ejay
TJ Addict
There are plenty of videos on YouTube of Jeeps plowing through deep snow without issue. And plenty more of them not doing well at all on 1" snow covered and ice covered roads. Chains help...I guess.
TJ sucks in the snow—are these tires not meant for the snow?
- Thread starter OHFIVETJ
- Start date
And experience, 4x4 does not mean everyone can just drive like it is dry. There has to be some s ow/ice experience and common sense. You might still start off decent but stopping and turns and such will definitely be impacted by the white stuff.
Although I have an LJ, I haven't had many issues at all when it comes to sliding around. I just got Goodyear Duratracs last month and am salivating at having to go to work at 8am tomorrow
I've had Duratracs on my XJ, TJ & LJ for the last 8 yrs or so and I always look forward to the snow.
Having grown up in New York I developed skills for driving in the snow. I have a respect for snow and ice; knowing that driving fast WILL get you into trouble. I remember watching people speeding past me and when coming up to a stop light; they slide thru the intersection into oncoming traffic.
Common sense and experience will get you a long way in the snow along with a set of snow rated tires (SNOW FLAKE emblem) such as Blizzaks, GY Duratracs and Firestone Destination and Winterforce .
The TJ in 4x4 with a limited slip traction device and a good set of tires will do well in the snow with good driving skills (experience) and common sense.
Common sense and experience will get you a long way in the snow along with a set of snow rated tires (SNOW FLAKE emblem) such as Blizzaks, GY Duratracs and Firestone Destination and Winterforce .
The TJ in 4x4 with a limited slip traction device and a good set of tires will do well in the snow with good driving skills (experience) and common sense.
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I will chime in here. Had an AWD Infiniti before being bit by the Corvette bug earlier this year. Infiniti AWD + Blizzak snow tires are a recipe for really getting comfortable in the slick stuff.
Now that the Corvette is up for the winter and Heep is my daily, it is certainly a wakeup call. Yesterday in my AO there were a few slick spots and when I came to them I just drove with my right side off the road a bit to help keep traction if needed.
Now that the Corvette is up for the winter and Heep is my daily, it is certainly a wakeup call. Yesterday in my AO there were a few slick spots and when I came to them I just drove with my right side off the road a bit to help keep traction if needed.
I had to drive last night for 3 hours with 1" of ice on back roads and lots of trees down. Good luck with you Subaru lovers trying to get over a downed tree...... or a beer can without scraping.
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Some tips:
Keep it in 2WD unless you notice the rear tires are slipping. Since the TJ has 4WD and not AWD, any time the car turns in 4WD, the front tires will slip relative to the rear tires, resulting in brief losses of traction. You can shift from 2WD to 4Hi and back at any speed as long as you are going in a straight line and the wheels are not currently slipping. In changing conditions, I will constantly be switching in and out of 4Hi.
In ice and slick surfaces, consider tire chains. Tire chains give impressive traction in all directions, more so than studded or winter tires.
Always put the tire chains on the rear axle if you are only doing one axle. Putting them on the front and not the rear can change the stability from an understeered setup to an oversteered setup, meaning in a loss of control you would spin out instead of just sliding and being able to correct it. Tire chains on all four tires will provide the best overall performance.
Turn the stereo off so you can hear what the tires are doing. You are your traction control system. If you can hear a tire slipping, you will know to let off on the gas. You can often get audible cues that a tire is about to slip as well.
If you drive a stick, keep your RPMs lower than normal in shallow snow and ice. This reduces the available torque and reduces the odds of applying too much torque and breaking traction. In deep snow you may need to rev higher for power.
Keep it in 2WD unless you notice the rear tires are slipping. Since the TJ has 4WD and not AWD, any time the car turns in 4WD, the front tires will slip relative to the rear tires, resulting in brief losses of traction. You can shift from 2WD to 4Hi and back at any speed as long as you are going in a straight line and the wheels are not currently slipping. In changing conditions, I will constantly be switching in and out of 4Hi.
In ice and slick surfaces, consider tire chains. Tire chains give impressive traction in all directions, more so than studded or winter tires.
Always put the tire chains on the rear axle if you are only doing one axle. Putting them on the front and not the rear can change the stability from an understeered setup to an oversteered setup, meaning in a loss of control you would spin out instead of just sliding and being able to correct it. Tire chains on all four tires will provide the best overall performance.
Turn the stereo off so you can hear what the tires are doing. You are your traction control system. If you can hear a tire slipping, you will know to let off on the gas. You can often get audible cues that a tire is about to slip as well.
If you drive a stick, keep your RPMs lower than normal in shallow snow and ice. This reduces the available torque and reduces the odds of applying too much torque and breaking traction. In deep snow you may need to rev higher for power.
I agree. When the weather gets nasty, it's not just the slick stuff that you have to deal with, it can be sooo many more things!
On of the biggest issues is weight bias. The TJ is a rear wheel drive vehicle with the ability to power the front axle also. This combined with a weight bias well to the front makes it harder in snow than a front wheel drive or a front wheel drive that can also power the rear axle.
And then the tires. For ON-road driving in winter conditions a mud style tire is terrible. Small tread blocks with a lot of siping is what is needed.
Almost all A/T tires have shifted away from their initial design. Folks want them to function more like a M/T and look like them too. A tire made extra rugged to prevent chipping uses the wrong type of rubber to be effective on poor road conditions. This has been the reason I have championed the Cooper AT3 tires. They are designed primarily for on-road conditions like this. There certainly are others, but even Consumer Reports gushed about them when they came out a decade or so ago.
In the other hand.....
I've got 3 feet of snow outside my house and it is still snowing hard and blowing around and setting up like cement. Nothing short of chains (or an agricultural tire) will do well in this mess.
The more weight you can put on the rear axle the better you will be in crappy weather. Even heavy rain and flooding.
But this is (near me) heavy greasy snow, and no car or truck will be making this storm look easy. Good luck all. We'll all need it for the next day or so.
And then the tires. For ON-road driving in winter conditions a mud style tire is terrible. Small tread blocks with a lot of siping is what is needed.
Almost all A/T tires have shifted away from their initial design. Folks want them to function more like a M/T and look like them too. A tire made extra rugged to prevent chipping uses the wrong type of rubber to be effective on poor road conditions. This has been the reason I have championed the Cooper AT3 tires. They are designed primarily for on-road conditions like this. There certainly are others, but even Consumer Reports gushed about them when they came out a decade or so ago.
In the other hand.....
I've got 3 feet of snow outside my house and it is still snowing hard and blowing around and setting up like cement. Nothing short of chains (or an agricultural tire) will do well in this mess.
The more weight you can put on the rear axle the better you will be in crappy weather. Even heavy rain and flooding.
But this is (near me) heavy greasy snow, and no car or truck will be making this storm look easy. Good luck all. We'll all need it for the next day or so.
Vtx531
TJ Addict
Too funny watching people get all defensive when someone says that a Jeep TJ sucks for driving on snowy/icy roads.
It’s true though. They really have everything going against them in this department. Don’t take it personally but it is what it is.
It’s true though. They really have everything going against them in this department. Don’t take it personally but it is what it is.
Yeah.... that Nor' Easter looks like a nasty storm....
I remember those days and don't really miss them.
I keep in touch with my HS friend about his conditions on LI (Suffolk County).
Good luck and stay safe...
Vtx531
TJ Addict
My subaru's had the same ground clearance as a stock TJ...
And 2in of lift actually gave 2in more clearance, unlike a solid axle vehicle.
All this snow reminds me of the last time I drove a Jeep back in the east coast during a Nor'easter - it was a few days before tax day of 2005. It was a Wednesday - I remember that because it was also $0.25 Wing Night at the Bear Ass Bar in the next town over and we never missed wing night
A fresh 14" of wet snow made for some fun recoveries (I was the person everyone called to snatch them out of a ditch - including a few professors!). I went to college at Mansfield University, in north-central PA - which is a state school where you can literally walk or drive to school uphill both ways. It was treacherous driving around town and even worse on campus. I got to the point where the school cops would let me park in front of their building since they learned that I used to help people stuck at night or when the tow trucks were too busy to help.
Here's a shot of the (In)Famous "Cardiac Hill" - the dorms are at the bottom (including the one I stayed in for a year) and the parking lots are ~1/2 mile behind where this photo was taken. This hill is insane - to the point where you can't even sled down it otherwise you'll end up crashing into a guardrail or missing the guardrail entirely and then taking a tumble down 2 sets of concrete steps.
I ran M/T's for my entire life of living and driving in NEPA. It takes some practice and skill but speed was (and remains) the biggest issue for people. The best advice:
Slow. The F*$%. Down.
That said, now that I'm on the southwestern side of the country, I enjoy my wife's AWD cars and ridiculously sipped snow tires. I honestly didn't even realize our Outback had stability control until we almost got stuck with it. In this instance, we broke through the 7" of fresh powder, we hit 2" of mud below it). You can see the muddy tracks below - nothing a bit of wheel speed (and turning off traction control!) couldn't get us out of
The low COG, wheelbase, width and smooth AWD makes even mediocre drivers into snow-drifting rally driving kings!
A fresh 14" of wet snow made for some fun recoveries (I was the person everyone called to snatch them out of a ditch - including a few professors!). I went to college at Mansfield University, in north-central PA - which is a state school where you can literally walk or drive to school uphill both ways. It was treacherous driving around town and even worse on campus. I got to the point where the school cops would let me park in front of their building since they learned that I used to help people stuck at night or when the tow trucks were too busy to help.
Here's a shot of the (In)Famous "Cardiac Hill" - the dorms are at the bottom (including the one I stayed in for a year) and the parking lots are ~1/2 mile behind where this photo was taken. This hill is insane - to the point where you can't even sled down it otherwise you'll end up crashing into a guardrail or missing the guardrail entirely and then taking a tumble down 2 sets of concrete steps.
I ran M/T's for my entire life of living and driving in NEPA. It takes some practice and skill but speed was (and remains) the biggest issue for people. The best advice:
Slow. The F*$%. Down.
That said, now that I'm on the southwestern side of the country, I enjoy my wife's AWD cars and ridiculously sipped snow tires. I honestly didn't even realize our Outback had stability control until we almost got stuck with it. In this instance, we broke through the 7" of fresh powder, we hit 2" of mud below it). You can see the muddy tracks below - nothing a bit of wheel speed (and turning off traction control!) couldn't get us out of
The low COG, wheelbase, width and smooth AWD makes even mediocre drivers into snow-drifting rally driving kings!
TJs are like the duct tape of motor vehicles. They are not great at anything, but adequate at a whole lot of things.
Think about it:
Street driving - It can, but a crossover is better
Freeway driving - It can, but a Mustang is better
Snow driving - It can, but an AWD is better
Desert road racing - It can, but a Raptor is better
Forest trail racing - It can, but a Polaris Rzr is better
Rock crawling - It can, but a custom buggy is better
Hauling gear - It can, but a pickup truck is better
Hauling family - It can, but a minivan is better
City parking - It can, but a Fiesta is better
Mud bogging - It can, but a monster truck is better
Topless driving - It can, but a convertible is better
Collision or rollover survival - It can, but a modern SUV is better
Pulling a trailer - It can, but a pickup truck is better
Looking cool - It can, but a YJ is better
Pulling stumps - It can, but a tractor is better
But name another vehicle that can do all of that adequately. And that’s the beauty of a TJ.
Think about it:
Street driving - It can, but a crossover is better
Freeway driving - It can, but a Mustang is better
Snow driving - It can, but an AWD is better
Desert road racing - It can, but a Raptor is better
Forest trail racing - It can, but a Polaris Rzr is better
Rock crawling - It can, but a custom buggy is better
Hauling gear - It can, but a pickup truck is better
Hauling family - It can, but a minivan is better
City parking - It can, but a Fiesta is better
Mud bogging - It can, but a monster truck is better
Topless driving - It can, but a convertible is better
Collision or rollover survival - It can, but a modern SUV is better
Pulling a trailer - It can, but a pickup truck is better
Looking cool - It can, but a YJ is better
Pulling stumps - It can, but a tractor is better
But name another vehicle that can do all of that adequately. And that’s the beauty of a TJ.
My Outback had ~9" of ground clearance and frequently passed stuck Jeeps, SUVs and pickup trucks on back roads in Northern Arizona...My subaru's had the same ground clearance as a stock TJ...
And 2in of lift actually gave 2in more clearance, unlike a solid axle vehicle.
This was taken at the Elk Ridge Ski Lodge in Williams, AZ - the parking lot was plowed but you can the snow build up in the background. I think by the time we got here, there was ~9-10" since I dragging the rear diff in the snow (as evidenced by the snow tracks behind us).
We were one of only a handful of people to make it there (the ski mountain never opened but the sledding was awesome!). We stayed until they closed the place down, after a few more inches of snow had fallen - to which my angels couldn't resist making some snow angles before we stripped out of our ski clothes
A modestly built pop-top RamCharger (my personal choice), K5 or Bronco
Until the TJ came around (and these died out!) these were the "King of Things" (meaning they could do anything). Honestly, if the Big Three had continued to make 2-door full-sized SUV's like these, I don't think the TJ would have grown in popularity as much as they did between the YJ and TJ.
These rigs had ~106" of wheelbase, were about as wide as a modern JK/JL, were comfy despite being on leaf springs, could haul all sorts of gear, had ample power and torque, but were still small/civil enough to drive around town or on tighter trails.
A modestly built pop-top RamCharger (my personal choice), K5 or Bronco
Until the TJ came around (and these died out!) these were the "King of Things" (meaning they could do anything). Honestly, if the Big Three had continued to make 2-door full-sized SUV's like these, I don't think the TJ would have grown in popularity as much as they did between the YJ and TJ.
View attachment 211290
These rigs had ~106" of wheelbase, were about as wide as a modern JK/JL, were comfy despite being on leaf springs, could haul all sorts of gear, had ample power and torque, but were still small/civil enough to drive around town or on tighter trails.
Nice Ramcharger.....
Fun obstacle.
I have done that obstacle numerous times in my XJ.