JEEP Vehicles in Winter

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I run one of them also heat no payments and goes anywear.

Mine is far from perfect but has I think 120,000 miles on it. I'd love to see a UTV that makes it that far and apparently, a Jeep too. Lol!

 

[quest450]

not a Jeep but cute little green car you got there

 

[Doug Casner]

My hunting buddy in Wyo. dad got killed in one in a roll over. That was a old narrow wheelbase. I always liked the wranglers and CJS. Anything can rollover. Doug

 

[Gman]

i'll second that!!! i sold my 2500GMC HD and i ran Wrangler DuraTrax for an Outback with Goodyear Weathermasters winter all season and i wont go back!
1/3 the price and 3x the gas milage.
i drove through snow that would only embarass the truck!
last time at the dealer getting oil and differentail oil changed , i was bragging and super happy at how it goes.
he said that "X" mode rocks ?
Hmmmm.. i played along and never knew i even had it! lol.
hope it snows like "he double l" so i can get to try it!!! it laugh's at 15" snow
he said one guy said the only way he could get it stuck was get it airborne and land in a big drift. aka, hang it up.

i am eye the Wilderness , it needs to strip down the electronic BS and that come to a stop and shut off shit first.

and talk about a comfortable ride!

you can have your jeeps. they beat the shit out of you! yeah, i know "its a jeep thing" lol. turn me back over...

popcorn time!

Merry Christmas all.

Lets be honest, You are not driving through 15" of snow with a Subaru. Your front bumper would be plowing snow up into the grill until the radiator was blocked & the engine would overheat. Not only that, you will "high center" with the low ground clearance that Subarus have.

Subaru's are great on paved or fairly smooth roads with 3 or 4" of snow. They are not an "off road" vehicle, nor are they made to drive in 15 or more inches of snow. Just stating the facts.

See bluealtered post on page 6.

 

[rdremsek]

I had a old chevy k5 blazer that would run circles around a jeep not impressed with jeeps especially the ones with the mini van motors real dogs and gas hogs not worth the money they are asking today.

 

[Papa Charlie]

Where I live in North Eastern Oregon It is common during the winter while getting off of I-84 at the Mt. Emily turn off to find any brand of import, including Subaru's stuck in the snow that's only 12" deep. Some of the more "I can do this, just more speed" ones will make it a little further in and then high center their car and then sit there until a local comes along and pulls them out using a 4x4 that's actually made to go in deep snow.

When asked why they did it, the answer is always the same, well they can do that on TV. No, what you see on TV is them going down a plowed road at 30mph so they don't get stuck. If you take your import whatever that has 6" of ground clearance maybe, in real snow you will get stuck at some point, ... period.

After 40+ years of pulling those people out of the snow I finally realized that leaving them there until our state troopers came by and called them a tow truck, that they would learn better the next time then to do that since that tow truck cost them $500 or more.
I spent 40+ years of breaking chains, axles, winches,cables and everything else and it was simply time to stop it so I have.
Of course if you chain up your import and you can go further before you high center, ... good luck!

The biggest problem with these type of people, I can guarantee that they have no emergency provisions in their car for these situations.

When ever I travel any where near the mountains in the winter, I always carry water, blanket, energy bars, flairs and flair gun, chains, extra cloths (nothing worse than sitting in wet closes), a shovel, tow rope and a container of sand. I also won't venture into high country without making sure I have as close to a full tank as I can. If I come on a station and I have 3/4 of a tank, entering the mountains, I fill up.

Growing up in Oregon, going to college in Klamath Falls and spending a lot of time up at Bachelor, I have pulled a lot of people out of drifts. Same when I lived in the Bay Area in CA and use to go up to Tahoe during the winter.

Maybe it is the boy scout in me coming out, but I am sure that many of us have heard of the young couple with an infant in Oregon that accidentally took the wrong road in heavy snow. This was a very rural road and they got stuck and were not found for over a week (if my memory is correct). They were lucky to only lose some toes.

 

[Old Navy]

I guess someone just wanted to start a food fight with this thread

It was a joke which some folks here never get. I live on the high plains of Utah and can't remember the last time I saw any brand of 4X4 off the road stuck.

 

[ronsatspokane]

Lets be honest, You are not driving through 15" of snow with a Subaru. Your front bumper would be plowing snow up into the grill until the radiator was blocked & the engine would overheat. Not only that, you will "high center" with the low ground clearance that Subarus have.

Subaru's are great on paved or fairly smooth roads with 3 or 4" of snow. They are not an "off road" vehicle, nor are they made to drive in 15 or more inches of snow. Just stating the facts.

See bluealtered post on page 6.

I can attest to this. We occasionally get some fair sized snow drifts in our driveway which is about 1200 feet in length. I told my wife to hit them at speed in her Lezbaru (Forester) and she'd punch right through them. One day we had some that were more significant than they had been in the past. She hit the first one at speed and high centered it the car. Tires were 6 inches from touching down. I had to pull it out with the tractor and then plow the road.

 

[BlueWater]

Yeah. Pretty small town for sure. -18 at the moment but I have a wood stove and plenty of wood on the porch brother .
Downtown Libby vvv

Oh, welll ... Libby. That is "town," then. All five stoplights and The Dome theater.

