Actualy he is wrong, unless you have the full time 4x4. In 4 wheel drive you cant feel the road like you can in 2. Take it from the guy who lives in Northern Canada, Once through to your third gear you should take it out of 4wheel. It should be used as needed to gain momentum. If 4x4 truly handled the best on snow and ice, dont you think police cars here would be AWD? Why are all the rides here in the ditch the guys who think like you guys, put it in 4wheel and drive like its summer. Remember just cuz you can get going faster doesnt mean you should go faster and 4x4 wont help you stop, or stay on the road.

 

same here...I live in North Carolina out by the beach. It does snow sometimes any time more than 1/8th inch starts sticking its like the world is coming to an end....roads closed, schools closed, everything just shuts down.

Its pretty funny. and...no one knows how to drive in the stuff, so you see all the morons in huge jacked up 4x4's just speeding down the highway thinking that just because they have big fat tires and 4wd ice has no effect on them.

 

Same here except it has to be more than 1/2 inch. the best part about the guys in jacked up trucks is they have mud tires which are the worst for snow driving

 

I have to disagree with you disagreeing with the other guy, police cars and most newer cars have awd because all of those newer cars want to have better fuel efficency. all wheel drive is a computer that manages and calculates the the spin and traction of every tire and sends the power to the most effecient tires to maintain control. they do pretty well but they dont drive 4x4 mostly 2-3.
A 4X4 rig like a jeep has all the tires engaged and is way better in the snow. thats why most police stations have 4X4 rigs aswell. I agree with the momentum thing but there is no reason to take it out of 4X4. youre more likely to spin out on a corner if you are in 2 rear wheel drive and come around. if you have your 2 front tires engaged it will help pull you through the corner
and awd's get stuck and 4X4's alot less. its true that you cant feel the road as much but I have always been fine in 4x4 with what I can feel. just go out on the road and put it in 4 wheel and go 15 and slam on the brakes on ice, way more control than 2.

I used to live in alaska, and washington, and oregon

 

I disagree with you disagreeing with me disagrreing with that guy who agrees, respectfully, its all opinion

 

This was a good thread. Lots of good info. Thanks everyone!

Just dont drive like a fool and you will be good.

 

hahahahahahahahahahaha

this thread should be called the great disagreement of 2009

 

I actually agree that you can feel the road better in 2WD but disagree about taking it out of 4WD once up to speed- mostly because I would forget to put it back in 4WD until after I started slipping when I needed it again. :-)

I put it in 4WD whenever conditions are slick and leave it there until the roads are cleared. I live out in the country so that usually take a couple days if we get a good snow. If I go on the expressway or anyplace that is clear I will take it out of 4WD, but not when doing local roads where one may be clear for a while- then you hit a huge drift in the road out of nowhere.

Cheers and do stay safe out there!

~K

 

things to remember ... snow or no snow

Common sense is not so common

If you can't pay anything else PAY ATTENTION

all of my close calls have been because of other people driving like morons

 

Good job riverrat see what u started! Lol

 

to add, good tires help alot!!

my bfgs last winter werent the best and they were new! ran em at 33psi and pretty much had to be in 4wd to get going..my 235 pathfinders the year before were even worse. im running my 34" TrXus m/ts with 30psi right now and i can be in 2wd all the time and feel safe! if it is all snow on the road ill stay in 4hi but otherwise its drives great! im extremely impressed with these tires

 

well by me there are tons of stop signs, 90* turns, stop lights. i sure as hell am not gonna be shifting between 4wd and 2wd all the time.

 

I can understand that

 

So what is it about the mud tires that would make them bad? i realize this may be a dumb question. But looking at my baja claws i would think they would get good traction. In Portland we don't get much snow. And i don't plan on visiting our emt friend on hwy 26 up there. But could someone enlighten me about the claws on snow?

 

The lack of siping and typical hard rubber compounds used in mud terrain tires. If you sipe them wet/snow/ice performance supposedly goes from complete crap to actually decent