Winter Driving 4xe in Frigid Cold & Snowy Alaska - My Experience

[BigMaCro]

There is more than just air temperature that goes in to whether the vehicle runs in electric mode or not.......lots variables actually

Thanks for weighing in Tyler, I'm always glad to see your analysis! You're really reverse engineering the 4xe. It's a shame we can't get more info from Jeep about it's operating modes.

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[Tyler-98-W68]

Each day I try to figure out what else I can test and monitor, I'm looking forward to this winter because i live where it gets cold (as cold as your location just not for as long) I'm hoping to test out what happens in weather where the owners manual states that the 4xe won't start due to extreme cold.

 

[BigMaCro]

I wish that when I was plugged in and remote start, it'd just use the electric heater to warm up, but it starts the engine immediately.

 

[TATER1971]

Hi, thought I'd share my experiences driving the 4xe in Alaska winter conditions.

I commute 50 miles to work from Wasilla to Anchorage. I start out charged in my heated garage, and arrive at work about 50 minutes later, where I park outside but can plug in and L2 charge at 16 amps again (about 4 hours).

1. Electric mode unavailable under 5 degrees F air temperature. This isn't dependent on the battery temperature, as it came straight out of the garage. If the outside air warms up a degree, EV mode will work.

2. Remote start will always start the engine, even while plugged in, under about 30 degrees F. That gas engine is the best heater, and it'll start up to warm the cabin the most quickly. I wish we could adjust a preference to use the just electric heater when plugged in instead, like it will if it's just a few degrees warmer.

3. No 4xe/hybrid related driving/handling problems. The Jeep's hybrid system isn't causing issues with traction or handling in icy conditions. I still drive around in max regen, and don't lose traction decelerating. I think the stability control/abs systems are doing a good job monitoring for lost traction and adjusting as needed. Obviously electric torque could easily spin tires on acceleration, but it's pretty hard to get it to do that with traction control on.

4. 4-Auto is great for winter driving! I don't feel it engage or disengage, it's always stable accelerating around corners, etc. I've just left it in auto for months now, without any need to lock it in 4Hi for traction or 2 for maneuverability.

5. BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2's are great winter tires! Ok, so not true winter compound siped tires, but with 15,000 miles on them, my KO2's still have plenty of sharp edges biting the ice & snow. If I won the lottery I might put dedicated snow tires on, but so far have felt no need to. And yes, our roads now have a permanent glaze of ice on them, and it often builds up to inches thick.

6. Jeep LED headlights rock! I really don't even need to put high-beams on, because the low beams are so good with lots of distance.

Are you disappointed in the fact that Electric is not available colder than 5 degrees fahrenheit? (-15 degrees celsius). Here in Ontario, we are going to have plenty of days colder than that...so I assume a 4Xe would not really use it's electric mode here.

 

[Tyler-98-W68]

I wish that when I was plugged in and remote start, it'd just use the electric heater to warm up, but it starts the engine immediately.

It takes the convenience out, but if you go to the vehicle when its plugged in put the vehicle to run (don't push the gas pedal) Gas engine won't start but the battery coolant heater will be active and warm everything up, then if the temp is such that you can drive in electric mode you can do so.

I never use remote start

 

[Tushar]

Hi, thought I'd share my experiences driving the 4xe in Alaska winter conditions.

I commute 50 miles to work from Wasilla to Anchorage. I start out charged in my heated garage, and arrive at work about 50 minutes later, where I park outside but can plug in and L2 charge at 16 amps again (about 4 hours).

1. Electric mode unavailable under 5 degrees F air temperature. This isn't dependent on the battery temperature, as it came straight out of the garage. If the outside air warms up a degree, EV mode will work.

2. Remote start will always start the engine, even while plugged in, under about 30 degrees F. That gas engine is the best heater, and it'll start up to warm the cabin the most quickly. I wish we could adjust a preference to use the just electric heater when plugged in instead, like it will if it's just a few degrees warmer.

