also, a skinny tire will work better..

i'm sure there is a cherokee near by to pull you up.. or a grand cherokee with quadradrive. they're money in the snow

JEEP>LandRover

 

Yeah, Defiantly... You should have just bought a jeep

JEEP> Land "rover"

JEEP Is WAY BETTER!!!!

They do not get stuck in a dusting of snow like land "rovers" or any snow at that.

 

Dont forget to turn off DSC in that kind of situation When the vehicle senses tire slippage it will kill the engine.
I have had a few Jeeps when I was brokeand I don't miss them at all; off road, in deep snow, or on the road.

 

Where are you in NY? I'll come pull you out in my jeep. It's got plenty of power

 

^^^ is not true....

In the case of most all off roading....LOWER TIRE PRESSURE IS ALWAYS BETTER!

ROck crawling- super low pressure so the tire will form the the shape of the rock and have a huge contact area

Sand- low pressure again for a huge contact area...the bigger the surface in sand the more you vehicles weight is distributed....meaning your not gonna dig in so easily

SNOW- I think by now you know that snow is slippery, so that means that the LESS contact area means no go. It also means again the bigger the surface area the more you go.

 

This is true you do want to air down when in deep snow. Snow on the road is a different story; you need to cut thru to get to some traction; so you do not want to decrease your air psi when out on the road. Other wise the vehicle will sit on the snow and spin away; a narrow tire is great in the winter for getting around town.

 

^^^

this is true.. the wider your tire, the more you will sit ON TOP of the snow.. a narrow tire goes better in the snow and digs down to traction faster...

you are correct about low pressure off road, but it is completely different then snow

 

Wow. Haven't visited this thread in some time. Looks like Jeepmania hijacked it At any rate, one of the most comon misconceptions about tires is precisely the one stated above. Lower tire pressure is usually better, with the one exception of Ice/Snow. Any tire manufacturer, or any tire or advanced driving school expert (and I am kind of one by job description) will tell you as much. Go to any tire manufacturer's web page and read under safety tips for winter driving and you will see that all state the same. There's good, tangible reasons for that but without getting into laws of physics and making this answer longer than it already is, so trust me or go read it for yourself, either way.

About the original post, non-winter tires are made of rubber compounds that loose their plyability in cold temperatures. It is that plyability that gives tires their grip on any surface. Spend enough time outside in a non winter tire and the colder it gets, the less traction you have. At a given point of failure (different for every tire) you might as well be riding on the bare wheels with no tires for all the traction you're going to get. The special rubber compounds that winter tires are made off retain that plyability in extreme cold temperatures. There's no secret sience behind winter tires, they simply retain their grip in cold climates. I don't much care what kind of vehicle you're driving, once your tires "litteraly" freeze up, you're done.

Ignorance can kill. Do the right thing. MAke sure you have winter tires if you're driving in winter conditions. Don't depend on the plow and the salt to always be there to save your bacon or get all embarrased in your $60k vehicle, stuck as the guy in his '82 Jeep with winter tires drives by you up the same hill [:'(].

 

I think you meant "definitely" you uncivilized swine...

 

Ha ha ha (made me chuckle) - that's the bad thing about spell checkers, sounds like the Jeep people are feeling a little insecure....

Interesting comments about temperature and rubber - actually, rubber grips better in cold temperatures (say what???!!!), I know it's counter-intuitive but it's the shear strength of rubber that provides its ability to grip, and rubber is stronger when it's cold and less viscous. The hotter the rubber the less it grips until ultimately it becomes liquid and has almost no grip. The interfacing surface (snow, mud, sand, granite, asphalt) is the big contributing factor to wheel slip. Methinks it's tread pattern that helps with the grip in snowy conditions.