 

[bluealtered]

Papa Charlie you are 100% percent correct in having all those supplies in your rig. And I should point out that us locals would never leave a family stuck anywhere during the winters here. Smart a$$ know it all's are a different story.
Right now we are sitting at 13 below and that's here in town, up on the mountain it's probably 20-25 below. Only a fool is trying to go off road at the moment.

The very first rule of four wheeling is that it's supposed to be FUN, not to see how stupid you can get.

 

[perazziguy]

It was a joke which some folks here never get. I live on the high plains of Utah and can't remember the last time I saw any brand of 4X4 off the road stuck.

Not a Jeep fan here. The only way I would own one would be if I lived in the mountains many miles from town or my nearest neighbor. At that, it would be a Wrangler. The rest are even less impressive.

 

[rebs]

I'll keep my Yukon

 

[AccelR8]

Best vehicle I had for the snow was an '84 Diesel Suburban 4X4. 2 1/2" lift. There was no stopping that thing. Worst I had was a '79 C10 2WD. It would get stuck in 6" of snow. I've had 2 Sabarus. An '84 GL wagon, turbo, 4WD. And a '96 Outback. Got them both for next to nothing because of bad engines...go figure. '84 had a cracked cylinder head, '96 bad head gaskets. The '96 was good in the snow as long as it was't too deep. The '84 had driver controlled, either on or off, 4wd. In most situations it was better in the snow in 2wd because in 4wd the back and wanted to push out on even the slightest curve.

Had a friend in high school that had '61 Jeep CJ with a soft top. One Autumn he and his dad drove it from North central Ohio up to the Michigan upper peninsula. While there the wipers quit. They drove home in the rain with boot laces tied to the wiper arms, driver and passenger alternately pulling on their respective laces to make the wipers wipe. He told me it was the most miserable 14 hour trip, cold, wet, tired.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Bluealtered and Papa Charlie said it best above. I've been living on the high desert here for 50 years, and have lived in CA (ugh!) too and can relate to what those two fellows relate. We've seen it all.

A friend visited us here years ago in his CJ5 Jeep. It snowed while he was here, and he spun out and crashed into the trees on Hwy 97 South only 20 miles into his trip home in CA. Short wheelbase in snow on the highway is a recipe for disaster.....seen it many times here.

Snow up to 8"~ we use our Audi A4 Quatro.
Snow over 8" it's time for our GMC 2500HD 4X4 with 4" lift.
Of course in the weather we're experiencing right now, common sense is the prime factor for safety and survival.

No Jeeps for me.

 

[Papa Charlie]

Best vehicle I had for the snow was an '84 Diesel Suburban 4X4. @ 1/2" lift. There was no stopping that thing. Worst I had was a '79 C10 2WD. It would get stuck in 6" of snow. I've had 2 Sabarus. An '84 GL wagon, turbo, 4WD. And a '96 Outback. Got them both for next to nothing because of bad engines...go figure. '84 had a cracked cylinder head, '96 bad head gaskets. The '96 was good in the snow as long as it was't too deep. The '84 had driver controlled, either on or off, 4wd. In most situations it was better in the snow in 2wd because in 4wd the back and wanted to push out on even the slightest curve.

Had a friend in high school that had '61 Jeep CJ with a soft top. One Autumn he and his dad drove it from North central Ohio up to the Michigan upper peninsula. While there the wipers quit. They drove home in the rain with boot laces tied to the wiper arms, driver and passenger alternately pulling on their respective laces to make the wipers wipe. He told me it was the most miserable 14 hour trip, cold, wet, tired.

One time when I was heading home for the weekend from college (1975) (Klamath Falls to Tillamook Oregon), we ended up in a white out blizzard on Hwy 58 between Hwy 97 and Oakridge. We came across a bus just leaving a pull out and pulled in not more than 5-8 feet off his bumper (we signaled to him so he knew). Even at that distance we could barely make out those big bus tail lights. Thankfully, the bus with its greater height could make out the contours through shadows of the road and stay on track, we sure couldn't. It was so cold that ice would build up on the wipers so that they were making it worse than better to see. We would have to take turns climbing out the window to bang on the wipers to knock the ice off. Could not afford to stop as we would loose our escort.

The distance we traveled was about 40-50 miles and took a bit over 6 hours. Never saw another vehicle the entire time. When we got to a police road block, the State Trooper asked where we had come from. When I told him he said that road had been closed for the last 6 hours. We must have been minutes ahead of the troopers that closed it, because we never saw them.

We did this in a '75 Honda Civic. That front wheel drive on those cars was amazing. We were pushing snow most of the way with the front bumper. Thankfully, it was so cold that the snow was a bit dryer than normal and we could make reasonable traction. If it had been wetter, I am pretty sure we would not have been able to push our way through and we would have been stuck on that mountain until a plow, hopefully would have found us.

Thankfully we survived this ordeal and have a great story to tell our friends and family. However, we were stupid college students and while we had some provisions, we were not prepared if the situation had gotten any worse. I tell everyone that says they are heading up into the high country in winter to take emergency gear and provisions just in case. Most just tell me they have been doing this for years and have never had a problem. I would prefer to have brought too much and never use it than to need it and not have it.

These days, we travel in my 2003 F350 7.3L Crew Cab Dually 4x4, summer or winter. More comfortable than our Yukon. The area behind the rear seat is packed with emergency equipment and gear. So we only need the perishables, blankets and such to be ready.

Sorry for the long winded response.

 

[jds holler]

You guys are talking about my life long stomping grounds. I've lived and worked, (truck driver) in and around the Klamath Basin all my life. Actual snow here in the basin isn't usually too bad, but every road in and out goes over mountains where it is.

Looking out the window right now, the white stuff is coming down hard. Then later today its' gonna warm up and become a slushy mess, then later it's gonna freeze and -- well you know. There will be icebergs in the road, and ice ruts that will be like driving on a slot car track. jd

 

[bluealtered]

I will offer another tidbit for those wanting to go 4-wheeling in snow or mud for that matter any off road travel.
If you want to off road, taller skinny tires will help here. Your fat tires isn't going to keep you on top of snow or mud if your rig weighs more than 2800-3000 pounds. A 5-7000lb truck just isn't going to stay on top of anything but dry dirt.
You can to a certain point stay on top of sand by dropping your tire pressure down but you better have compressor to air up again. And a winch no matter how powerful won't get you out of any where if there's nothing to winch to where you are.

When I was younger and looking for a place to get stuck in my truck I carried a 100' two 50' and three 25-35' 3/8 cables to get out with and sometimes it was well into the early mornings before I got out of where I was stuck.
One more and I will stop here, if you have winch it must be double the power of the weight of your rig, more power than that is better. You also need a second (winch) battery that should be a 1000amp battery. and also a five ton or more snatch block so you can double the power of your winch, and never forget a shovel that can get to at least to the middle of under your stuck rig,(you may need to get to both sides of your rig) to get out of your mess. Also a change of clothing because you are going to be laying in the snow to shovel out.

This just some of the price of having fun in the mountains in the snow or mud. Have fun.

 

[Dave M.]

I’ve worked as an engineer for Jeep and Ram Trucks for 27 years. I love my jeeps and Ram trucks. Living in Michigan a 4WD vehicle is a must and in 27 years on driving Jeeps and Ram trucks, I’ve never got a single one stuck. I hoping for a bunch more snow so I can go out and help a few unfortunate people that get stuck in the ditches. 4WD vehicles with lockable diffs is the bomb in the winter, and for hunting. I get my vehicles down trails that my buddy’s tell me they wouldn’t even think of driving down. I’m still looking for a quality XJ with the inline 4.0L 6 cyl that I can turn into a dedicated trail ride.
Dave

 

[JimPag]

Lets be honest, You are not driving through 15" of snow with a Subaru. Your front bumper would be plowing snow up into the grill until the radiator was blocked & the engine would overheat. Not only that, you will "high center" with the low ground clearance that Subarus have.

Subaru's are great on paved or fairly smooth roads with 3 or 4" of snow. They are not an "off road" vehicle, nor are they made to drive in 15 or more inches of snow. Just stating the facts.

See bluealtered post on page 6.

Baloney. I drove thru 10" of snow with my 06 Subaru two weeks ago. They have higher ground clearance than you think. My 15 and my girls 24 have even higher ground clearance with the taller tires. I'm the last house on a private road on the side of a small mountain. I have no choice sometimes because I rely on the other people to get their part of the road plowed out which sometimes doesn't happen. I wouldn't make a habit out of driving in 10" but it can be done.

 

[Dave M.]

I will offer another tidbit for those wanting to go 4-wheeling in snow or mud for that matter any off road travel.
If you want to off road, taller skinny tires will help here. Your fat tires isn't going to keep you on top of snow or mud if your rig weighs more than 2800-3000 pounds. A 5-7000lb truck just isn't going to stay on top of anything but dry dirt.
You can to a certain point stay on top of sand by dropping your tire pressure down but you better have compressor to air up again. And a winch no matter how powerful won't get you out of any where if there's nothing to winch to where you are.

When I was younger and looking for a place to get stuck in my truck I carried a 100' two 50' and three 25-35' 3/8 cables to get out with and sometimes it was well into the early mornings before I got out of where I was stuck.
One more and I will stop here, if you have winch it must be double the power of the weight of your rig, more power than that is better. You also need a second (winch) battery that should be a 1000amp battery. and also a five ton or more snatch block so you can double the power of your winch, and never forget a shovel that can get to at least to the middle of under your stuck rig,(you may need to get to both sides of your rig) to get out of your mess. Also a change of clothing because you are going to be laying in the snow to shovel out.

This just some of the price of having fun in the mountains in the snow or mud. Have fun.

I can’t say this enough. If you are going out in weather conditions that most people shouldn’t drive in, you better have the following in your truck:
1. Winch
2. Proper tow rope
3. Jumper cables and battery pack
4. Extra food and water
5. Extra coat, blankets, gloves, hat

Dave