How Did Your Rigs Do In the Storm?

[thewhitebuffalo83]

Have 2009 Subaru Forester and it did great. Never had a problem.

I've had Jeeps in the past but am absolutely sold on this little rig. Goes anywhere in any weather. Nice size, comfortable, good mileage and tows
4-down behind the motorhome. What more could I ask for.

Would get another one in a second. In-fact looking at a new 2014.

My wife's 2014 Forester was awesome, I had to try hard to get that thing to slip. Even in the ice with a layer of slush it just handled so well. If the right opportunity arose, I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Subaru. My wife never drives when we have poor weather and she even drove the 18 plus miles home from Costco on Sunday after the freezing rain hit. We love our Forester it is BAD A**.

 

[bluesurf]

+1 for Subaru! Studded tires on our Outback and we can go anywhere! We drove up in the outside Clackamas and saw 3 different lifted trucks that slid off into the ditch. That last snow storm back in 2008 we drove 400 miles in 2 days with our Outback. Just seeing our friends cause we could!

 

[Spray-n-pray]

The other day, only two of us showed up to work. There wasn't even that much snow yet...

 

[jim97701]

2007 Jeep Commander and 1994 Toyota T-100 both with all season radials, No problems here.

 

[Sun195]

Another vote for Subaru. We have a Subaru Outback and a Toyota 4Runner. In most cases, I'd take the Outback over the 4Runner when it comes to snow. This is our second Outback - the swiss army knife of cars!

 

[JohnnyD]

Wife's 03 forester did great. Much better then my f250 the anti locks kept
Me from sliding too much. Did great all around

 

[The Heretic]

Even if you have the best snow 4x4 ever you are still at the mercy of the soccer moms driving like it is a summer's day.

This - you can only go as fast as the person in front of you, and it is often not wise to be passing in the snow. Then there is always the few who need to drive faster than conditions mandate - I try to be polite and get out of their way if I can.

I left work early because I had my 2WD/RWD low ground clearance car at work - I didn't pay attention to weather reports much (I don't have TV where I live) and missed the storm warning until I got into work. Just the same, I got out before it really hit.

I live on a mountain and the "highway" that goes over it was being sanded so I was fine, but when I got home there was already several inches of snow.

I left my two 4x4 trucks in the shop until Sunday afternoon and then tried to get them out. By then I had almost 2 feet of snow. The big truck got stuck when I tried to use it to clear the driveway, and the small truck did miserably due to the fact that I didn't lock the hubs (big truck has auto-hubs) until someone noticed yesterday that my front wheels weren't spinning - by then I had unstuck the big truck and the driveway was mostly clear, so it did okay. Both did okay, but had some trouble getting up the private road I live on until it was plowed.

The things about AWD/4WD is that they cannot stop any faster than a 2WD vehicle.

Studs help in that regard, especially on ice.

I got my car out of the driveway yesterday, but it started spinning out and sliding towards the ditch in the first 50 feet of the private road, so I backed into the driveway and parked it.

It is still dark out, but I will take a look once it gets light and decide whether to drive the car today or the small truck. Probably the truck - there is still some snow on the plowed roads and they are twisty, sloped up/down/sideways and I had a report from one person that one of the roads I usually take to go down is not plowed at all, so I would have to go up the hill to get to the highway which is plowed.

4WD/AWD only does okay until the snow gets deep enough that you are plowing it with your undercarriage/etc. - that is what I was having happen, and have had happen before.

I should have used the big truck to flatten the snow every day, maybe multiple times each day, but I didn't - I liked the look of the deep snow. Dumb. If there had been an emergency I would have been able to get out until yesterday.

I am not thinking that when it gets to be snow season, both trucks will have studs on them (I rarely drive them) and I am thinking of getting a hitch mounted plow for the big truck - there was one winter when there was reportedly 4 feet of snow up here.

 

[308]

I only drove one of my 4x4s and didn't have any issues

 

[PiratePast40]

A mid sized sedan with front wheel drive does just fine in the amount of snow we had here in Salem. This is one of the few places that I've lived where there wasn't hardly any snowfall during the winter so I'm used to driving in it. For the deep stuff, 7000 lbs of 4WD Ford F-250 works without any problems.

The bigger problem is ice. Doesn't matter how big a rig or how much experience you have, ice is nasty. Only thing that'll help is chains or studded tires. I feel sorry for the folks that live in the hills. They get temps just below freezing all the time while the valley is warmer. The only way they can get around is with studs.

And by the way, am I the only person in Salem that owns a snow shovel and knows how to clean off vehicles? Come on folks, get the crap off of your cars before you go out driving around.

 

[deadeye]

Did just fine with Ranger 4x4 and all weather tires in the 15" of snow we had. I didn't need to go out when the freezing rain hit so I never put the studded ones on. I don't go into town unless it is absolutely necessary due to the previous statements about soccer moms.

The wife however didn't go anywhere even though I put the studs on her car.

 

[The Heretic]

I feel sorry for the folks that live in the hills. They get temps just below freezing all the time while the valley is warmer. The only way they can get around is with studs.

Sometimes.

I live on a mountain, and cold air sinks. Not infrequently the valley is colder than a moderate height (below a couple thousand feet), and there are often temp inversions.

That said, we definitely get more precipitation. Where people in the northern valley around here got 4 to 6 inches of snow, I got almost 2 feet.

 

[spectra]

The F-150 did fine and yes the traction control is great. Could not even get it to drift when I tried..... Only went out a few times as I just do not trust the other idiots out there.

 

[sheepdip]

my wife drove our 92 Cherokee on studs from Oregon city to Forrest grove for work every day. no problems other than traffic.

 

[SP101]

The other day, only two of us showed up to work. There wasn't even that much snow yet...

work for Toyota at the port?

 

[jbett98]

Parked my work van in the shop and stayed home till today.

 

[d2the3]

The wife's 96 Jeep Cherokee did just fine out there, and my 88 Dodge Raider had a lot of fun getting some 4WD exercise. (no snow in that pic, wife only cares about her rig)

 

[fredball]

I work in hermiston and drove home friday night I-84 and about 5miles east of arlington headed west it was white out conditions till almost Multnomah falls
I drive a front wheel drive toyota crayolla and what normally takes 3 hours took 4 that was the worst conditions I have ever driven in ,In 14years in the gorge
I guess I should say the longest, I have seen it snow real good in cascade locks and hood river all the time but to cover nearly 150 miles of road was the worst and my car just goes thru it I do have studded snows all the way around
there were a few spots where I was only going about 35 could not see shirt thank god for rumble bumps I was driving by brail

 

[rick benjamin]

The ice made this weather event an issue.
We stayed home to avoid the folks that didn't know any better.
Was working in Medford in Jan 1997 when the arctic front rolled in Wednesday morning.
The trip to Medford on Sunday took 3 hours.
The trip home Saturday took 13 hours. Chained all 4 wheels.

 

[Papercidal]

My old 2wd toyota did just fine as did the wifes little corolla, it's amazing what a difference growing up in real snow country can do for your driving ability.

 

[Nwcid]

Not this snow storm, but the first one of the year back in November. We were just getting ready to go diving :thumb up: