Grampa's Jeep Snow Wheeling in Southern Idaho |
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smfulle
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 16 Sep. 2010 Location: Ogden, Utah Status: Offline Points: 6141 |
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Posted: 02 Jan. 2019 at 7:10am |
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Had a fun and interesting day in the Grampa's Jeep today.
Since I have had bad luck with the NDT tires in the snow, I put some fat clown tires on and loaded the jeep on the trailer and drove to Southern Idaho where I met my cousin and his daughter for some snow wheelin'. Here's the rigs we had. My 48 CJ2A, his jacked up TJ on wide axles and even fatter tires and what sort of looks like an XJ, also with fat tires. You can kind of see the Jeeps on the trailers here. When we got to the trail head (actually my other cousin's front yard) to unload ithe temperature was about 12 degrees. When I tried to start Grampa's jeep, the Rotella 15-40 in the crankcase was so thick that the starter would barely turn the engine over, but wouldn't start. So we pushed it off the trailer and hooked a strap on to the TJ for a pull start. In the meantime I had discovered that the steering wheel wouldn't turn. The Ross box was frozen up and wouldn't budge. Well we decided to try the pull start anyway, even though I had no steering. After about a half mile of pulling the thing I finally realized that I was still in low range and so the engine wasn't getting a fast enough spin to start. Made the difficult shift to high range with the cold 90 wt in the transfer case fighting back and got her to kick over. Didn't unhook the strap yet though because I still didn't have any steering, so the TJ just pulled me through the curves, dragging my front end around. There was packed snow on the road so it was not too traumatic a pull on the corners. Got back to the trucks and trailers and let her warm up a bit and finally the Ross box loosened up and I had some steerage. In the past, most of my snow wheeling has been in the spring, in deep snow (several feet) with a hard crust top. My NDTs would break through and leave me sitting on the frame with four tires spinning in the air. while my trail partner, on his big fat tires would stay on top and walk right along. That's why I put the fat clown tires on for this tip> I didn't think about how different the conditions are now compared to the conditions in the spring. Right now in these really cold temperatures, there is up to a foot of fresh powder snow that doesn't pack or set up very solid. It is like driving on dry sugar. My clown tires did better than my NDTs would have, but they still would spin very easily in this dry snow. I believe that I would have done way better this time, in these conditions, if I would have stayed with the NDTs and used the tire chains that I bought a few years ago to get some heavy metal on all four corners. The snow was light enough that I could have gotten the chains down through it to the hard road surface and then push that powder along with the bumper. My cousins daughter, I think she's 15, did very well in the XJ, but after getting a long ways ahead of us, she got stopped and started to back down, got off the packed track a bit and in to the powder on the low side of the road. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it's really steep just off the road and this was a bit of a scary spot for her. We dug the snow out from under the tires to get down to the gravel, then ran a ratchet strap from the roll bar on the drivers side to a tree to put on some uphill tension so she wouldn't slip down the hill, into the trees and the long drop below. I then ran a strap back to Grampa's Jeep, and while I pulled down hill and the ratchet strap kept her from sliding off the edge, and the bare graven gave her some traction, we got her out without further incident. I'm working on a little video of some of the good and bad of my experience in the snow. In the meantime, here are a few glamour still shots. Keep in mind that the temps were in the teens today. Sunny and no wind though, so it was not too bad. |
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smfulle
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 16 Sep. 2010 Location: Ogden, Utah Status: Offline Points: 6141 |
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While I'm working on my video, Ted (Rock Cred) who lives in Monticello, Utah a few miles south of Moab, was also up in the mountains near his place playing in the snow. He has NDTs on his jeep, Pepe, and he made this video of how Pepe did in the fresh powder with chains on.
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Unkamonkey
Member Joined: 23 Mar. 2016 Location: Greeley CO Status: Offline Points: 2093 |
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I've run chains a few times and they can aid a lot. I was up working for a company in Glenwood Springs that were running 10X10s. One had an old REO gear train and the other was a GMC, both from WW2 trucks. Lots of weight on the rear ends and I was told that if you chained them up, they could easily push 3 feet of snow. You can believe what you want to but I do have another about a guy that chained up his 2A to get to some people. As I said, believe what you want to but he was the guy that invented Bandag...
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uncamonkey
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jpet
Moderator Group Sponsor Member x 5 Joined: 30 Apr. 2008 Location: Ramsey, IL Status: Offline Points: 11173 |
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Looks like fun! Looking forward to the video
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CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM" "We do what we can, and we try what we can't" |
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baja 4
Member Joined: 04 May 2010 Location: Falcon, Co. Status: Offline Points: 141 |
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Looks fun, cold but fun. What pressure were you running in your tires Stan?
