Is 4WD/AWD a neccesity on your ski vehicle?

[ERJ-145CA]

No, never had a problems with a Corolla.

 

[snoseek]

And 96% of statistics are made up on the spot. So...80% are SUV's and Subarus, Yes Subarus...so 79 of those vehicles could have been SUV's and 1 was a Subaru?

QUOTE]


Dude just a GUESS, but I think I'm pretty close. It's really not a reflection of the vehicles performance but an overall generalization of the driver. I'm sure many are rental vehicles with folks fresh from Texas, okies ect....In my observation majority are large SUV's. Quite a few 18 wheelers on any given day with snow. I-70 is a true clusterfuck with any amount of snow.

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

you might as well be asking if fat skis are necessary in powder...or if you'd ski better on a shaped ski vs your old straight skis.
For me...we've got 2 Subys in the family, a 98 outback that gets steel wheels and studded snows (mine) and a 07 tribeca with studded nokias (wifes...I get to pay for it and even drive it sometimes). The mrs rolled her father's olds cutlass on her first solo drive at 16yrs old...hit black ice. So when she met me 6 years later, she was still paranoid to drive in the snow...then I got her on snows, then on awd w/ studded snows...now she's gone from not leaving the house on snow days to not letting it interrupt her plans for the day. So in my house, it counts as necessary and worthwhile.

 

[gmcunni]

had a saab. fwd,no traction control, stick shift w/snow tires on 15 inch steel rims ( vs summer 16 inch) and nothing stopped that car. all 4 wheels got snow tires, not just front.


its not the skis, its the skier.

 

[ski220]

Do you guys with the snows get them mounted on their own dedicated rim or do you swap out the rims from your regular tires?

I got some cheap steel rims online and have the snows mounted on them ($75 each for 4). The disadvantage if that is they're starting to rust a bit in spots so they look a little crappy, plus I lost my tire pressure sensors so the panel always says "check tire pressure" for the entire winter. Advantage is they're easy to swap, although I do have the shop that sold the tires to me do it (for free).

$75 dollars apiece for steel rims sounds a bit high. Besides, steel rims on anything other then a beater look crappy. I have a few friends that have bought packages from http://www.tirerack.com/index_w.jsp . They come mounted and balanced. Just put air in them and you are good to go.

 

[mattchuck2]

I ski about 60 times a year or so, and I almost always take my two wheel drive car (currently a Scion xB). Only about 3 or 4 times a year do we take my wife's car (a Subaru Legacy).

 

[AdironRider]

I just traded in my Grand Cherokee for a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab and couldnt be happier. I drive Teton Pass everyday at odd hours (6am, 2pm, and 12am) and need the 4wd and ground clearance. They dont plow between 9pm and 5am, and itll snow 8-12 inches in that time frame on regular occaisions. Got it with the 4.0 and the 6 speed and its everything I want it to be, gets 23-24 when I baby it as well. Nice

 

[campgottagopee]

I just traded in my Grand Cherokee for a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab and couldnt be happier. I drive Teton Pass everyday at odd hours (6am, 2pm, and 12am) and need the 4wd and ground clearance. They dont plow between 9pm and 5am, and itll snow 8-12 inches in that time frame on regular occaisions. Got it with the 4.0 and the 6 speed and its everything I want it to be, gets 23-24 when I baby it as well. Nice

Sweet truck

 

[bobbutts]

I'm running dedicated steel rims with blizzaks on an AWD Forester xt.
Definitely not necessary, but nice have a capable car. For things like taking a left out into traffic and getting up hills it's great to have confidence. Out in Tahoe it really is a necessity due to the steep pass roads, lack of salt, and extreme snowfall. Back East there are very few times when you'd have to turn around with a 2wd.

 

[mondeo]

Beauty of All Wheel Drive:

 

[eastcoastpowderhound]

had a saab. fwd,no traction control, stick shift w/snow tires on 15 inch steel rims ( vs summer 16 inch) and nothing stopped that car. all 4 wheels got snow tires, not just front.


its not the skis, its the skier.

I drove saabs for 8 years before my first suby...900S and 900turbo...lived in maine, tahoe, and colorado, spent a lot of time driviing in the snow...the saab doesn't hold a candle to the suby in the snow no matter what you've got for rubber on them.

give different skis to the same skier and you get different results...its both the skis AND the skier...its not just the car, its also the rubber and the driver.

 

[billski]

No. Snow tires are more important than AWD or 4WD. Of course, both snows and AWD trump all... but it is completely unnecessary. Maybe one or two days an entire winter I think "that would have been a little easier with AWD in addition to snows" but I have never found myself overly inconvenienced due to the lack of AWD so I say it is not a high priority on what is important in a vehicle.

