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Some non Jeepers seriously think they are invincible in a Snow Storm when in 4WD or AWD

marek

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Ok. So I will ask this question. Why other AWD vehicles are performing in the snow so much better then our 4WD Auto Wranglers even if both were equipped with the same snow tires?
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The_Armed_Gardener

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Ok. So I will ask this question. Why other AWD vehicles are performing in the snow so much better then our 4WD Auto Wranglers even if both were equipped with the same snow tires?
I'm not sure but the lower center of gravity of a sedan must play a part. If true, add a Subaru's boxer engine with it's lower center of gravity, AWD and you just are more connected to the road, I guess?
 

Duluth Diesel

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As a Jeep and and Audi owner myself, both are very capable of bad weather driving conditions, but get a big dummie behind the wheel and no matter what kind of vehicle it wont save their ass.
Agreed. You can’t fix stupid. I’ve owned Subarus, compact 4x4 pickups, SUVs, 1500, 2500, and 3500 4x4 trucks, etc. Nothing beats slowing down, knowing your vehicles abilities for the conditions, and running the right tires. On my JL for winter, I run dedicated light truck snow and ice tires. It has made my JL the most fun and most capable snow buggy I’ve ever had. The mud tires I run in non-winter months have no place on snow and ice at below zero temps. I’m always amazed at how some people get overconfident on winter roads and go blazing past me. And then I see them in the ditch a few miles later.

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Nomod

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Regardless of the vehicle type, it's not the going that matters most in the end. It's the stopping, and on snow and ice they all offer pretty dicey performance.
 

TheRaven

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Ok. So I will ask this question. Why other AWD vehicles are performing in the snow so much better then our 4WD Auto Wranglers even if both were equipped with the same snow tires?
They don't. It's all in people's heads. In a car you have less total mass and a lower seating position that makes you feel more secure and stable. Jeeps are tall and awkward. Obviously, you have a much higher rollover risk in a Jeep than in an AWD car, but that only applies in hard cornering, which you aren't doing in the snow, and very off-camber situations...and if you are doing that in the snow, you are also sliding hard.

Managing 1" of packed snow and ice on a somewhat plowed highway is nothing to brag about...any FWD car with decent tires can handle it just fine. In fact, up to 4-5" is pretty much the same. I did it all the time in low-power, FWD cars when I lived in NW PA. The only time AWD has an advantage is starting from a stop on an incline. But when you are looking at upwards of 5" both FWD and AWD cars are going to be in trouble. That's when the Wrangler and other 4x4 trucks pass you by.

The real source of the differences that guys are talking about in this thread is driving skill. Back in my college days when I lived in NW PA I could drive circles around AWD cars and even some 4x4 trucks in my little 4cyl FWD Buick...because it was second nature to me. These days i'm not so sure cause i've been spoiled by AWD/4WD and trucks for two decades. Guys who drive in the snow all the time can drive anything in the snow. Those without that experience are going to struggle in just about any vehicle.
 

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sixspeed

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Was dropping my mom off at work early morning today at around 5:30 here on Long Island. It was blinding Snow, Sleet with significant ground accumulations, a biting wind and even worst wind chills. On top of that it is still fully dark out.

I get on the single lane road that goes straight to her work place. The Road is coated in a thick layer of Snow with a very thin layer of Sleet underneath. Speed Limit is 40MPH (65 kmph for my fellow non American or non British Jeepers). I put my JLUR in 4Hi and take it easy going at about 30 to 35MPH (50 to about 55kmph). Besides me, there are some Pickup Trucks who are doing the same speed as me (a Tacoma, a 1500, a Titan and a Jeep Gladiator). Usually we can go about 50MPH on that road (80 kmph).

While I am driving, this little prick in a brand new Audi A4 AWD station wagon is rapidly closing the gap behind me and then starts tail gating in blinding snow! He had the gall to start flickering his beams at me and asking me to speed up. When the road opened up and became a two lane, he cuts me and two Pickup Trucks off while honking his horn. Just near my mom's work place, the douche ends up spinning out of control and is stuck in a snow bank. I drop my mom off and then go back just five minutes later The guy is out there waiting for someone to tow him out.

While I wanted to pull down my window and flip him off, I felt bad and stopped; as did a fella in a JKU Sahara who looked like a gentleman in his early to mid 50s. The JKU Sahara owner had a tow rope on him and the two of us helped get the guy out of the snow bank. It had become obvious to us that the poor soul has no idea how to even hook up a tow rope. So I put helped put the Rope on the Audi while the JKU Sahara owner connected to his Jeep and got him out. The guy looked just extremely embarrassed as he know I am same JLU Rubicon owner he had cut off just some minutes ago. Afterwards I called him out for cutting me off in front of the JKU Sahara owner; who begrudgingly told him that having an AWD in a Luxury German Car does not make you invincible. He told him that if Jeeps and heavier vehicles are taking it easy, he always fails to understand why people in their Audis or BMWs or AWD Nissans think they are God.

Don't know about others but I have also experienced the same. Our fellow Jeepers and many Pickup Truck drivers tend to still take it very easy in the Snow as we know what can happen. It is always that one idiot in a BWM or Mercedes or Audi or Lexus that thinks they are God in the Snow with their computer controlled AWD system. This is despite a Jeep or a Pickup Truck being a lot more capable in inclement weather versus these AWD cars. Wonder when these folks will learn???

