Stuck in moderate snow

[hb.sagen]

Tested my truck in snow today. Had some drifts forming in the road down from my cabin. Drove down without problems, snow barely touching the skid plate.

Tried to drive back up, but lost momentum pretty quickly. Any throttle just made the back end drift sideways and threatening to get me severely stuck. Tried a few times in different drive modes and with lockers.

No room for picking up speed to barrel through. Good tires with studs, but no aggressive threads. Did not air down as plow was waiting.

How can I be better prepared next time, kinda let down by the out of box capabilities of the truck. This is my first time driving in “adverse” conditions with this truck. I had a better feel with my previous Touareg.

This trip was done solely to practice in snow, but the truck is now parked downhill in wait of the plow to do it’s thing.

Sponsored

 

[djstough]

That's interesting. My stock Lariat, stock wheels, performed well in 14 inches this January.

 

[The Weatherman]

What’s ’down hill’ look like?

 

[jobofly79]

did you put it in off road mode? Lock the rear locker?

 

[hb.sagen]

That's interesting. My stock Lariat, stock wheels, performed well in 14 inches this January.

Inspecting the ground after backing up revealed 2-3 inches of snow under the tire marks.

 

[hb.sagen]

What’s ’down hill’ look like?

Just a slight incline, not steep by any standards. Highway worthy.

 

[hb.sagen]

did you put it in off road mode? Lock the rear locker?

Yes, tested offroad with and without lockers, in addition to normal.

 

[Firn]

Very surprised, mine is a beast in the snow.

I would say tires

 

[fhteagle]

What tires do you have on?

 

[NW Ontario Ford Lightning]

It is all about the tires, last spring since I got the truck in Feb, I left the stock all season tires on it, and it did well, but in October I bought a dedicated set of Bridgestone Blizzac DM V2 and they (with the balanced weight and all wheel drive) are unbelievable in snow and ice conditions. Leave everything else on the road behind.

 

[Tony Burgh]

I’ve gone through 6-8 inches of wet snow with Dunlop snow tires on the Lightning.
No problems. Up hills and down. Stopping is iffy some times with these snows.
They will be coming off in two weeks and the OEM Grabbers will go on and increase mileage by 5-10%.
BTW - used these tires on my 2015 F150 Lariat and they worked well with that lighter truck. Next year they will be 10 years old and time to be replaced.

 

[Heliian]

 

[hb.sagen]

What tires do you have on?

Michelin X-Ice North 4, first season.

F

 

[PA Lightning]

You have metal studs in the tires. My Lightning will walk up a hill that I can't becasue it is so slippery.

With studded tires you should be able to drive through walls. Are you pulling our leg?

 

[Vulnox]

Yeah didn't expect to see something like this. My Lightning has outclassed my previous ICE F-150s in snow in every metric except braking, but that's largely down to the extra weight.

The only things that come to mind would be that the tires despite ratings are garbage, or there is a good amount of ice under the snow cover and even with studs they may not be aggressive enough for the situation, or lastly maybe you were too aggressive on the throttle trying to power through the situation. Power can be good off-road, but this truck has A LOT of it, more than enough to overcome even good tires. It may have just been a situation where a steady crawl would have been better.

I don't see laying the blame on the capabilities of the truck because there's almost nothing any vehicle can do to overcome loss of traction. 80% of the work is on the tires, 10% is a vehicle being able to put power to those tires, and another 10% is on the driver knowing when to use the capabilities of the vehicle for the situation.

The only thing the Lightning really lacks on being able to put the power down is no front locker, but this isn't a Bronco so I have a hard time holding that against it.

I dunno, I wouldn't let it keep you down. Another aspect that could have been working against you that is on the truck is its weight. Depending on the actual angle of this hill that weight can play against you even when everything else is going right. Unfortunately not much to be done there.

Sponsored