+1 I drove Steve's way for about 28 years. Front wheel drive. Never even had snow tires. Now that I'm elderly, my vision is fading and I run over people, I feel just a tad more comfortable with snows and All wheel. It's kind of my mid-life "spurge." I still get to the same places I've always gotten to, but I it compensates for my pending geriatric state. It makes me no braver, no more invincible than before (a good attitude to have), but frankly I can afford it, so why not? Since I tend to keep cars at least 10 years, it may just be a passing phase Now, I've found other activities in the other seasons that make 4WD a necessity (logging roads, abandoned forest roads, trail clearing). Hmm. Maybe what I need is a 4WD high-clearance sedan. Odd, huh? A crossover in my future? I am a sedan man, no truck or suv for me.

I never slid off the road ever in 28 years using all seasons to go everywhere from Sugarloaf to Jay to BV (eek!). Did decide it was time for snows when we couldn't get up the steep unplowed road to my ski buds house... So I put snows on my wife's van. :idea:

I ALWAYS slid off the road driving rear wheel drive honky-mobiles in the late 70s in Western NY State. We'd add a couple bags of sand and some concrete blocks and a body in the trunk. But we were really just fooling ourselves. The shovel, traction strips and a lot of pushing were the only things that worked. We were too poor to call a tow truck...

 

[SkiDork]

$75 dollars apiece for steel rims sounds a bit high. Besides, steel rims on anything other then a beater look crappy. I have a few friends that have bought packages from http://www.tirerack.com/index_w.jsp . They come mounted and balanced. Just put air in them and you are good to go.

actually I think you're right. They may have been $37.50 each, or $75 for 2. That sounds better. Good catch.

 

[Geoff]

+1 I drove Steve's way for about 28 years. Front wheel drive. Never even had snow tires. Now that I'm elderly, my vision is fading and I run over people, I feel just a tad more comfortable with snows and All wheel. It's kind of my mid-life "spurge." I still get to the same places I've always gotten to, but I it compensates for my pending geriatric state. It makes me no braver, no more invincible than before (a good attitude to have), but frankly I can afford it, so why not? Since I tend to keep cars at least 10 years, it may just be a passing phase Now, I've found other activities in the other seasons that make 4WD a necessity (logging roads, abandoned forest roads, trail clearing). Hmm. Maybe what I need is a 4WD high-clearance sedan. Odd, huh? A crossover in my future? I am a sedan man, no truck or suv for me.

I never slid off the road ever in 28 years using all seasons to go everywhere from Sugarloaf to Jay to BV (eek!). Did decide it was time for snows when we couldn't get up the steep unplowed road to my ski buds house... So I put snows on my wife's van. :idea:

I ALWAYS slid off the road driving rear wheel drive honky-mobiles in the late 70s in Western NY State. We'd add a couple bags of sand and some concrete blocks and a body in the trunk. But we were really just fooling ourselves. The shovel, traction strips and a lot of pushing were the only things that worked. We were too poor to call a tow truck...

Modern friction snow tires give you a really substantial extra safety margin when you are braking on ice. AWD does doodly in that condition and that's where you're most likely to be doing automobile pinball. With reasonable winter driving skills, you can get around just fine with summer tires and a FWD car on snow-covered roads. It's ice performance where a friction tire like a Blizzak or Nokian; or a studded tire make all the difference.

For somebody who drives to ski country every weekend, I think it's plain nuts not to have snow tires even if you have an AWD car. It's all about having control when the cars around you are losing it. With some intelligent shopping, you can almost always find wheels for cheap from somebody who is putting on alloys. It prolongs the life of your summer tires so the net cost is pretty minimal.

 

[Marc]

Kind of funny ground clearance never comes up in these discussions.

 

[Glenn]

Sweet truck

x2. I think those are very sharp. Good choice!

 

[hammer]

Kind of funny ground clearance never comes up in these discussions.

Good point...only times I ever got really stuck in my 1990 Acura Integra was when the car got into snow that was too deep.

 

[Glenn]

Re: Ground Clearance:

Is it bad to quote yourself?

A lot comes down to how the roads are cared for and how well traveled they are. In VT, we're a bit off the beaten path. So 4wheel drive and the extra ground clearance make a big difference when things get really snowy.

 

[Marc]

Re: Ground Clearance:

Is it bad to quote yourself?

I will admit I *may* not have read this whole thread. I should have been more specific, I was talking about the title of the thread. People obsess a lot over tires and the number of drive wheels when buying a car, but I so very rarely see ground clearance brought up as a deciding factor... one way or the other. Maybe because the camps are so polarized and entrenched regarding SUV's/trucks.

 

[Philpug]

I could see clearance being an issue in unplowed driveways, tends not to be an issue for me. Even on the back roads from Middletown Springs to Okemo, I never had an issue w/ my 06 Leg SW.