Take a look at the photo below of my Deuce. Between the morning of Friday, 12/01/06 and the afternoon of Monday, 12/04/06 we received 16" of snow (ask me about "Lake Effect Snow").
I decided to fire up the Deuce and take it for my first ride in the snow. The air temp was about 15F and the overnight low had gone down to about 5F, so the engine was pretty cold, and I don't have a working cold start system. My truck is equipped with an ether start system, but the ether cylinder is empty and I can't find a replacement, but after about 10 seconds on cranking and one false start she was running smoothly.
My trip was SCARY! NDCC tires SUCK in the snow. Pulling out of my driveway, normally a simple 90 degree turn, almost ended up with me in the ditch on the other side of the road! As I pulled out of the driveway with the front wheel turned full right, the truck plowed straight ahead across the road almost to the other side of the road before the front tires got some grip and started me turning. I stopped with the front tires on the far shoulder and the truck 45 degrees across the road. I cranked the front hard left and was able to back up and get the truck straightened out in the roadway.
It was kind of like driving a 2WD ATV in deep snow. The rear end pushes the vehicle in a straight line even though the front wheels are turned until the front wheels finally get some grip and turn the vehicle. I soon learned that I had to start my turn about 20' earlier than I would on a dry road to make up for the lag in getting the front end to turn. Stopping was pretty scary also. Needless to say, my first trip was very slow and very short!
In all fairness to the Deuce, I still had 50 PSI in the tires and although the plow trucks had been through a couples of times they had not sanded or salted. Since this was a weekend, the plow trucks hadn't been through very many times so the road was covered with a couple of inches of hard packed snow and ice with a couple of inches of fresh snow on top to boot so it was VERY slippery! My front wheel drive Venture mini van didn't do much better, the traction control system was engaged most of the time when I was driving it.
Next trip I'll air down to 35 PSI and try a trip in fresh snow before it gets packed down hard! BTW, I did close up my grille cover after taking the picture.
I decided to fire up the Deuce and take it for my first ride in the snow. The air temp was about 15F and the overnight low had gone down to about 5F, so the engine was pretty cold, and I don't have a working cold start system. My truck is equipped with an ether start system, but the ether cylinder is empty and I can't find a replacement, but after about 10 seconds on cranking and one false start she was running smoothly.
My trip was SCARY! NDCC tires SUCK in the snow. Pulling out of my driveway, normally a simple 90 degree turn, almost ended up with me in the ditch on the other side of the road! As I pulled out of the driveway with the front wheel turned full right, the truck plowed straight ahead across the road almost to the other side of the road before the front tires got some grip and started me turning. I stopped with the front tires on the far shoulder and the truck 45 degrees across the road. I cranked the front hard left and was able to back up and get the truck straightened out in the roadway.
It was kind of like driving a 2WD ATV in deep snow. The rear end pushes the vehicle in a straight line even though the front wheels are turned until the front wheels finally get some grip and turn the vehicle. I soon learned that I had to start my turn about 20' earlier than I would on a dry road to make up for the lag in getting the front end to turn. Stopping was pretty scary also. Needless to say, my first trip was very slow and very short!
In all fairness to the Deuce, I still had 50 PSI in the tires and although the plow trucks had been through a couples of times they had not sanded or salted. Since this was a weekend, the plow trucks hadn't been through very many times so the road was covered with a couple of inches of hard packed snow and ice with a couple of inches of fresh snow on top to boot so it was VERY slippery! My front wheel drive Venture mini van didn't do much better, the traction control system was engaged most of the time when I was driving it.
Next trip I'll air down to 35 PSI and try a trip in fresh snow before it gets packed down hard! BTW, I did close up my grille cover after taking the picture.