3. No 4xe/hybrid related driving/handling problems. The Jeep's hybrid system isn't causing issues with traction or handling in icy conditions. I still drive around in max regen, and don't lose traction decelerating. I think the stability control/abs systems are doing a good job monitoring for lost traction and adjusting as needed. Obviously electric torque could easily spin tires on acceleration, but it's pretty hard to get it to do that with traction control on.

4. 4-Auto is great for winter driving! I don't feel it engage or disengage, it's always stable accelerating around corners, etc. I've just left it in auto for months now, without any need to lock it in 4Hi for traction or 2 for maneuverability.

5. BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2's are great winter tires! Ok, so not true winter compound siped tires, but with 15,000 miles on them, my KO2's still have plenty of sharp edges biting the ice & snow. If I won the lottery I might put dedicated snow tires on, but so far have felt no need to. And yes, our roads now have a permanent glaze of ice on them, and it often builds up to inches thick.

6. Jeep LED headlights rock! I really don't even need to put high-beams on, because the low beams are so good with lots of distance.

At one point I wanted to sell my 2021 Sahara for not having this 4H Auto option. The sales guy also never told me about this option. I learnt about this option 4 months after my Jeep arrived sigh.

 

[dswift09]

Snow and ice build up on LEDs is a real thing. Here is a picture from last December after driving a couple of hours in freezing rain in Iowa. We stopped to get gas and chip the ice off the LED headlights on my '21 JLUR. The roads were fine (mostly) thanks to the salt being put down by Iowa DOT but the 3/8" coating of ice on the lights was a problem. On this same trip we ran into a bunch of snow in southern Utah. We were in the middle of nowhere and had no choice but to keep going until the next town but had to stop frequently to scoop the snow out of the headlights.

There are companies that make heated LED headlights. The primary market seems to be over the road trucks in Canada and Northern Europe. A few options for Jeeps but they are expensive.

 

[BigMaCro]

Are you disappointed in the fact that Electric is not available colder than 5 degrees fahrenheit? (-15 degrees celsius). Here in Ontario, we are going to have plenty of days colder than that...so I assume a 4Xe would not really use it's electric mode here.

No, at that temp I'm Just glad to be driving and warm at all

The battery is still good for providing motive power in hybrid mode, so I think it still helps

 

[Yellow4xe]

I wish that when I was plugged in and remote start, it'd just use the electric heater to warm up, but it starts the engine immediately.

I expect that the engineers used the engine to avoid a discharge and charge loop. Remote start turns on, battery discharges to run heater, then computer detects battery can be charged and shuts down the heater to start charging, once charged up, battery discharges to run the heater again, and so on. It would be a lot of work to design this, test this and make sure nothing breaks. This would not be good for the battery either. Running the gas engine solves this issue, and is probably a better solution to heat the cabin.

The other way it could be done is to bypass the battery to run the heater. In this case, I’m not sure that there would be enough power to run the heater, especially if it’s a 120V charger.

 

[JollieOllie]

Of course, in very specific conditions, the headlights could ice over. I would think that you saw many other vehicles with headlights that were iced over after a couple hours of freezing rain! I live in Ottawa and drove my 4xE with the LED headlights last winter and never had a problem with them. If I do have a problem with them in the future, based on very specific conditions, a couple of times in the winter, I will not regret having the LED lights. Thanks for sharing your experience here though.

Snow and ice build up on LEDs is a real thing. Here is a picture from last December after driving a couple of hours in freezing rain in Iowa. We stopped to get gas and chip the ice off the LED headlights on my '21 JLUR. The roads were fine (mostly) thanks to the salt being put down by Iowa DOT but the 3/8" coating of ice on the lights was a problem. On this same trip we ran into a bunch of snow in southern Utah. We were in the middle of nowhere and had no choice but to keep going until the next town but had to stop frequently to scoop the snow out of the headlights.

There are companies that make heated LED headlights. The primary market seems to be over the road trucks in Canada and Northern Europe. A few options for Jeeps but they are expensive.

