Jeep Sliding in Snow

AWD, 4WD, 2WD, RWD, FWD none of that really matters when we're talking about skidding while coming to a stop, and that was the OPs biggest concern...

ANY vehicle with no ABS is going to skid while coming a stop on a slippery surface. There is some braking techniques that help prevent it; engine braking helps (especially manual trans), good tires with low psi will help, chains will help... At the end of the day we're talking about friction ecoefficiency of the tires on the road surface. You can not stop any faster than that value. Period. Big break kit? Doesn't matter if your tires are skidding along the road surface. Wider tires could help. Studded tires could help. But that is all extreme stuff.

So, learning to brake gently at first then continually adding braking pressure until you come a stop and if the tires lock up, start over. Release the pedal and try again. This is known as "pumping the brakes". This is how ABS works, except it pulses the brakes for you many many many times per second.

If your front tires lock up and you hold the brake pedal down, you now have skis on the front of the vehicle. Good luck stopping or steering, you're now along for the ride.

I have driven manual front wheel drive vehicles in the worst possible snow and ice conditions. Some vehicles had ABS and some did not. Many feet of snow, in low to now visibility on highways, parking lots, surface streets, whatever. I probably shouldn't have, but I've done it. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment as the saying goes.

Never got stuck. Once you have basic techniques, the other tech (AWD, 4x4, ABS, trac control etc) are just extra tools that make driving in those conditions easier.

As an aside, the hands down worse vehicle EVER in the snow is an empty cargo van. They're RWD, front engine with an open diff, no weight on the rear axle and no trac control. Rear tires just spin if there is snow in the forecast and the front might as well be skis.
 
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I drove from Amherst to Sandusky this morning at 6 AM, I work at NASA's ATF if you know where that is. Long trek that's pretty much against where the lake effect snow hits. I'll be honest with you here, I struggled on my way in to work this morning in a FWD 6 speed Jetta. The roads were really rough because the snow hit like a brick, rough enough I'd say even a 4wd Jeep was gonna have a fun time staying straight. If you have poor alignment and loose steering components, fighting the loss of traction and soft snow is gonna be tougher than with a tighter front end. Time to get the pickle fork out.

This may also come as a surprise to you because it sort of did to me when I had a TJ, but you don't have ABS. At least the odd's are fairly straight that you don't. So it's back to the good ol' 1980's for you. Gently pulse the brake pedal if you're sliding coming to a stop. It's not ABS, but it will help.

Your right I do not have ABS, thanks for the pulsation tip. And the alignment is my first big fix ill be doing so I hope it helps out too!
 
On a good day, the only part of your vehicle that touches the ground are the tires, so if you want traction, use the correct tires for the surface. Snow tires are typically narrower (better to get pressure to the ground) and have tread that is optimized for gripping on ice and snow and working in sub 40° weather. Mud tires are different, as are summer tires, etc.

Good grip starts with tires - all the fancy awd systems can only take advantage of what the tires provide.

PS - just because the tires have tread, doesn't mean they're effective - when its cold, rubber gets hard and slick.
 
Growing up in the desert I don't have much experience in the snow but have used chains and slow driving successfully in the mountains. My FJ40 with 4 chains was amazing in the snow even in my inexperienced hands. Of course I always went slow, more out of fear than experience.

The one thing I am curious about is air pressure. On one hand I've always heard you want a skinny tire to push through the snow and find the road surface but on the other hand I see people airing down in the snow which seems the opposite of trying to push through to the road surface and instead trying to stay afloat like you would want to do in sand. Is it just that with wide tires you can't push through easily anyway? Would you still air down with pizza cutters?
 
I drove for 6 hours in 3' of snow, for my old job. My coworker had a brand new AWD Subaru and said it would put my Jeep to shame. Note to Subaru owners, " You don't have the ground clearance to drive in deep, frozen snow." He tore the front bumper cover off and busted his radiator on a tiny tree branch. I drove over a fallen tree that blocked the road. I just laughed at him when he called me to pick him up.
 
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I drove for 6 hours in 3' of snow, for my old job. My coworker had a brand new AWD Subaru and said it would put my Jeep to shame. Note to Subaru owners, " You don't have the ground clearance to drive in deep, frozen snow." He tore the front bumper cover off and busted his radiator on a tiny tree branch. I drove over a fallen tree that blocked the road. I just laughed at him when he called me to pick him up.

I have the same feeling. Subarus are great, my wife had one. But, I've driven my Jeep all over in snow with 33x12.5 BFG All terrains. This thing is great in snow. Maybe I'm just used to it? My only complaint is backing up and putting on brakes and sliding back further than expected. :)
 
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My wife had a 2015 Subaru Outback up till about 8 months ago, and when its moving it did great in the snow. The problem is that if you need to gain any speed on slippery ground, the electronics with go haywire and apply the brakes on any spinning wheel. When you cannot avoid some initial wheel spin to get moving you are screwed, the thing will not move. it will rev and rev and rev and simply not move. My driveway geos up hill from my garage and pretty much every time it snowed, the Subaru would not make it, my 2019 Ram with a much less (or non-existent) stability system goes up fine after some initial wheel spin.

My opinion on TJ's in the snow is if you remove the tire from the equation, since wide mud tires and wider tires in general in most cases are not good in snow (unless offroad) is that they are just as capable of getting through snow as good or better than most other vehicles, just not in a very safe or controlled manner. *FYI, totaled my first TJ in the snow...
 
