Sam:
Good afternoon to you my cyber friend, I trust that other than being hopelessly stuck in the wilderness with that fine looking canine companion that all else is well with you and yours.
Honestly I really should stay out of some of these threads, but since I'm typing at present, it appears that I haven't.
As a semi-old guy, I can recall the first 4x4 pickups that we saw on the Saskatchewan prairies and how they were immediately seen as a viable and useful option.
I should note that we were already running Versatile tractors - ours had a 555 Cummins if memory serves - anyway Sam, it didn't take very long at all to see what a 4WD tractor could do as opposed to the 2WD - in mud, clay or snow.
Indeed when chained up, a 2WD can work okay. As you and most 'Fire folks know, I live in rural BC and we get some snow from time to time as well as not having the luxury of level roads.... I've not yet met Salty303 - open invite extended here for sure - BUT - I have passed through the town he lives in/near at least 2 times a year for the past 35 years and sometimes monthly.
Without chains, the transport trucks are not allowed on some passes - when the sign is flashing, one chains up or faces fines - and most likely doesn't move from there.
Since I've not yet transferred the photo of my driveway plowing tractor to Rick's photo thingy, I'll not insert it here - but as you know just to plow our drive - maybe 110 yards long, but with a vertical drop of 80 feet or so - I use a 4x4 tractor chained up on all four....
Folks have said that the vehicles they see in the ditch are predominantly either AWD or 4X4 and that again makes statistical sense really. The reason I say that is - again as you know - I work at a local Big 3 auto dealer and by far we sell more trucks than anything else. The anything else more often and not is an AWD SUV too Sam - so since they make up likely 80% of the vehicles on rural BC roads, it does indeed stand to reason that one will see more of them in the ditch.
I will note we see very few Harley's in the ditch in winter or Lamborghini's either. Should we then extrapolate they're better on icy roads?
On your video of the stuck, I can vividly recall getting bogged down on a pool table flat dirt road in Saskatchewan after a rain storm - with my '80 Toyota 4X4. You and other folks who've experienced gumbo will appreciate that the foot prints I made back to the graveled road looked like I had snow shoes on Sam!
The sun came out, the dirt road dried up and 3 hours later I drove away in 2WD - after I'd picked the clay out of the fender wells first naturally.
Anyway, it's likely the coffee talking for me here and I shouldn't have even trod down the path, but anyway as always there's many roads to Mecca and some of 'em might not need 4X4 I suppose, eh?
All the best to you and yours as we head into winter Sam - and good luck with your John Deere issue too for sure.
Dwayne
