Driving in the snow...

[sle2115]

Ok, so yesterday, I decide to drive the IDI up to the parents to spend the day. Had a great day, got some snow and had a fun ride home. I have had three wrecks in my life, two of them in this truck, both times with the old bed, crappy tires and all. I now have the flat bed, new tires all the way around with pretty rough tread.

Here is the thing I have noticed with this truck, both times I wrecked it were on ice and having driven gassers (automatics and manual trannies). I always stayed a gear higher than I needed to be in the gassers and they would rarely make enough power to spin the tires. Last night, I was in 4th gear running 25 or so MPH and could spin the back tires at will, just feather the throttle and hold on! So you guys that drive these things in the snow, is it better to keep the RPM's up a little, run a lower gear where this thing seems to make less power. I didn't wreck or anything, but it was kind of daunting being able to slip this beast (7400 empty) around so easily. When I came home and climbed up the hill I live on, it was pretty treacherous and about halfway up I sure wished I had the hubs locked. It didn't seem to icy, but as I said, even in 4th gear running 1000 or so RPM's, I could just touch the throttle and break those back tires loose. This thing DEFINITELY is getting a limited slip or Lock Rite in the rear, it make it any less drivable in the snow.

Keep in mind, I drive 100 miles daily, have done so for 13 years or so, and have been driving for gulp 25 or so years, so I am not new to snow, but I am new to diesels (3 or 4 years now) in the snow. I don't drive my truck daily and that is probably the biggest thing for me, not having the familiarity with this rig in the slippery stuff. Even before this job, I drove no less than 30 minutes to work as well, so I have some miles under my belt, but this truck is just soooo different as it seems to have a ton of low RPM torque.

 

[adam g]

I put an additional 4 to 500 lbs of weight in the back. In kansas we have more ice than snow and road crews that would rather wait till it melts, so it gets a little slick here to.

 

[69oiler]

i find my IDI to be very predictable in the snow. if i play a little and fish the tail out is always drops right back in line. though living in Chardon (lake erie snow belt) i have been driving in deep snow all my life with much lesser vehicles so i'm good at snow driving. we just got 8 inches yesterday. roads are snow covered.

25 mph is right at the lugging limit for my truck in 4th with 3.55s, with 4.10s i would think your fine in 4th at 25. i agree the low rpm torque will break the tires loose easily. just use a lighter foot. if the truck is lugging shift down a gear but if you can break tires loose you are not lugging the engine.

a locker will help but if you do break the rear loose with a locker on snow or ice you will get sideways a lot easier than with an open diff.

IMO why not just lock your hubs and kick it in 4x4. if you can break the rears loose in 2wd it sounds like perfect excuse to play with 4x. i dont drive my IDI in the snow anymore (salt) but when i did i left the hubs locked whenever there was snow on the roads. now with the SD i have the auto hubs that work ok. i can lock them manually though if i want to.

 

[Agnem]

I've learned to keep the hubs locked and put it in 4X4 any time the road is the least bit slick. The amount of torque these engines produce precludes any gear from really being one better than another.

 

[Ironman03R]

Being 2wd, I put 500-700lbs in the bed and when the snow is deep, I turn off the OD. Ive had better luck keeping the rpms up so I dont burry it in the deeper stuff. 2 times Ive been stuck, one was in 3 feet of snow in the driveway, the other was in about knee deep stuff that I slowed down to see where I needed to turn. When I slowed down it sank.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

I agree, with 4wd engage the front axle. If it's slick enough to break the rears loose, it's slick enough that the transfer case won't bind.

 

[82fordtruck]

It sounds to me like the problem is more that you have duals than that you have a diesel.

Try loading about three thousand pounds or so of snow or wood or something. It will drive through anything you want.

 

[RLDSL]

Drop a gear and wind it up. you'll be able to slow down or stop much easier . This works for snow and packed snow, as far as ice, all the wheels on earth driving won't help if you don't have traction, either buy good chains like Security Chain Whitestar chains( not cables, they are worthless on wet or glazed ice )or get a set of these from Finland and drive like it's not there ( if you want to drive on snow, buy tires from folks who live in the stuff half the year . four wheel drive works nicely on snow, and it may get you going on ice, but it doesn't help you stop or turn. You put the right tires on that thing and you'll be saying' ice, what ice' Yeah, they're expensive, but in the long run, it beats sheet metal damage and dealing with insurance companies, or worse, spending a night or two in a ditch waiting on a tow truck.

I don't even take my truck out when it's snowing ( or more commonly around here, freezing rain/ ice storming ) I take my little Swedish snow mobile, a '93 Volvo 940 turbo that came with a factory automatic locker eaton rear end and it has a full set of Nokian studded snow tires on it. When the ice storms come, the only trouble we have is having to wait on all the 4x4s crawling along to spin out and go in the ditch so they can get out of our way.

I don't have any trouble getting out our driveway, but everytime we have an ice storm, I have to go out at 3am and lay out a bunch of kitty litter on the hill in front of our house, because in the morning, never fail, a bunch of guys with 4x4s will attempt to make it over and they all spin out and wind up in my yard if I don't treat the road ( some of them still spin out , and not a one of those idiots has the sense to flip it into reverse and just let it roll back down the hill, they all slam on the brakes and get crossed up and slide down into my yard). get's to be a real pain when they get a wheel in the ditch and block the driveway because the tow trucks won't come out, so I keep one of my other Volvos with snow tires parked on our back driveway to another road for when the yard gets completely blocked in with spun out 4x4s.

----Robert

 

[sle2115]

It sounds to me like the problem is more that you have duals than that you have a diesel.

Try loading about three thousand pounds or so of snow or wood or something. It will drive through anything you want.