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I'm the lucky new owner of a 2000 Jeep TJ. Having never owned a Wrangler before I had always seen them as the offroad/winter king of the road. We just got a big storm here in NE Ohio, and while getting on the road I felt my self sliding while braking a lot... more than I figured I would. I was not going very fast and and not a hard breaker by any means. Having owned a 2001 Jeep Grand C in the past I was surprised by the difference in handling. My question for you all are do I just need to get better at handling the TJ or is there anything I can do to make this ride have better traction in the winter?

I'm new to automotive work and am learning a lot by replacing parts to this car, as I am making these repairs I figured if there is anything I could do to get better traction I should while I have some time and money to put into it.

2000 Jeep Wrangler
4.0 L 6L engine

I took it to a machinic just for a visual inspection and got the below notes:
- Tires are 31X10.50R15LT Goodyear Wranglers with some good tread still on them.
- Upper and lower Ball joints are in poor shape both sides. I will be replacing these next week - could this be an issue?
- Will need toe bar and draglink assembly
- Needs alignment

TJ's are a short wheelbase vehicle. They are fairly poor on icy snowy roads, but do well in deeper snow offroad. The best thing you can do is get a traction system like LSD and run a good snow rated AT and or studded tire for onroad snow/ice conditions.
 
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the current gen outback and forester have 8.7 inches of ground clearance, stock TJ spec is 7.9. i would take a modern outback or forester any day of the week if driving ON THE ROAD in a snowstorm or icy conditions. once you get off road and/or chain up, different story.
 
My wife had a 2015 Subaru Outback up till about 8 months ago, and when its moving it did great in the snow. The problem is that if you need to gain any speed on slippery ground, the electronics with go haywire and apply the brakes on any spinning wheel. When you cannot avoid some initial wheel spin to get moving you are screwed, the thing will not move. it will rev and rev and rev and simply not move. My driveway geos up hill from my garage and pretty much every time it snowed, the Subaru would not make it, my 2019 Ram with a much less (or non-existent) stability system goes up fine after some initial wheel spin.


Can’t you disable the traction control on a Suby?
 
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Thanks everyone for the advice here. I'm going to lower my tire pressure slightly and find a empty parking lot to learn how to drive this vehicle.

I'll add light weight to the short wheelbase observations.
You could try adding some ballast to the rear to aid in traction/braking.

Legit snow tires are miracle workers, too.

Way Subaru GIF
 
Growing up in the desert I don't have much experience in the snow but have used chains and slow driving successfully in the mountains. My FJ40 with 4 chains was amazing in the snow even in my inexperienced hands. Of course I always went slow, more out of fear than experience.

The one thing I am curious about is air pressure. On one hand I've always heard you want a skinny tire to push through the snow and find the road surface but on the other hand I see people airing down in the snow which seems the opposite of trying to push through to the road surface and instead trying to stay afloat like you would want to do in sand. Is it just that with wide tires you can't push through easily anyway? Would you still air down with pizza cutters?

Narrow tires cut, wide tires float is what everyone says, but a lot of people aren't running dedicated winter tires, just snow rated all terrains/all seasons. For those they benefit by dropping a little psi regardless of tire width etc.
the current gen outback and forester have 8.7 inches of ground clearance, stock TJ spec is 7.9. i would take a modern outback or forester any day of the week if driving ON THE ROAD in a snowstorm or icy conditions. once you get off road and/or chain up, different story.

One of the reasons a Subaru does better for highway/commuting type driving in the snow is because it has the boxer engine. That allows it to have extra ground clearance while maintaining a lower center of gravity which is more important. But once you reach that 9 inch or whatever point I would rather have the TJ anyways.
 
Yeah, do you want to drive through snow, or on snow? Typically you're on a road and want to go through it to get to pavement, but if you're over-landing, you don't want to sink.

Cars like Subarus have computers that power-manage the AWD, so they are constantly redirecting power and managing slip. TJs with 4wd just hammer through. ;)
 
Cars like Subarus have computers that power-manage the AWD, so they are constantly redirecting power and managing slip. TJs with 4wd just hammer through. ;)

Highways are rarely solid snow (where I live). Once they get plowed and/or driven on, you end up with dry patches.
Since you shouldn't leave your Jeep in 4WD in those conditions, my AWD WJ works much better.
 
- Tires are 31X10.50R15LT Goodyear Wranglers with some good tread still on them.
Goodyear Wrangler what? Trailrunner, Authority, AT/S, Duratrac, etc. The Duratracs are 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake rated for snow although they arent as good as a dedicated snow and ice tire like the Blizzak orX-Ice. I have run them on my daily driver truck for years

As far as the random letting air out of your tires that is poor advice. Reducing air pressure work really well in deep snow but on compact snow and ice you want a good street pressure for higher contact patch pressure. Depending on your tires you might find that 25 psi or so is a good number. What pressure are you running?
 
Most of the tires on our TJs are Flotation Tires. They’re meant to float and do not cut down to the road surface. Narrow tires or snow chains are what’s needed. Subarus do not have 10” wide tires. As said before 4 wheel drive helps you Go with limited braking improvement. I have no issues with my TJ manual in the local mountain snow but not so much on ice packed roads. I do have chains for all 4 corners when needed. Mainly because CHP requires me to at least have them in the vehicle in certain road conditions. The deeper the snow the better. The biggest problem for me are the California Flat Landers who can’t drive in the rain much less in the snow.
 
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Can’t you disable the traction control on a Suby?

It had a button to disable traction control, but I think stability control was posibbly causing the problem. It also has this "X-Mode" which is supposed to mimic 4-lo but that didnt allow any wheel spin either. Nothing I tried would allow it to spin