holy crap i love 4 wheel drive

so i've been driving for 15.5 years now. all but one winter i have driven an RWD with or without snows, the other was a FWD with all seasons.

this year i have a blazer with non stupid pushbutton real lever on the floor for the transfercase 4 wheel drive. we finally got some snow yesterday, the roads had a few inches on them this morning on my drive to work. i left it in 2wd and had a hard time going. i put it in 4wd and could pretty much put my foot down and just go. i have never experienced this before and thought i would share. i understand that having 4 wheel drive only helps me go and does not help me stop or turn so i did not change any of my winter driving habits. i still drifted around parking lots and got sideways as much as possible with a big smile on my face when no cars were around.

the firebird 16's actually look good, they took a few days to grow on me but the fact that i sold the factory rims and junk tires for $100 and put on wheels and tires i already had is the definition of grassroots. my spare tire carrier was $10 at pull a part. my push bar was $30 about 13 years ago at summit racing on clearance and has been on 4 previous vehicles, and i had the harbor freight 3000# winch on the shelf because i had to buy it when the superwinch on my car trailer was down for repair.

working 4x4 that can fit a baby seat in the back for under $900 that is not a typical cleveland rotbox is a winner in my book.

i apologize for my second pic, nobody should have to admit that their rust free southern body LSx swapped impala SS is sitting out in the snow instead of in the garage, but my garage is a mess right now.

Yes 4WD is great. I've had to use it many times in the snow, mud, and freezing rain. Good tires are a must.

I am hoping for some deep snow this year so I can go mess around in the other part of my undeveloped subdivision.

I was trying to figure out what they were. For some reason, F-body rims ALWAYS end up on S-10's and Blazers. They work though, so awesome.

Nearly all of the S-10 Blazers I see here in NE Ohio creak and groan as they drive by. I can always hear one coming, and they are all usually silver or white.

Yours, I like.

edit: Also, don't feel too bad about leaving the Impala out, I am driving my Caprice Estate to Kent tomorrow. I wouldn't drive it but I need it to haul all of my stuff. I plan to wash it as soon as I get back, and then promptly put it away.

don't try to see how far you can push it in 2wd knowing that 4wd will be there to bail you out. Often when you get stuck in 2wd you'll find you're still stuck when you go to 4wd. DAMHIK. When the going gets tough put it in 4wd and leave it there.

Same thing for selectable lockers. If you think you might need em then lock em. Don't wait till forward motion is lost

Just an hr away from you I got no snow Monday and woke to the slightest little dusting this morning.

jrw1621 wrote: Just an hr away from you I got no snow Monday and woke to the slightest little dusting this morning.

i'm on the other side of the dip in the lake though... lake effect gets us and doesnt touch sandusky. i'm just glad i am in the secondary snow belt and not the primary one. my sister lives a block south of the lake up by euclid and she gets pounded with snow.

Did 450 miles today into and out of Columbus, went from sunny to light drifts to heavy snow but nothing that really stuck.

Passing 4x4s in a Hyundai FTW (snow tires rock)

patgizz wrote: and does not help me stop or turn

Yes it does and yes it does.

Beyond that, welcome to the new world of awd/4wd. It really is a keeper!

Our Grand Cherokee is a total buzzkill in the snow. It doggedly refuses to break traction. No entertainment value at all. Boo.

My parents' Subaru on Hakks, on the other hand - it has spent far longer going sideways than they suspect. Actually, that's true of all of their cars.

You ought to try a subaru or an audi quattro on snows that will blow your mind. They make most trucks look and act like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest

I was surprised at how well my 2g DSM did in the snow. One night we had a wild storm, and I was at a light next to some punk kids in a lifted up toyota. You could tell they were gonna try and roost me, because that's what punk kids do. So I did the only logical thing- AWD clutch drop in a snow storm. By the time they caught up to me at the next light- Jaws were on the floor and I was laughing so hard I nearly missed the light turning green. Safe to say they didn't expect it to be AWD.

I really miss my subaru this winter. As said before, any mechanical quattro audi or subaru will make any truck look like a... well.... something completely useless in the snow.

My bone stock impreza with 50% worn 175 width cheap snows would drive through 18" of standing powder from a stop without much fuss at all.

I loved my Subaru, but I don't understand why it would be "way better" than a truck with 4WD,similar tires, and way better clearance.

weight, and also a lot of trucks have better body clearance but not better component clearance. There isn't a single component in a subaru lower than the body except the rear portion of the exhaust iirc.

We all know the best part of owning a 4wd vehicle is not having to shovel the driveway! Much easier to get over those snow plow installed speed bumps that conveniently appear 5 minutes after you finished shoveling.

bah, i don't shovel anything, i have a plow on my flatbed dually. i've been plowing with 2wd for 8 years.

Seems like simply taller wheels and tires on my Range Rover gives it more clearance than typical Subaru wheels and tires. Sure it's heavier, but it works pretty well in deep snow.

Subarus really do feel awesomely planted on a snowy or messy highway. More so than a tall SUV - and with far more road feel than our Grand Cherokee. But if you think all snow is 3' deep, you're going to have clearance problems.

That said, I did look up the specs of ground clearance a couple of years back. At the time - before the Outback became the monstrosity it is now - the Outback had more ground clearance than the GC did...

jeffp wrote: Seems like simply taller wheels and tires on my Range Rover gives it more clearance than typical Subaru wheels and tires. Sure it's heavier, but it works pretty well in deep snow.

To clarify..this is when the Rover is actually running. It does have the feature of leaving a nice oil trail that shows nicely to find your way back down the mountain. A feature I'm pretty sure most Subarus lack.

I must admit, my wife's non turbo slushbox Forester on snows is infuriating in it's unwillingness to break traction, no matter what action is taken to do so. Perfect to put my loved ones in.

Seeking a little more ground clearance under the snow plow nose of my Impreza, I found that SWMBO's old iPikes on Forester alloys(26.2" 215/60/16 vs the stock Impreza TS' 24.2" 195/60/15) fits perfectly under the car. No rubbing whatsoever, just a taller final drive; there's room for more! It's been an animal thus far.

audifan wrote: You ought to try a subaru or an audi quattro on snows that will blow your mind. They make most trucks look and act like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest

Yup, I drove this thing to work like I was in a rally in Finland!

njansenv wrote: I loved my Subaru, but I don't understand why it would be "way better" than a truck with 4WD,similar tires, and way better clearance.

Around here almost everyone I know puts snows on their Subaru's and almost no one puts snows on trucks. Most of them think A/T tires are fine in the snow.

Its also far easier to stop and turn a subaru than a truck

Maybe, depending on rubber, and what truck. But saying:

....will make any truck look like a... well.... something completely useless in the snow.My bone stock impreza with 50% worn 175 width cheap snows would drive through 18" of standing powder from a stop without much fuss at all.

?So will a 4WD truck? I just get tired of hearing "my Hakka equipped AWD X is infinitely better than 4WD trucks on summer tires" and then saying it's all the car. I know everyone likes to pick on SUV's in snow, but that isn't the technologies fault but rather DA owners on inappropriate rubber forgetting to respect physics.

We used a 2002 Dakota in the snow a few times, frankly it was much better in deep snow than the Subaru...not to say that the Subaru wasn't shockingly good.