Ready for Snow!

[mark2016]

Is everyone in the path of the upcoming blizzard ready? This will be the most I've seen with my current X, looking forward to the performance! My '94 13 years ago did incredible and ate the snow up like it was a dry road, can't wait to see how the 2nd Gen holds up.

 

[Mike65]

Mark, we had a 94 Sport that was great in the snow & a 99 Sport that was also great in the snow, yours should be fine as long as you have good tires & do not drive like an idiot. Take your time & adjust your driving for the conditions & you should be fine. Our current 99 Sport we have not run it in snow yet but there is no reason why it should not be great too.

 

[C420sailor]

Ready! Just did a whole bunch of work the last few days (exhaust, brake flush/bleed, transfer case fluid, oil/filter change) and I'm excited to see how she does with fresh tires.

 

[drdoom]

My '97 absolutely eats snow, only concern is the tires have 60,000 miles on them. I have new Terra Grapplers on my '05 but I still might use my trusty 2G . It's never let me down.

 

[CDW6212R]

My '97 absolutely eats snow, only concern is the tires have 60,000 miles on them. I have new Terra Grapplers on my '05 but I still might use my trusty 2G . It's never let me down.

Snow tires, get some real snow tires if you see much of real Winter. I've had them for 20 years since I deliver mail, getting to work is so much better with snow tires.

I'm also eyeing a 98 truck in the path of the snow, I can't go to see it now given my Crown Vic. The 98 I'd like has never had new tires bought for it, it's got the same Michelins that were replaced free in the Firestone recall. Some people are lucky, imagine never buying tires for a car you own 15 years.

 

[drdoom]

I took the '97 out to stock up my girl's house with emergency supplies, roads were slick so I aired the tires down which helped a bit. Went back home and for the first time in years the CEL came on, so I changed over to my '05, aired the tires down a bit. It did excellent so far.

 

[drdoom]

Before its over I'll be wishing I'd bought those four chains :-/

 

[alohamonte]

When I lived in Oregon, I'd put chains on the rear on the way up to Mt. Hood. It's a a bit like driving over train tracks (for an hour) but safety comes first. That's when I had the all season tires and they had plenty of miles on them. Later I upgraded to 31 a/t and it would just chomp up the snow. But still, if it was icy you cant beat chains or studs.

 

[mark2016]

Coming down good in MD. I drove about 20 miles through the first part of the storm home and it handled well. The Auto 4wd kicked in a few times and I could tell. Neat system compared to my old 1st gen that had to be manually selected, I would start to slide gently into turns, which I did on purpose with space and no one else around, and the Auto would kick in and it would pull through easily. Tomorrow I may end up trying 4wHi depending on conditions. I learned how to drive in snow with a RWD car about 20 years ago with an open differential, back before "drifting" was cool.

 

[scott9050]

I bought my 99 Explorer last week and with new tires I had no problem with about 8 inches on the ground. I am at the epicenter of this blizzard in northern Virginia, so it will be interesting to see how it does wen I get off at noon.

 

[mark2016]

Pretty heavy snow in central MD, up to the body on my X. Made it a few feet in reverse in 4wd before it got stuck and had to dig it out. Once I dig out the rest of the 100' or so to the main road it looks ok, just too much to drive over without shoveling.

 

[mark2016]

Pretty heavy snow in central MD, up to the body on my X. Made it a few feet in reverse in 4wd before it got stuck and had to dig it out. Once I dig out the rest of the 100' or so to the main road it looks ok, just too much to drive over without shoveling.

Made it out into the streets! Hellacious snow and deep in a lot of spots. Drove on a few main roads and side streets and it was really bad, but the X handled it like a champ in 4HI but still never went above 20mph and was the only thing out there except for the plows.

 

[drdoom]

Had both of mine out, 14" with 30" drifts haven't gotten stuck yet!

 

[PAExplorerXLT]

My son dropped off his Optima and picked up the Explorer. He needed to get going at 5am and later said he would have never made it without it. My other son has a 2014 RAV4 and the all wheel drive leaves a lot to be desired. Easily got stock in his parking lot. Never got all wheels going. Those street tires easily got loose and on top of that the engine would cut power just when you need it. Traction Control at work I assume. Not fun. I wonder if our AWD works the same way.

 

[CDW6212R]

My son dropped off his Optima and picked up the Explorer. He needed to get going at 5am and later said he would have never made it without it. My other son has a 2014 RAV4 and the all wheel drive leaves a lot to be desired. Easily got stock in his parking lot. Never got all wheels going. Those street tires easily got loose and on top of that the engine would cut power just when you need it. Traction Control at work I assume. Not fun. I wonder if our AWD works the same way.

No offense, but your V6 truck has 4WD, not AWD, and no it doesn't have any of that complicated traction control.

Only the V8 96-01's had AWD, which has no shift motor or electronics. The V6 4WD is electronic, with a shift motor, and the selection you miss described is automatic 4WD. Shorten the name if you like, but that'd be A4WD, not AWD. Regards,

 

[PAExplorerXLT]

No offense, but your V6 truck has 4WD, not AWD, and no it doesn't have any of that complicated traction control.

Only the V8 96-01's had AWD, which has no shift motor or electronics. The V6 4WD is electronic, with a shift motor, and the selection you miss described is automatic 4WD. Shorten the name if you like, but that'd be A4WD, not AWD. Regards,

In that case I have to correct my avatar information. So how does this "automatic" 4WD work? Do all 4 wheels kick in? I have a Dodge Dakota too and when I manually switch to 4WD I don't get full engagement in all 4s. Just the right front and left rear at the same time. To me anything short of ALL wheels getting power is really not 4WD.

 

[drdoom]

Wikipedia has a good Explorer page, you can read about ControlTrac there if you like, it's pretty informative.

 

[CDW6212R]

The Ford A4WD you have uses speed sensors(ABS) to detect tire speed difference between front and back. When it sees it, it engages an electric "clutch" within the transfer case, basically locking the front driveshaft to the same speed as the rear.

The problem with one tire spinning on one side(front or back), is separate from the transfer case. That's all about the differential between those two tires, so the front diff, or the rear diff. Maybe half of all "4WD" vehicles have "open" diffs front and back, which means two tires will spin, one front and one back. That means half of the power goes to each spinning tire, and none to the others.

A traction loc rear diff will try to split the rear power equally to those tires. Check your door jamb VIN tag for the rear axle code, you want to see a letter there, not a number. None of the Explorer fronts came with any locking diff, only aftermarket units can be had for those. Generally only serious off road trucks get those special front diffs, virtually no street vehicles have them. So basically all vehicles will spin at least one front tire on really slick surfaces.

 

[scott9050]

Pretty heavy snow in central MD, up to the body on my X. Made it a few feet in reverse in 4wd before it got stuck and had to dig it out. Once I dig out the rest of the 100' or so to the main road it looks ok, just too much to drive over without shoveling.

Had the same problem and got stuck twice when the snow piled up. Wound up getting 30 inches and got stuck twice.

 

[mark2016]

Had the same problem and got stuck twice when the snow piled up. Wound up getting 30 inches and got stuck twice.

I found mine was better off in the Auto setting vs 4HI, kicked in when needed and chewed it up nicely. Went driving more yesterday and today and it's great. The 1st and 2nd Gens continue to be impressive in their capabilities.