The night I should have stopped... probably

One of the first "oh shit" adventures I had in my somewhat-new 05 Sport was in March of 2007. I was leaving work and had to drive up 476 to the Pocono exit (current exit #95). It had started to snow when I left and by the time I made it through the Lehigh Tunnel PennDOT had closed 476 to include exiting *off* at my normal exit because the snow was now a full-on ice storm. I then had to drive another 10 miles to the next exit, which thankfully wasn't closed, and then drive back down route 309. To say I was a bit concerned (LED headlights weren't a thing) at that point is an understatement. The ice covering didn't help either.

Needless to say, I made it with no issue. I took some pics when I got into the garage. Enjoy!


The pic does nothing to convey how bad the ice build-up was. The defroster was doing nothing to combat it effectively. At the top of the riverside, the curved piece of ice is where the windshield wiper was passing underneath. I popped the passenger side wiper up myself - that wasn't due to the weather!


I had the fogs on, but even the heat from the bulb did little to melt the ice.

My wintertime daily driver is a 2010 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road, all the bells and whistles. With traction control and a limited slip rear, there have been many times 4WD was never engaged where any of my TJs would have required it. My 05 would be my top pick as it had the limited slip rear, but if you throw the Tacoma into the mix, it wins.

Another 05 story - about 7 or 8 years ago there was an early fall snow storm that came in just as the sun was setting. In this nick of PA, October is a very weird month for weather, it isn't uncommon to have a 2' snowfall at my house and a mere dusting just 1 mile away with only a 300' drop in elevation. Anyway, by the time I left work (~20 miles away) it was pitch black out and snowing lightly, nothing major or even minor for that matter.

Well, my current job is about 1000' lower in elevation. It was late October. The weather had gotten weird.

I was less than 2 miles from home making my way up the side of the mountain (small hill to those in Colorado and the like) using a side road and suddenly I was slowing down and then sliding backwards ever so slightly even though I most assuredly was attempting to go forward by all normal means. I stopped the vehicle when the engine raced and I heard the wheels spinning. Further attempts to go forward again using normal means didn't pan out. I was stuck. Or so I thought. I dropped into 1st (my 05 was an auto) ran 4WD and went absolutely nowhere as the tires (all 4 had over 80,000 miles on them) just spun and the engine soared. I contemplated just backing down the road and taking the main roads the rest of the way home, but visibility was a huge issue - no street lights, snow, shitty backup lights, the possibility of meeting a plow/salt truck, etc.. Given that, at the time, I was unaware that the ice extended the entire road length I decided to try 4Lo at speedometer-not-registering-movement speeds. It worked, but took me a few times of dropping back into 4Hi and getting "stuck" again before I just accepted that the next mile or so would take a long time to traverse. I came to find out that earlier in the day it had drizzled and then there was a snap freeze before it changed to snow. I was basically driving on a snow covered ice-skating rink.

As far as the mileage on the tires - yes, over 80,000 miles. During this little adventure I was kicking myself for running the tires that long, but ice joined with a steep-ish road was the culprit and not worn-out tires. I made it through the rest of the winter and one hell of an awesome blizzard on those tires with no issues. It wasn't until they hit 88,000 miles that following April that I was told they were at the bare minimum to pass state inspection. I replaced them. I would have used Wrangler GSAs, but they were discontinued for 30x9.50R15 at that time. The next set of tires only made it 47,000 miles before they were done.