Luckily, we've received a reasonable amount of snow this winter. This has given me the opportunity to test out my 1991 S/C Sambar's abilities on snowy pastures. Since I drive my truck on the highway quite a bit, I upgraded to 13" rims with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 175/70R13 tires. Before the upgrade, it was exceptionally difficult to maintain control on snowy roads and I wouldn't even think of driving at highway speeds. After the upgrade, I've comfortably driven the regular 400km round-trip that my work demands of me. The ride is improved a little, but it's still pretty rough. My on-road experience with this tire is very good. Off-road, I've been less than amazed. The truck has a diff-lock and that helps, but basically, if the bottom of the front bumper hits snow, I'm slowing down and will eventually stop. We live in a hilly and windy local. This means that sizable drifts are a regular occurrence. I've had to dig my way out a couple of times after getting over-confident while driving around pastures. Probably the funniest experience I've had on snowy pastures is around our dug-out. So we've got several dug-outs for water storage. The banks of the dug-outs were dug by a back-hoe and are fairly steep. The neat thing is that one of the dug-outs looks kind of like a little racing oval and if I keep my speed up, I can buzz around it at a fairly good clip. It doesn't impress my wife, but everybody else thinks it's a hoot. Over the holidays, I thought I'd take my five year-old son for a run around the dug-out. Speed stayed up for a bit, then the front bumper started to push snow and we began slowing down as gravity began to overcome centrifugal force. Down we spiraled. It was really impressive. After several attempts to get out, I ended up shoveling a lot of snow. I remain thankful that these trucks are so narrow. These trucks are real workhorses (work ponies?), but they aren't magic. I'm sure that if I could tailor my truck for the pastures (All Trails and a 2" lift), it would do a lot more, but that's not something I can do...yet.
I, for one, would love to see some pics of your setup. I would think that a slight lift would help. Going to all trails might help. I just got in from plowing with my tractor that has 23-8-12 all trails on the front and they get pretty packed up with snow fast.
in my personal opinion these trucks are a poor option for highway winter driving. For city driving they are perfect as they can handle fairly deep snow at city speeds but as you mentioned when its getting a bit to deep they bog down with reg snow tires. In my case Toronto rarely gets such amounts of snow so the 4" pizza cutters are perfect for cutting through the snow. In your case your road conditions are different in the winter and you also off road so you need to figure what you want to do more, stay on top of the snow or cut through it. From the sounds of it cutting through isnt working for you so your best bet would be to get the wider atv wheels and if still needed get the lift kit.
Traction threads! Oh Joy! My 2cents... traction is a funtion of zillions of variables but what is often missed in this complex equation is the fact that good ole fasion pizza cutters provide better traction through adhesion (normalforce over contact patch area AKA Pounds per Square inch). This only works "Provided" that the ground surface is stable enough to handle the high pressure. If not, you must reduce ground pressure so as not to desabilize the ground unerneath. Hence floater tires, Track systems, airing down, yadi ya ya... So dont go bashing Pizzas right off the bat. They work better on solid rock, pavement, and somtimes mud! (yep mud) well mud provided that as you grind down through it w/ your pizza's on, the bottom is found b4 you are up to your axles <giggle> Another oddity is that airing down a pizza cutter can provide more surface area and flotation than a non-aired down tire at twice the pizza's width!!! Due to the fact that tires tend to elongate when aired down front to back, not side to side.
One more thought, Anyone up there in the Northland sipe their tires for ice etc? Does it help much for traction?
