If you were in snow like we see down here that was 20" deep, once you broke through the crust it wouldn't matter what tire you were running. You wouldn't be going anywhere. That stuff is as dense as cement. You would be high-centered and that would be that until you used some sort of ramp (maxtrax/etc) to get back up on top of the stuff. You cannot push this stuff out of the way.

20 inches or 200 inches, if you can't touch bottom it don't matter!

Now if you've got a bottom you can bite into and light fluffy snow, you may well push though 20"+ Heck, I've seen stuff in Colorado that was so light and fluffy you could push though 30" of it. But that's why Tahoe aint' the ski area Vail is.

And yeah, your Hakkas are probably about 100% better on hard packed snow/ice than any MT tire. But since I usually only do a couple snow runs per year, and never really do snowy/ice roads, only trails, I can't see picking up another set of wheels and tires.

 

Ahhhh!!! You go out in "spring snow." Yeah...I don't **** with that stuff. It's a winchfest if we do and that's just no fun. Seems like the D2 and LR3 would be equally screwed if they "break the seal."

 

Thank you all for the thread, I'm looking at buying an LR3, and this thread definitely helped. I'll be lurking around some more for more info!

 

My parents have a lodge out in the WV mountains (DNR land, so hunters and sightseeing folks always going up the mountain to get to this nice fishing lake) - well after the big blizzard that gravel road was still covered, but it was the weekend where it was in 50s-near 60 - everything was a 8" slushy mess.

Of course I tried to go up there and was fine in others tracks, and even the fresh stuff.. but once I got to a steeper hill, all 4 just spun. Backed up and there was a perfect wheel 1/4 circle in the packed slush where the fronts approached and it made a wall lol.

Later that weekend, we pulled out a lifted F350 on mickey thompson mud terrains (got too low, hooked it in ditch on side of road) and a CRV w/ a bunch of teenagers.

Both were stuck on the flat part of the road still! At least the LR3 got a few hundred yards up into the fresh stuff and the hill (and I made it back without getting stuck haha).

Had to bring the 4x4 tractor up to pull out the F350, didn't even spin.

But yeah that slushy crap that packs into ice cement sucks unless you're on packed tracks, then it's like pavement.

 

Agreed. Really cold snow is dry and pliable like sand. Snow near freezing temp is the worst. Spring snow is rained on and re-frozen several times over and like has been mentioned covered in a crust.

Fresh snow, once a year....I have my fun, and I'm good. Yeah I bought Hakkas specifically...but that's because I was going to the damn Yukon and beyond that trip they are still good on cold, wet pavement....which we see a LOT of up here in WA state.

 

It's the classic case of how conditions can be so different from paper to reality. As pointed out, snow (or mud, or any obstacle really) can be radically different from place to place. EstorilM's comment about backing down and finding the perfect semi-circle of vertical snow where the tires had been pushing into it is a great example. In dry light snow you'd just plow right through that like one of those ads for xxx SUV on TV, with snow flying in all directions making for pretty pictures. But in the heavy dense stuff it's like hitting a wall. If you somehow did have enough traction to keep pushing forward it would tear off any stock plastics like bumpers or wheel arches anyway.

We had two good examples of that on our run last weekend. First my own - I had the right front tire buried down pretty good and couldn't get it to climb back up, I was just pushing the bumper/tire into the wall of snow. We set a Traction Jack to use as a ramp and I tried to winch myself up/out. I snapped a tree strap before the truck came up. OK, it was a crappy strap, but there was literally several tons of effort and I wasn't moving forward.

The other was an RRC who was in a similar situation. His left front was pushed into a wall of snow and he couldn't climb it. They put a ****** strap on him and tried to yank him up/out with no success - on the 3rd go the tore the recovery point out of his ARB bumper (with a soft shackle no less!) and didn't move him more than an inch or two because the snow was basically a solid vertical wall.

(btw, I only got to see the aftermath and video on that one as he was in another group behind mine...totally the wrong way to go with a recovery strap in that situation. Some shovel work and a winch finally got him through)

I want to find this nice light fresh snow. That's waaay more fun!

 

I just visualized most of that and had a good laugh - that's crazy.. yeah you see the white stuff fall and figure you're fine, but you never know. I think I'd be taking my disco over the LR3 in those conditions, and even then I'd be in your tracks.

On a random note, I got some rare LR 18's from an import spec DII from a guy on CL and they had new (like 0 miles) Cooper Discoverer H/T's on 'em and they're surprisingly good.