Americas Grenadier on snowy roads

[Marmota788]

Hi!

New user here, very nice to meet you all.

So sorry if this has been asked before but i couldnt find it. I am a new owner (also totally new to the 4x4 world)

I am planning to drive in east coast winter and i am confused about what would be the correct gear when the paved road is partially covered by snow (1 inch or so), slush, icy conditions etc etc…What would you reccomend? Stick to 4H? Central differential lock in high? I usually dont speed up more than 30mph on those conditions

Sorry again for the “dumb” question, as you can see i am pretty useless at this

Thanks a lor in advance

 

[anand]

with just 1" of snow or slush, just driving in a normal manner (high and unlocked) will be fine.

If there is a loss of traction between axles, you can lock the center diff while moving

 

[Marmota788]

Thanks a lot for you reply! That makes sense

 

[rur42]

I agree with anand, you shouldn't have to do anything. I was just up in some light snow a few weeks ago and just left it in high, center unlocked. Sometimes in snow I'll lock the center, but not often on a regular road.

 

[CrazyOldMan]

Wisconsinite here - 4H unlocked is fine in those conditions - no worries. Just one bit of input - the K02’s aren’t great on ice. I swapped them out last winter for dedicated snow tires - made a world of difference. Then swapped back in March when it got too warm - had a blizzard a couple of days later and immediately noticed the difference

 

[Tinerfeño]

If there is a loss of traction between axles, you can lock the center diff while moving

Actually not in the moment traction is lost! But when it is restored, yes.

 

[Baron von Teuchter]

Wisconsinite here - 4H unlocked is fine in those conditions - no worries. Just one bit of input - the K02’s aren’t great on ice. I swapped them out last winter for dedicated snow tires - made a world of difference. Then swapped back in March when it got too warm - had a blizzard a couple of days later and immediately noticed the difference

North Scotland here, 58°N and I couldn’t agree more. With a set of quality winter tyres/tires the grenadier is the best snow car I’ve ever had

 

[Marmota788]

Wisconsinite here - 4H unlocked is fine in those conditions - no worries. Just one bit of input - the K02’s aren’t great on ice. I swapped them out last winter for dedicated snow tires - made a world of difference. Then swapped back in March when it got too warm - had a blizzard a couple of days later and immediately noticed the difference

Thats my idea really. I have the all season tires (not the KO2) and most likely around december i will be getting winter tires for the season. Love the winter tires

 

[CrazyOldMan]

Thats my idea really. I have the all season tires (not the KO2) and most likely around december i will be getting winter tires for the season. Love the winter tires

The Dueler’s will probably be fine - probably a little better than K02’s for this one run. Then do winter tires next season. I run Blizzak LT’s (E rating) - the other one people like are the Hakkapeliitta LT3’s from Nokian.

 

[ECrider]

I lived in Quebec a little over two winters sometime ago and I had my first experience of proper snow driving and good sipped winter tyres - an experience I'll never forget. I could not believe some of the grip I got out of them. Oh, the rear wheel drive and manual handbrake was a great combo. Salut

 

[mcdoogs]

Tires are the main determining factor in winter driving, followed by drivetrain (awd/4wd > fwd > rwd). Toss dedicated winter tires on the Grenadier and it’ll perform as well as any well balanced car with fulltime 4wd on winters.

I may consider dedicated winter wheels to swap on, if Ineos makes the tpms programming less awful.

 

[CrazyOldMan]

I lived in Quebec a little over two winters sometime ago and I had my first experience of proper snow driving and good sipped winter tyres - an experience I'll never forget. I could not believe some of the grip I got out of them. Oh, the rear wheel drive and manual handbrake was a great combo. Salut

All the Blizzaks are manufactured in Quebec - so are my snowshoes. They know snow and ice - and apparently like it so much that they refuse to shovel their sidewalks. I would not want to be a postal carrier in Quebec.

 

[INEOS OG]

Welcome our young friend,

This is not a vehicle you have to think or overthink in the snow. Your vehicle is in four-wheel-drive all the time and unless you are up in the mountains or deep in a hollow, you’re going to find the drive mode in high range perfectly acceptable.

 

[MileHigh]

There are a couple of threads on snow tires. For mountain snow here in CO, I got Nokias LT3 studded- but I’ll be doing mostly mountain driving.

I had K03s and thought they were OK, but didn’t have them until late winter last year. The nice thing about center lock in Hi is that there isn’t a speed limit. I’d say that 4LO for snow- I’d really question if I should be out. I guess of you get stuck, going 4LO and using a rear locker to get moving? The nice thing is that with the 8spd, is that you can go pretty fast 45mph. But like I said, in those conditions, I’m going to be trying to get out of there and off the road.

What I don’t’ know is the center lock to non-locked is that happens to the ESC functionality. I know the center lock changes the functionality, or at least it says that is modified, but I don’t know by how much. I’d say on flat but slippery, standard is fine- if it gets super slick lock the center.

 

[Baron von Teuchter]

This is interesting, I’m going to investigate these Nokians

View: https://youtu.be/LS8JI2FD6-o?si=g7pbBL0TZB8c0-39

 

[vtgrenadier]

I've owned an embarrassing number of cars and not one of them went a winter season without dedicated snow tires (obviously not the ones that were stored over the winter to keep from salt exposure). My attitude from youth was: they're cheaper than an insurance deducible. At least that was the case back in the 1990s... they're now rather absurdly expensive, given that modern AWDs like my wife's XC90 insist on 21" rims, which are exponentially more costly than 17"s or 18"s.

After owning a lot of different manufacturers - Blizzaks, Pirrelis, Michelins, Hankooks, Gislaveds, Nokias - I cannot recommend the Hakkapeliittas enough. Far and away superior to any other brand, in my humble opinion. So long as my car's size is available, I'll pony up to the Hakkas. The Grenadier sits on its stock BFGs (in winter hibernation).

Non-studded has served me well, especially given the decrease in grip that studded tires offer on wet pavement. Now that our winters in northern Vermont are more "wet" than "snow," I've stuck with non-studded. The driving experience between the Rivian's Scorpion "all terrain"/ "three peak" rating vs. the Hakkapeliittas this time of year is startling.

Once upon a time, I was an off-road driving instructor, exclusively in Land Rovers. In the 90's, when the Defender and Discovery and Range Rover Classic were really ramping up in popularity, Michelin and BFG sent representatives to school. We'd have identically set-up Land Rovers, with each model of tire (A/T; M/T; Trac-Edge; etc) so that the reps could see how they performed in wet, dry, mud, sand and in winter, ice conditions to compare against. Engineers showed how siped vs. non-siped tires behaved: Mud-Terrain were like skates on ice; Trac-Edges filled with Vermont's sticky clay mud and lost traction in the middle of the trail. Since that time, the rubber compounds and number of sipes have improved dramatically... so much so, that you can squeeze the tread on the new R5s to flex the sipes with barely any effort, yet they last for thousands of miles of use.

Anyway, @Msarmota788 - any dedicated snow will be excellent and a marked improvement for NE driving. With grip comes confidence and enjoyment for driving at this time of year. Enjoy your Grenadier and Happy Thanksgiving!