Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best/worst snow cars or trucks?

1993 Ford F-250 4x4.

7.3 IDI Turbo with a 5 speed.


1993 Tele-Dec bale bed.


Snow eating fool.

Same pickup with a 460 and an auto.......stuck all the time.


I took the bed off the 460 and put it on the diesel.

Suburban with good tires is hard to beat.

Here's how my 89 year old uncle plows his driveway. He might be a redneck...



The best part? It's a lease.

Honda CR-V with studded tires.

It's mostly about the tires.......and the drivers.........

The most fun I've ever had on hard packed snow was in the Audi TT AWD with Pirelli snow tires I bought for my ex. It was like glue on the ice and snow. Almost impossible to make it break traction. Of course, it would high center if two kids had a snowball fights.... but on ice..... it would flat out GO.

Second best was the Honda CR-V. Third was the Dodge Cummins. A lot of fun pulling people out of ditches without ever hitting the throttle. My son and I set a record of 7 vehicles in 40 miles, all under an hour and a half. I'd stop the truck, he'd jump out with the tow strap, and by the time I'd have the truck lined up, he'd have the car hooked and we'd walk them out.

In the end though, most of the winter driving is not about getting going, but about getting stopped. I drive around in a 2wd Tacoma all winter (on Blizzaks), and unless it gets totally nuts bad out there, I go anywhere a 4wd pickup goes. But I don't slide off the road when I brake.

Seriously?!!!! That's hilarious!

ABSOLUTE WORST.............AMC GREMLIN

That is my experience. Keep one in north Idaho along with a 4WD F150. The latter truly pales, even with weight in the bed, compared to the 'burb.

As long as the factory supplied tires aren't on it. My gal's 2016 Forester had the worse (and arguably the most dangerous) tires on slick roads I've ever driven--including bald tires........

Amen. It is amazing where a 2x4 PU will go with excellent winter tires and weight. But I still keep a set of chains behind the seat for nights like this. It looks like I might have to drive home from work at 5:00 AM in several inches of fresh snow.

But with the k5 Blazer, the 99 S Blazer, the 03 Sub Legacy, or Momma's 05 Durango, I never needed chains. I really could not give any of them an edge. They all handled snow well, dependent upon tires.

Our Toyota Highlander is pretty good in the snow and ice, however I saw a demo comparing a 2016 Honda Pilot
to a Highlander. In snow and ice hill climbing the Honda pilot would beat the Highlander. Consensus was
the Honda Pilot had a better computer program for locking and unlocking the wheels that were spinning or
stuck. In other words the Pilot would pull a bad hill while the Highlander would not. Studs can,t be beat
on ice covered roads.

Why do you guys think that the Suburban seems so much better than a pickup? Is it the weight distribution?

Also, are the Honda CRV accolades only for the all-wheel drive version?

Yes, the Suburban is better balanced than a pickup. Put weight in a pickup and then it's a wash.

Actually, take a old fashioned SWB, conventional cab pickup with the axles closer together, put weight in the back and it'll beat out our long azz wheelbase yuppie trucks--just be careful not to unintentionally swap ends.........

FWD is okay if you never get off the pavement. But they totally suck on any kind of sidehill. My 90 Century could not make it out to the pavement for trying to drive off into the canal on the downhill side of the road when it got snow covered. I would much rather have the ass end slipping toward the downhill side of the road than the front end.

Here is the best snow vehicle, my 4WD Nissan, only now I have studded snow tires on it.
So good in ice and snow you can't have any fun sliding around, it grips like nothing else.

I agree. We had a Forester that tried its damndest to kill me on a slippery road. If the traction control wasn't disabled the bastard would just creep out into an intersection trying to figure out which wheels should get power. One real close call of that and I sold it next day to a Lesbian. That thing scared the hell out of me, and I never got used to the fuel fill on the wrong side. Built like a pop can. Used more oil than a Deere 70. Tires were wearing badly at 20k. I don't miss it. Replaced it with a Sequoia, 10x the vehicle, wife loves it. Me and that Forester never got along, other people I've talked to love theirs.

Had a few different variations of Izusu Troopers that would regularly track better and go farther than my brother's Suburbans in snow/mud on logging trails.

Worst vehicle in snow I ever owned was a 1972 MGB. My 2000 Ford Expedition 4X4 is really good on show . Don`t know of any vehicles that are good on ice.
Slowing down help.