Sidenote: The JLU Factory LED Headlamps are an absolute disaster in the Snow as there is significant reflection from the surface. Hope I get used to that over time. Otherwise, I love my Jeep!
I live in Phoenix but grew up in the Midwest with bad winters. We frequently go to the mountain and pine tree areas in NE Arizona where it can snow a lot. It never ceases to amaze me how Phoenicians think that icy roads and falling snow means speed up, or that black snow means the road is clean. Just because you spend most of your life in sunshine doesn’t mean ignore road safety when out of your element.
 

LeaN69

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AWD is much better in snow at higher speeds. 4wd is better in low speed situations. That being said I've had my JKU in a brizzard in 4hi and JLUR I had barely ever saw 4hi dont matter the condition it faced 2hi was enough.

This past snow storm we had (im in central NJ) I was in my Bolt EV which is well ....EV and FWD on factory all season eco tires with 0 issues and was the one passing most, trucks included.

Now thinking back to my Ram 1500 ecodiesel days, I never had issues getting going in snow but the weight and momentum was huge issue, any kind of turn I had to go super slow.

Problem is most factory all season run-flat tires are doo-doo.
 

Blues

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Experience, common sense, good tyres. 4WD gets many people stuck in places they never should have been. That said, my JK and now JLU both got/get very poor traction in ice and packed snow in 2WD. In 4HI it's like it's glued to the road.
 

aeonixx1001

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I was in a parking lot at a Supermarket in the middle of Winter. I turned the key and the battery was dead. I must have left my lights on. A police man pulls up and I had the jumper cables already hooked up. All he had to do was pop his hood for about 30 seconds and we would both be on our way. NOPE, He told me he could not give me a jump and began to rattle of some BS. (He didn't know my dad was a Police Chief) and he drove away. The very next day it was snowing like hell. I pulled up to the red light on a hill going to my home and guess who was next to me. The same cop and he spun and slid into the ditch. I just sat and watched him try spin his tires (obviously making it much worse). Being the decent person I am (unlike this Dick), I pulled up in front of his car (facing his front) Got out hooked a chain on his push bar got back in and pulled him clear out into the middle of the street. He got out and immediately recognized me. He was telling me how grateful he was and how sorry he was he couldn't help me last night. I held up my hand flipped him the bird to him to go F*&^ himself and then told him no matter how bad I dislike you, your still a person in distress and I will help every time as I called him a Dick and drove off......
 

T4348lk

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The funny part is that an AWD car is only very slightly more capable than an equivalent FWD car. Really the only difference is that if you get stopped on a hill and need to get started again, the FWD car might be stuck whereas the AWD car should be ok. Out on a snow-covered but plowed road where you can get some speed, there is zero difference between AWD and FWD on the same car. In fact, that AWD system is probably functioning in FWD mode at that point anyway.

My JLU and Tahoe can do in 2WD what those "Audi drivers" think they need AWD to do. Get to where I need 4WD, and that Audi ain't movin.

Shame they insist on learning that the hard way.
AWD?? Posi in the rear and front? I think not... 2wd or 3 at BEST. We all only have 4 brakes
 

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TheRaven

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AWD?? Posi in the rear and front? I think not... 2wd or 3 at BEST. We all only have 4 brakes
I think you may have misunderstood my post...or maybe you replied to the wrong post?
 
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631_Islander

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I was in a parking lot at a Supermarket in the middle of Winter. I turned the key and the battery was dead. I must have left my lights on. A police man pulls up and I had the jumper cables already hooked up. All he had to do was pop his hood for about 30 seconds and we would both be on our way. NOPE, He told me he could not give me a jump and began to rattle of some BS. (He didn't know my dad was a Police Chief) and he drove away. The very next day it was snowing like hell. I pulled up to the red light on a hill going to my home and guess who was next to me. The same cop and he spun and slid into the ditch. I just sat and watched him try spin his tires (obviously making it much worse). Being the decent person I am (unlike this Dick), I pulled up in front of his car (facing his front) Got out hooked a chain on his push bar got back in and pulled him clear out into the middle of the street. He got out and immediately recognized me. He was telling me how grateful he was and how sorry he was he couldn't help me last night. I held up my hand flipped him the bird to him to go F*&^ himself and then told him no matter how bad I dislike you, your still a person in distress and I will help every time as I called him a Dick and drove off......
I also would have helped out not because of him as person or something. I would have helped him out due to my personal respect for Police, Firefighters and EMTs. Sure there are bad apples out there like this guy. But still my respect for these three in general would have prompted me to help out also.
 

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lesson told to me a long time a go. 4wd and Awd can all drive in the snow. but regardles of which car you have when you have to stop or turn..... watch out.
 

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Regarding the OP's original statement:

After living at 8,200' in Colorado for many years, I can honestly say that Jeepers can drive just as foolishly in the snow as everyone else. And...in my small mountain community (9,000 people), EVERY household owned at least one Jeep.

One could always tell newcomers to snow driving. They had their new 4wds and were either driving 20mph too fast, or 20 mph too slow. [not sure which was worse for others sharing the road]
 

Reabob

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Don't know were the OP lives, but here in Quebec is a parade of pickups in the ditch!
They go fast, cut everyone, park in front of store doors instead of parking spots... If not a work pickup, good chance the person driving it is selfish and kind of dumb.
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