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smfulle
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 16 Sep. 2010 Location: Ogden, Utah Status: Offline Points: 6141 |
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Hey Ward, I ran these at about 9 lbs. less probably would have been a little better, but my experience at lower pressure is limited and my anxiety level at to whether these tubeless tires would stay on the rims was high.
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64CJ5
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 15 Nov. 2013 Location: NE Wyoming Status: Offline Points: 942 |
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When I was ranching we chained the pickups all the way around and loaded feed for the cows in the back. It was WORK. When the snow got really deep I would blade the road and feed ground with the D8 Cat. Again WORK and Cold. I do like cows. It seams we had more snow and cold 30 years ago. Have not had any 40* below weather in years. State high way 450 has not been closed often in the past few years. The ranch was a good place to raise kids. Taking a couple of Jeeps up a road with deep snow would now be fun.
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64CJ5 "Eeyore"
01TJ "Tigger" 52 M38 Severely demilitarized, "Popeye" The Coast Guard Jeep. 14 JK "Jake" To Trust Government Defys Both History and Reason. PUBLIC LAND Owner/User |
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smfulle
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 16 Sep. 2010 Location: Ogden, Utah Status: Offline Points: 6141 |
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Ok, here's the video. I had a slow talking guy do some voice over. Hope it doesn't put you to sleep.
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mictat2214
Member Joined: 12 July 2014 Location: long island Status: Offline Points: 93 |
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Dangerous, life threatening stuff!!
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Rick G
Member Joined: 17 May 2015 Location: Amarillo, TX Status: Offline Points: 1467 |
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That looked fun, Stan! If we get any accumulation here this winter I’m going to try out the pizza cutters and I’ll share my results 😉
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jeeper50
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 01 Mar. 2008 Location: Spanish Fort AL Status: Offline Points: 2579 |
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Looks and acts like the beach sand down in florida just much warmer I suppose. Great video guess you'll be changing the lubricant in the ross or was it something else that had it frozen up?
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Belleview ol skool winch soon. '48 CJ2A 283 V8 sm 420 granny low, tera low D18, overdrive,lockers Texan at heart,Alabama by retirement |
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bobevans
Member Joined: 31 July 2005 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Status: Offline Points: 844 |
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Sweet. Thanks for sharing !
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'48 CJ2A
'56 DJ3A '79 CJ7 And two of them actually run! |
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Flatfender Ben
Member Joined: 13 July 2014 Location: Nyssa OR Status: Offline Points: 2657 |
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Oh Man that makes me want to Flatfender in the snow!!
Wheels and tires look better than the clown shoes you ran before I like the steel wheels. What size and make are those tires? Thanks for taking us on a cold ride from our couches
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1946 cj2a desert dog
1946 cj2a bulldog 1948 cj2a blue jeep 1953 cj3b yard dog 1955 willys wagon 1955 willys pickup 1956 willys pickup boomer 1960 fc 170 1968 jeepster commando 1990 Grand wagoneer |
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jpet
Moderator Group Sponsor Member x 5 Joined: 30 Apr. 2008 Location: Ramsey, IL Status: Offline Points: 11173 |
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Wish I was there. How did the other guys do?
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CJ2A #29110 "General Willys"
MB #204827 "BAM BAM" "We do what we can, and we try what we can't" |
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smfulle
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 16 Sep. 2010 Location: Ogden, Utah Status: Offline Points: 6141 |
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The other jeeps had fat tires with deeper cleats than these tires so they did a bit better, although I didn't feel ashamed or embarrassed.
Honestly, I have no idea about these tires. I have not examined them very closely but I didn't see any identification on them. I think they are some sort of sand tire that come's with grooves around the tire sort of like a front tractor tire. It looks like someone used some sort of hot knife or something to cut cross bars across the tread so now they have a checker board pattern. They were given to me so I can't complain at all about them. |
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Mike F
Member Joined: 12 Aug. 2018 Location: Longview wa Status: Offline Points: 684 |
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Those tires don’t really fit the picture of snow tires in my mind. I’d bet they would do very well with chains on them though. or maybe chains on the rear and strap some skis on the front. Love your videos.
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Doug Timme
Member Joined: 27 Aug. 2005 Location: St. Louis Missouri Status: Offline Points: 1399 |
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I have the 16 X 6.0 Firestone knobby tires on my CJ. I have only had it out in the snow a few times, but was really impressed on how well they did in the snow. Lots of bite.
Doug
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wheelie
Member Sponsor Member Joined: 25 Jan. 2011 Location: red lion. pa Status: Offline Points: 814 |
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My first thought, when I saw those boots, was "ice racer." Of course, there are no studs in Stans tires but the tread design made me think of it.
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