That might work, but I think the real problem is that I drove the darn thing with bald tires, wrecked it a couple of years ago, and don't like it sliding around. I hit a patch of ice caused by an idiot putting a driveway in with no culvert, and I drove about 1/2 mile down the road everyway but straight. I have driven dirt track cars, sports cars, drag cars, etc. and this thing just responds like a brick. Once it started back the "other way" it was next to impossible to keep it from going too far. I had shifted right as I hit the ice (had driven this road 1000 times, but the guy had just put the driveway in that fall) and never had a problem. The other time I swerved to miss a herd of deer and the road was wet and starting to freeze. Both times were like 25 MPH and no damage done except for cracking one headlight that needed replaced anyway and taking out three mailboxes. At least the mailboxes were the property of the idiot who put the drive way in. Then he asked for $2800 to fix his mailboxes and said I tore the culvert out!!! My insurance company gave him $120 and told him to file suit if he didn't like it.

And as for the duals, that might be it, but the first time I wrecked it was with SRW, crappy tires, they had tread, but were as hard as a rock. I could literally spin them at 30 or so MPH on dry pavement just by shifting into third and nailing the fuel feed! It would get REAL wild from there on!!!

I think the best lesson learned is when it is slippery, just leave the tank parked! My little Santa Fe goes very well, just wanted to drive my truck and my daughter loves the "dirty ole truck" and begged to take it. When I left, the roads weren't bad, but 20 miles away where I was at wasn't getting snow like I was at my house!!!

 

[82fordtruck]

That might work, but I think the real problem is that I drove the darn thing with bald tires, wrecked it a couple of years ago, and don't like it sliding around. I hit a patch of ice caused by an idiot putting a driveway in with no culvert, and I drove about 1/2 mile down the road everyway but straight. I have driven dirt track cars, sports cars, drag cars, etc. and this thing just responds like a brick. Once it started back the "other way" it was next to impossible to keep it from going too far. I had shifted right as I hit the ice (had driven this road 1000 times, but the guy had just put the driveway in that fall) and never had a problem. The other time I swerved to miss a herd of deer and the road was wet and starting to freeze. Both times were like 25 MPH and no damage done except for cracking one headlight that needed replaced anyway and taking out three mailboxes. At least the mailboxes were the property of the idiot who put the drive way in. Then he asked for $2800 to fix his mailboxes and said I tore the culvert out!!! My insurance company gave him $120 and told him to file suit if he didn't like it.

And as for the duals, that might be it, but the first time I wrecked it was with SRW, crappy tires, they had tread, but were as hard as a rock. I could literally spin them at 30 or so MPH on dry pavement just by shifting into third and nailing the fuel feed! It would get REAL wild from there on!!!

I think the best lesson learned is when it is slippery, just leave the tank parked! My little Santa Fe goes very well, just wanted to drive my truck and my daughter loves the "dirty ole truck" and begged to take it. When I left, the roads weren't bad, but 20 miles away where I was at wasn't getting snow like I was at my house!!!

I think you'd be surprised. In my experience, a well loaded dually with good tires is better than an empty 4x4 with chains. I have mine full of wood now, but have been stuck three times in the last week (all when empty).

I got stuck yesterday driving in the alley turning the corner (downhill). It got stuck and slid sideways into a light pole. I pulled it out with my other truck in 4 wheel drive (and my ford in neutral) without even spinning the tire a bit.

It's worse than worthless in bad weather unless it's got some bite to those back tires.

 

[sle2115]

It's worse than worthless in bad weather unless it's got some bite to those back tires.

Yeah, you got that right! My truck, and I assume all with this series of motor, is inherently nose heavy! As I said, it was a burn out beast when it had the old bed on it and those rock hard tires. I will prolly just get a load of gravel on it and see. I need gravel anyway, but darn, I hate to add weight to this already ***** babe! I would have thought the duals would go better as well, but when only one side does anything, that makes a big difference as well. I think it is lockrite time come warmer weather as I can't fit this big thing in my garage (taller door to come as well!). I also thought this 7 X 9 foot steel bed would have some weight as well as the dump hoist and power unit, all mounted just in front of the rear axle though and probably.

They are a pain in mud as well. Mine started spinning one day and slid down a side grade, MAN I had a h$ll of a time getting it out! My 860 Ford tractor just did wheel stands trying to move it. I finally winched it forward a couple of feet and was off to the races!

 

[FordGuy100]

I had a scary experience in my parents truck just the other week. It was really icy, and I have never driven on ice before (when I had my learners permit, my dad always drived in the snow/ice, and I got my licence back in March, so we didnt get any ice when I could drive myself). So I was going extra slow, and had tow/haul mod on to keep me from gaining speed, because I was going downhill and a fairly sharp corner was coming up. So when the corner came I slowed down to about 25mph (probably to fast), the truck downshifted (cause tow/haul locks the converter), and the back end on the truck came out on me a good 20-25*, that was a pretty weird experience. It happened to me a couple more times on my way to school even with tow/haul mod off, I would be going around a corner, and the back end would just start coming out on me slowly. That was a pretty weird driving experience for me. I had half a mind to go cuss out the supervisor of our school district that goes out each morning to check road conditions.

 

[Andylad13]

Chain em up guys!! when the roads are ice nothing will help out like digging metal into it!!

 

[hahn_rossman]

+1 for good tires. I go snowboarding more than I probably should and I drive up in 2wd. I rarely use the 4wd, usually to get someone else out of a ditch. It's easy to lock the hubs before you go, and our transfer cases are sfift on the fly if you find you need it. But ther smart money is in real snowtires.

 

[hugeredford]

locked rear end in my opinion is kind of dangerous on the ice. my red truck has a locked rear and it will put you in the ditch very easily but once i put it in 4x4 no ditch stops it.