 

[dswift09]

Of course, in very specific conditions, the headlights could ice over. I would think that you saw many other vehicles with headlights that were iced over after a couple hours of freezing rain! I live in Ottawa and drove my 4xE with the LED headlights last winter and never had a problem with them. If I do have a problem with them in the future, based on very specific conditions, a couple of times in the winter, I will not regret having the LED lights. Thanks for sharing your experience here though.

I don’t regret the LEDs at all and would absolutely buy them again. And yes, on these occasions every other vehicle on the road with LEDs was experiencing the same condition.

 

[Lithics]

Good insight on your experience. Do you commute daily? Beautiful drive, spent a month on the peninsula a few decades ago, have been trying to get back ever since.
I've enjoyed my KO2's immensely, but change them out now at first snow without question. Good traction in fresh and packed snow alike, but skate across an icy bridge on a corner once and you'll get a round of studded snow tires, guaranteed. That's all it took and I was like yep, $1500 on dedicated winter tires is a much better option than any potential alternative. MT here, for what it's worth.

 

[J0E]

5. BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2's are great winter tires! Ok, so not true winter compound siped tires, but with 15,000 miles on them, my KO2's still have plenty of sharp edges biting the ice & snow. If I won the lottery I might put dedicated snow tires on, but so far have felt no need to. And yes, our roads now have a permanent glaze of ice on them, and it often builds up to inches thick.

Growing up in MT I aways had a set of wheels with good pizza cutter studded snow tires for the winter. 2 WD with a pair of good pizza cutter studded snow tires fully aired up beats the hell out of 4 stock tires on ice.

Wheels and tires are cheap and make your off season tires last that much longer. Even when I moved to Seattle, I always had extra wheels with good pizza cutter studded snow tires.

 

[BigMaCro]

Good insight on your experience. Do you commute daily? Beautiful drive, spent a month on the peninsula a few decades ago, have been trying to get back ever since.
I've enjoyed my KO2's immensely, but change them out now at first snow without question. Good traction in fresh and packed snow alike, but skate across an icy bridge on a corner once and you'll get a round of studded snow tires, guaranteed. That's all it took and I was like yep, $1500 on dedicated winter tires is a much better option than any potential alternative. MT here, for what it's worth.

I grew up in Montana in the 80's and 90's, and never knew anyone to run winter tires. That being said, I absolutely know the difference that they make. I've run studless winter tires on other vehicles in Alaska since Blizzaks came out 20 years ago. I commute 50 miles one way nearly every day. When I'm not doing that, I'm driving an 89,000 lb truck 350 miles to Fairbanks and back. So yeah, I have experience with winter driving. The 15,603 miles on my 4xe have been accumulated since February 28, 2022, so that's trending toward 20,195 miles per year in the Jeep. I've done 48,747 miles in the last year in the truck I regularly drive.

So, with all that, I can say the K02's do really damn well, and this year I have felt no need to install winter tires. Not sure what I'll do when I lift it and put on 37" ridge grapplers. For the KO2's don't do well in mud. Maybe I'll keep 'em and run them as winter tires with spacers.

 

[Lithics]

I grew up in Montana in the 80's and 90's, and never knew anyone to run winter tires. That being said, I absolutely know the difference that they make. I've run studless winter tires on other vehicles in Alaska since Blizzaks came out 20 years ago. I commute 50 miles one way nearly every day...

Good grief, respect for those miles. My daily round trip is about 65, so with road trips and weekend wheeling I did 24,000 my first year...thought I was doin' good! Rubi has been great though...some don't like to daily a Jeep, I love it. A few weeks ago there was semi wrecked in the snow across both lanes on a pass. I sat there for about 2 hours in the storm, snow piling up, said enough, turned around and drove a few miles down and off the shoulder the wrong direction against parked traffic the whole way...the look on so many of those people's faces, priceless. Exited onto an on-ramp, headed to the next exit and cross-countried on a crap 'dirt' road through a small range to a parallel paved road, got to work. Rig made that possible, 100%...I'll keep 'er. lol Agreed on the KO2's in mud...doable, but definitely not ideal. Not gonna argue with your experience in snow, your miles/location speak for themselves. Respect. Safe travels out there.

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