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couple snow wheelin' questions

10K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  lineofsight 
#1 ·
here's my sitch . . . i drive a bone stock '98 four door tracker , mounted with studded 215 70 15 arctic claws on all four corners .

the last 250 meters of the road to my house also doubles as a ski out from the local hill , but it is an ongoing hobby of mine to continue to drive up it throughout the winter .

my questions are these : would playing around with tire pressures give any appreciable advantage , and if so , what do the board members recommend ?

second , i have a pair of wheels / tires mounted with a nice set of chains good and tight . . . mount them on the front or rear ?

thanks for any and all responses .
 
#2 ·
Dropping your tire pressure will help out with traction. Not sure how far you drive your vehicle every day, but it might be a pain in the butt to keep raising and lowering your pressure. Might wanna stick with an all round pressure. 20 or so PSI should do it. As for chains, ive only needed them once an I opted to put them on the front as I was doing a steep snowy icy climb (with KM2's). The truck behind me had Truxus M/T'a on and did not have to chain up.
 
#3 ·
Lowing the pressures helps greatly in the snow, I would try different pressures and see what works best.

Chains in deep snow tend to just dig and not offer a huge difference. If the snow is hard packed and slippery they may be of benefit.

I would think larger tires offering more flotation may be the best bet.

Edit: like bigass78 said I have not noticed a big difference with chains front or back in snow. I chose to run them on the back with my truxus MT's, when I did I kept the pressure in the rear tires high and the fronts I went down to 10psi to get some flotation and larger contact area.
 
#4 ·
hey thanks guys . . . i spend part of one of my days off chewing my way up there and then once i have a track in i'm good to go . later on in the season a snowcat usually makes a pass to smooth things out so if the surface gets firmed up the studs do the job .

'noob , i'm going to try your chains rear / low pressure front method for the grinding and then do bigass' suggestion of 20 psi front rear for the daily commute .
 
#5 ·
In the wetter heavier snow, watch out for the shudder/wheel hop. You'll know when it happens. It's possible to break joints/axles/transfer case.
 
#7 ·
as low as 15 eh , youngun ?

i'll try it .

and thanks for that tip jcole . it ain't life or death that i get up there , i do have a set of stairs ( 120 , steep lol ) .

it's more of a hobby . i push up as much as i feel the truck can reasonably take , then back down and run at it again . there's one 60 degree right hander on the steepest section that is the crux move .

i have the chains custom made to one pair of wheels 'cause i think it's a lot easier to change wheels than it is to f3ck with the chains .
 
#8 ·
Last night we went out in my buddies stock toyota and he couldn't keep up to my truck. We aired his 31x10.50 BFG all terrains down to 10psi in the front and 8 in the rear. Worked great for the trail, little be low from street driving but that truck is also heavier then your suzuki will be. Hard to say, every truck and every tire is different. I was at least go down to 18 and start there, easier to let more out then put it back in
 
#10 ·
stock psi is 23 psi. dropping to 15 psi isnt that much. heck my 235/75r15's on my 90 sidekick ran at 18 psi daily.
do not run chains on the front. the stock front axle housing isnt the strongest and chains will stress it. saying that, back when i had my 205/75r15s i did run vbar chains when out wheeling in a foot of snow had them on the front but went easy on it.

they run great in the snow even when i had street all seasons.
 
#11 ·
yer right mike , they do run pretty good even with all seasons on , but with the studs on 4 corners you can go alot farther .

i ran it at 16 psi and put the chains on the front and only got a few meters further than no chains . the big difference is you have way more confidence that you won't get stuck , and way more steering ability . the front goes where you point it on the way up , and better for backing down .

next time will be chains on the rear , 12 psi on the front . chains on the front seemed to chew up the surface you are trying to float over , making the rears almost useless .

good times . . . thanks guys
 
#12 ·
its amazing where this trucks can go. took a run up greyback yesterday cause i had nothing to do for a couple hours. mostly packed snow and ice , got past every other truck parked on the trail and got up to where it was rocky and washed out, came up around the corner to see another sidekick coming down running stock 205 snow tires. i atleast am running some 235 rubber and some lift.
reminded me of when i use to run the trails stock. even had the wifes coworker run into a stock one on a fairly tight and difficult trail.
 
#13 ·
i'm planning to put in that 2" suspension lift kit that i see over in the suzuki forum . i'm not prepared to get into any more trouble than that will get me . . . can't afford to break my DD .

things are firming up around here with the lack of new snow . should be able to make it home by this weekend . a bumper / winch would be nice for the last gasp bailout , but that's a whole other can o' worms .
 
#14 ·
mounted 'er up yesterday . . . chains on the rear , 15 psi up front . made it all the way to the top of the packed ski out part but then wound up high centered in the soft snow , slightly downhill section ( about 100 meters ) to the house itself .
there's a breakable crust on top of a layer of loose sugar all the way to ground . i could probably break up the high center crust with a shovel , but still wouldn't have any traction .

i got the wheel change routine down to about 10 minutes with a single floor jack lift , a flex bar and a star wrench .

still no snow in the forecast .
 
#16 · (Edited)
With reference to Sierra 2500HD, normal pressure is 50 frt, 70 rear - how low for snow. Tried 30 all around and not notice a lot of help.

Not enough clearance on front to run chains there (factory off road option and put on 265/70/17 Duratrac), any point to chains on the rear by themselves? Truck stands at 6'6" thus if add 2" lift then no more parkades...

Its been good in snow but when driving in tracks that were compressed into ice it was not nice.

Cheers.

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