I don't think my jeep has been out of 4H for about 2 weeks other than when I am trying to slide around lol. 4H does not make you invincible but it does make your vehicle more responsive when you do start to slide. I drive on bad roads (solid snow/ice) for a good part of the year... Give yourself space on the road, take longer to merge lanes etc., go slow enough that you could stop if needed and you'll be fine. I see multiple bad wrecks every year and it is usually due to people going way too fast.

I just drove 300 miles and back for Xmas over some nasty mountain passes and probably saw 30 cars off in the ditch in one way or another. Just go slow/pay attention and you'll be fine! Oh yea... mud tires are terrible! Get some good winter treads- makes a big difference

 

Ianf406 Quote; Oh yea... mud tires are terrible! Get some good winter treads- makes a big difference __________________
This is a huge reason my XJ sits when the roads are icy! The KM2's that are on it are useless on ice. My next set of tires are going to be Pro-Comps 33x12.50R15LT, Radial Xtreme A/T. I plan on buying 6 of them and studding two, I figure that would be great for winter driving and also preform pretty good off road. I went up to try snow wheeling last Sat. After a while of trying to break trail, we threw on at set of chains. I can't believe the difference chains make. (really the snow was to deep and impassable but we where able to do better with the chains on) I thinks once I do buy my Pro-Comps I will get a good set of chains and swap the studded tires to the front and throw the chain on the back when we go snow wheeling.

 

Durratracs are great in most offroad applications, amazing on snow and ice and last forever! My dad has been running a set on his JK for 70,000 miles- just got to wear marks. (missing a few chunks from rocks etc) My last set lasted about 50,000.... Airing down and all. I will be getting another set now that these tread wrights are finally dying haha. Out of all the tires Ive had, they are by far my favorite. Only thing they don't do well is thick/deep gumbo like mud.

 

That's what I've heard about them. Due to all the snow we usually get here, those may be my next tire...so expensive though

 

My M&S tires do excellent on ice and snow.......my winter tires are all studded and are the only thing that works at all on ice and even then not that great.

One of the best cars I ever owned for ice was a Cadillac FWD with a North Star engine and vg in snow if not real deep. My Lincoln Town Car RWD is a pig on ice and snow and has to have studded tires also all seasons.

 

Sloppy steering + bump steer + icy roads = skid marks in your pants...

 

Death wobble is even more fun

 

Try a welded rear end on an icy interstate. Peep's post on page one about the home siped mud tires was probably referring to me lol, I've gotten through three winters with no problems with ice or snow on these two sets of Swampers (first pic is my current 33x12.50 SSRs, second is my old 31x10.50 TSL Bias)

 

We've got Kumho (LOL!) LT235/75R15 on our Suburban and that thing goes like crazy in the snow. Of course it is so heavy that it's like a half-track to begin with, even with half bald tires.

Nothing wrong with staying in 4-hi if the road is 90+% snow covered, but I never could grok the idea of "full time" 4wd.

 

I want to haz these.

 

It's just four wheel drive with an open diff between the front and back. Just like an axle needs a diff when turning on a grippy surface, your tc needs to vary the torque between the front and back axles because they take different paths during a turn.
On mud, gravel, snow etc you can weld both axles and the tc if you want, but it would suck on the road.

 

Yes, I know what it is - I just don't understand the purpose.

So if one wheel (front or back) spins then you need to put it in "4-lock" just like if you were in 2-hi you would shift to 4-hi. Why not just use 2-hi until you need 4wd ???

 

I see what you are thinking but it isn't that feeble in practice. Remember your torque is being split four ways so you don't need as much traction per wheel to put all the power down.

An lsd or two also helps!

 

You don't need snow tires in Texas. Unless they're bald, the tires you have will do just fine, if you just use some common sense and don't drive it like you stole it. In the land of snow and ice, people run all seasons all winter and do fine. Don't get me wrong. Snow tires are great if you live somewhere that actually experiences winter, but someplace where you'd only need them for 3 days at a time ever 5 years, I wouldn't bother. By the time you got them swapped on, you wouldn't need them anymore.

 

I love my duratracs in snow. Never had a tire grip as good in it. Just don't take them in mud. They are terrible. Had a set of regular street tires on a crew cab s10 and the tires on my s10 gripped better in mud