I nearly spent NYE out in the middle of a field.

I've been lowering my basement for the past 4 odd months --It's been a lot of fun let me tell you-- and it started raining fairly hard, so I decided it was a good idea to go dump the load of dirt out of the back of the truck before it turned to muck. Got up to the field where I can dump and I've never seen it slicker. Normally I can get my truck down to where they want the material even if it's been raining for a few days. Where they want it is along a lane thats on a 30% side slope and down into a valley. But today I couldn't even get all the way down the lane. The truck just wanted to go down the hill into where there is a temp bell line. Anyways to make a long story short after some cursing and liberal usage of the skinny pedal I managed to get the truck out with out ripping up the bell line although it was damn close.

Does anyone have experience with snow tires in mud? I don't think we're going to get snow for a while yet, but I still have a few more loads to get rid of. I imagine they can't be any worse than the stock tires on my 4x4 dakota.

I've had the truck up to the font subframe in mud with the stock tires before without any problems.. I guess the mud is just a bit slicker at colder temps?

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

Depends on the snow tires. The Winterforce things work well enough, used Blizzaks suck complete sphincter.

I guess a set of Super Swamper Boggers or Wrangler M/Ts are outside the mudget?

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

I've got a set of Toyo G-O2 plus Open Country 245/70 R16

They look like half decent tires.. fairly open tread and the micro crap to suck away water.

I guess I will find out soon enough how they go.. it's pouring right now and I'll have to get a load out soon.

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

At work we have put the Open Counties on a lot of customer's vehicles and almost everyone is happy with them. They are a good tire that will give you long life for street use, but obviously if you are going to go sinking your machine up to the axles in mud a lot you should look to a more aggressive tread. BFG All Terrains are better and still quiet and ride like iron, but the Mud Terrain isn't that much worse on the road and has a markedly more beastly tread.

Thanks for the info Parry. The truck is a huge compromise that is actually working out well. Averaged out it is loaded to the overload leaf spring, or bump stops at least once a day. But it's also my daily transportation from city driving to muddy fields. I put on around 30k a year and the cost of gas is killing me (I should also mention that I am leveraged to my eye balls).

I mentioned I haven't had problems with traction in mud before.

The snow tires were a Christmas gift and when I asked for them I was mainly concerned with city driving and stopping a 2600kg vehicle. I've rear ended a car before in wet/cold conditions driving a previous dakota because the way the suspension and ABS is setup you will brake and then not brake for quite too long before it starts to brake again. Hard to explain if you've never driven one.. but it happens all the time when it's unloaded.

Here are some pictures of my personal hell.. happily they are a few weeks old and I've made more progress.

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

Is that clay pipe?

I've got Bridgestone Dualer AT LT 235/75/15s on my Ranger. These are kind of tall and narrow, works great on snow, not sure on mud. This thing never gets stuck though.

BTW, chevys do the same thing when braking, just remove the ABS fuse (at your own risk, though I've found it to shorten stopping distance by about a car length in heavy braking, but I think I drive differently then most). I've had Chevys that lose their breaks entirely when loaded. The stupid ABS is load limited far below the capability of the truck. My AWD ASStro vans ABS comes on in tight corner without hitting the peddle. One would think the TPS signal would cancel out the ABS computer, but I guess not.

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Scott Manley
Spokane, WA
86' XR4Ti
37

> Is that clay pipe?

Yeah, but I am removing all that is remotely feasable to remove. Clay pipe comes in 2 forms.. absolutely rock solid and wonderful or full of roots and will fall apart just by looking at it the wrong way. But if you've ever worked with it you know all this.

That particular run of pipe is gone now. All that was left hooked up to it is a floor drain I put at the bottom of the stairs (going to hook it up some other way) and the washing machine which is getting moved to under the stairs instead of the furthest corner from them.

> I've got Bridgestone Dualer AT LT 235/75/15s on my
> Ranger. These are kind of tall and narrow, works
> great on snow, not sure on mud. This thing never
> gets stuck though.

I'll find out how my snows are in mud if it ever gets cold enough to put them on. It's 8 degrees today.

> BTW, chevys do the same thing when braking, just
> remove the ABS fuse (at your own risk, though I've
> found it to shorten stopping distance by about a
> car length in heavy braking, but I think I drive
> differently then most). I've had Chevys that lose
> their breaks entirely when loaded. The stupid ABS
> is load limited far below the capability of the
> truck. My AWD ASStro vans ABS comes on in tight
> corner without hitting the peddle. One would
> think the TPS signal would cancel out the ABS
> computer, but I guess not.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks there's just something wrong with a lot of ABS setups.

Yeah I think I should pull the fuse. I've rear ended someone in a previous Dakota in rain from that. I guess what happens is all the weight goes forward and triggers the ABS and you just don't brake at all under heavy breaking.

Trucks and ABS have always been a WTF situation.. My first truck only had ABS in the rear but I don't think it ever worked.

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish