Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 11/24/2016 12:26 AM, Califbill wrote:
Keyser Soze wrote:
On 11/23/16 7:33 PM, Califbill wrote:
wrote:
On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 08:00:25 -0500, Keyser Soze
wrote:


I learned my lesson riding a Honda in the snow. I am wondering, though,
how my 4WD Toyota Tacoma will do in the snow. It has
all-terrain/all-season tires, I think, plus a manual transmission, but,
of course, it suffers from the typical pickup truck ailment of not a lot
of weight on the rear tires. I only got the 4WD model because a number
of on-line reports indicated it did well in the snow. We'll see.

The thing you have to remember about 4wd is if you lose the back end,
the front is probably going with it. I hockey pucked my Jeep a few
times on the beltway before I figured out that I should leave it in 2
wheel until I needed it.


Big problem we have with the 4x4 in the Sierra snow, is they drive fast,
forgetting they can not stop quickly, causing major accidents. And the
Japanese 4x4's seem to be worse, as most do not have positraction.



Positraction is just an American manufacturer's name for a limited slip
differential.

The Toyota 4x4's have LSD's.


For years they did not. Maybe it is an option. Positraction is a type of
limited slip differential. Detroit Locker another. The Detroit is better
for drag racing, but can suck on road courses. Positraction has a bunch of
clutch disks that slowly engage, while a Detroit Locker case some cams that
are on or off.


I don't think today's limited slip differential is the same as the old
positraction of years ago. During the muscle car era some of the old
Pontiacs had "Positraction" and both rear tires would leave rubber when
you got on it. Can't do that with a limited slip differencial. I think
just about all pickup trucks have LSD on the rear ... 4x4 or not.

Harry mentioned a pickup's lack of weight on the rear tires. I really
am not sure how much that affects driving in snow. I've put over a 1000
lbs of weight in the bed of my F-250 to experiment when plowing and I
don't think it has any more traction ... meaning driving slowly up a
hill in snow ... than when the bed is empty. It will lose traction
going up the hill and the only way to make the climb is to engage four
wheel drive. Our previous house had a fairly steep section of driveway.
I once had to hook a chain onto an oil delivery truck and help him get
up the slope with my truck. Plenty of weight on the dual rear wheels of
that oil truck.


A limited slip differential left rubber from both tires. Maybe not for the
first 3 inches. The limited slip allowed the car to go around a corner
without the differential locking. The one axle going faster caused the
spider gears to cam out to force the clutch disks to lock up.