250km round trip today in -6 snowy slushy conditions..a little squirrely on the way down at highway speeds with snow tires(light weight doesnt help). On the return I had a 1500lb load I was told it was 420kg but the manufacturer fudged the weight to make shipping cheaper...thanks,yah,thats lovely..675 kg as per the scale at the airport freight depot..Well I decided to load er up anyway...120KM home on secondary roads 60-80kph..rode like a dream..I mean it's a truck so a full load will always make the ride better ,but doubling the capacity should make it scary...nope...Yes it was obviously a tad down on power, but it stuck to the slushy road like stink on an ape...2wd all the way as well..... so as we all know a bit of weight over the drive wheels in the snow will give better traction...if you want outstanding traction with out even using 4wd...load er to the gills...frozen hams maybe..1000lbs of frozen hams in the back all winter would be sweet....
I'm glad this thread got some life. Just wanted to share my experiences. Good to see that a heated debate hasn't started. Then again, this forum is pretty good for that. o8k, gotcha on the pizza cutters. Of course, when driving around on our pastures, a wider and softer tire is nice because it doesn't tear up the ground as much. I certainly notice this with my pedal bikes. One has 1" wide tires and I have to be careful not to rip up the turf after a rain. We just had some pretty warm weather and the soft snow highlighted just how much my little Sambar had been floating. The tracks had a layer of hard packed snow, but underneath was about six inches of soft stuff. As the snow softened, the tires started to punch through the packed snow. In UL, each wheel would punch through, get pulled up, punch through, etc. Felt like a bunch of gorillas were pounding on the truck with sledge hammers. A new experience for me. I will differ from cabnfever in that my experiences with highway driving have been quite good traction-wise. That's on good winter tires. When the rear Nokians start to slide, it isn't hard to maintain control. With the stock and balding 145s, there was no way I could control the truck. Early this winter, going about 50 km/h in 4WD on hard-packed snow on a gravel road, I'd pop it out of 4WD just to test things. A uncontrollable flat spin would immediately start. I would lock up all four wheels, close my eyes, and hope for the best. Did this three times before I decided that my wife and boys need me alive. Good winter tires were a good investment for me. And pictures are in the works, Acerguy.
Yep, I'm the king of using snow tires for winter in places that have winter. I'm NOT looking at you o8k!
huh well good to know as i bought some new winter tires for the sambar. I will have to wait until my washer nozzles start working again as i think the fluid is frozen somewhere lol
Hey... we have winter here in the valley! I got up this morning at 6:30 and it was 62 degrees out! Brrrr
one company in town has a daihatsu and they park it in the winter. the narrow wheel footprint (like they are physically closer to each other then normal cars) makes it hard to get around cause the ruts kept pulling and pushing them around. Also the city doesnt push/plow/grade snow away until its stopped snowing or shows no sign or melting away anytime soon... my truck loves winter driving! loves driving on ice to!! havent took it through any deep snow yet cause well.. there isnt any.. barely enough for a skidoo
hey Rural did you see my post '"how to get a mini stuck"? talk about a ride i have fair (auto wrecker 13's on it) the brand new 12's in the garage i do hiway driving all the time to red deer and calgary not afraid of the roads at hiway speed its when you get in the city as mentioned the ruts they throw u around i plowed thru our drifted in back alley with it some drifts up to the headlights it made it but narrow drifts and yes speed drops fast but soooooooo much fun lol only time really stuck is when it high centers dang low motors i do most driving in 4 wheel as it is scary in 2 wheel likes to widen out and travel sideways lol
Had someone P.M. me on you tube asking if a minitruck can do highway speeds in 4wd in the winter...it was raining and I was bored so I made a short video clip of 4wd at 100kph....sorry the camera stopped(battery) just before 100kph but you can see from the video it was going up hill and still accelerating (slowly mind you)..but accelerating none the less...and with the tall skinny 8% taller tires ,I was around 93 kph when the camera stopped...I tend to converse with myself so just ignore the narrative http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-v09wbWe3U
i drive mine in 4wd in the winter. when i get to highway speed or shifting into 5th i usually take it out being mine is push button 4wd. but then i have to come to a complete stop to put it back in.
I saw a Hijet booking it on the 400 to Huntsville on the May 24th weekend. Any chances that was you? lol
