I am wondering about this thread is what is the problem with getting a little sideways? It keeps your driving skills sharp, prevents fatigue while driving on long trips and it is a whole lot of fun. My truck hardly ever goes into four wheel drive in the winter because it is just too much fun with the rears. Also, all vehicles with traction control directly support communism. Just my two cents on the subject.

 

[Danger Ranger]

GoodYear Duratracs are supposed to be awesome in the winter. I guess I will find out soon. I have them on my Cherokee. All the govt fleets and universities use them too. Cross between a mud terrain and an all terrain.

 

[steelsoldiers]

Interesting commentary guys.

I don't normally have a problem with the rear end kicking out sideways when it is intentional (i.e. controlled skid) or drifting in a corner. Where I do have a problem with it is when I lose traction and have to stop on a steep, narrow hill with a 20' drop down an embankment into my neighbors house because the rear end kicks out and then all 4 start spinning and the whole thing starts crabbing towards the edge of the road.

Sliding backwards is not normally an issue, but if the slide persisted all the way to the bottom of the hill, then I would have taken out my other neighbor's stone mailbox post or if I missed the post, then I would have slid into a fire hydrant in my yard or over another embankment. This was not wide open territory where the biggest consequence of leaving the road is a ditch. The biggest consequence here was injury or serious property damage so you can understand my apprehension.

Hopefully, we'll get power back before too long. I am definitely investing in some standby power between now and the next snow storm. I have natural gas at the house so I should be good to go with a 10-14kw NG genset.

 

[M715VFD405]

I don't mind getting sideways the only thing is there are normally vehicles around so the chance of hitting someone isn't my idea of fun. Out in the middle of no where or in a place where there is no chance of damaging someone else's property heck yeah. Lol I've never used the durtracs but they have a descent tread pattern.