You're so right about turning and stopping in hard pack / icy conditions being the challenge. I've got a new set of duratracs and they're decent in the hard pack, but i'm guessing that drops over time as they wear and the sipping gets worn down.
Sunday night before the storm on Jan. 17, I had a urgent home repair issue that couldn't wait. Fortunately, Home Depot opens at 6 am. At 5:45 am Monday, took 10 minutes to clean off the '09 V6 SR5 4Runner, centre diff locked and the nanny button pressed for more than six seconds, I was off. Toytec 1/4" spacers in front and OME 10 mm spacers in the rear running stock-sized P265/70/16 Toyo Open Country AT IIs. I was like a kid. I don't recall having so much fun. 40 to 50 cm accumulation everywhere. I parked at the Home Depot exit door because nowhere was plowed yet. Try towing me in this storm. I burned through a lot of Esso 93 octane that morning because it took generous throttle applications, briefly kissing the fuel cut-off, to get moving and maintain momentum. Back in the driveway, I let it idle for 10 minutes to let the transmission oil and anything else cool down. Things get hot despite the ambient temperature when revving through deep snow.
Great topic! I have a ´06 v6 4rnr, on 18´´ Cooper Discovery AT3s. Tires are great all around, except in thick brown slush or very cold packed snow. It took lots of practice to go from an Audi SQ5 to a 4x4 truck, lots of ´´unlearning’´ to do! My 4x4 engages slowly, takes anywhere from 6 to 20 sec to kick in when moving 🙄. Sometimes I tell myself that I should have bought a v8!!
A bit late to the party but I’m running a 2018 4Runner with KO2s 275/70/17. I can’t fit 285s without a chop so I’m staying with 275s. We get lots of snow up here north of YYZ and I completely agree. The KO2s are great in deep snow. Absolute garbage in hard packed snow, wet snow or god forbid- ice.
So i have a 07 Tacoma and my wife has a 06 runner both run BFG Ko2 285 75. I live in central WA we get foot or two a year. The runner in my opinion does way better in the snow. The weight balance front to rear is perfect. Tacoma kicks ass too! But you can tell the runner does better.
I'm pretty sure you should be moving to activate 4wd. I switch mine between 35-40 mph usually and it switches with like 3 seconds and doesn't clunk when it engages. I read it on a forum somewhere and have done it that way sense but I'm not 100%. I've switched it on while stationary and it seems to take longer or just keeps blinking till I start rolling. Then for 4lo the same guy said you have to already be in 4hi and in neutral to switch.
When it doesn't want to engage it doesn't seem to matter if I'm moving or not. Normally it'll pop right in before I leave the driveway, this time it didn't. I can roll forward or back, or be driving down the street and if it doesn't want to engage, it won't no matter what I do. 4lo you definitely have to be in neutral for.
Thank you for this. I’m currently looking for tires for my 21 bronco sport badlands. I burned through the pirelli scorpions it came with in 50,000kms. They saw a lot of trails so I blamed that. Then I bought some used Falken wildpeak trails from a buddy. They had around 40k kms on them, I’ve put z15k on them and they’re done and already weather checking. I was actually looking at the eliminators today. They’ll go in my list of considerations as the price is good. Your review was a big help.
Good subject! So far, just one half-*ssed snowfall in Boston all season. For my 08 V8 4Runner, I've got full on summer tires; nothing aggressive whatsoever, but I have these plastic and metal chain like things, and haven't yet used them. Curious if you hear anything good or bad about that sort of thing. Monster snowfalls here just aren't frequent enough to justify a different tire.
On one of you posts for mods for the 4th gen 4runnner you talked about being able to trick the rear air suspension you you give me a link to something talking about because I could not find anything mentioning it
Debating on your exact same suspension setup or the eibach pro lift kit. I have a 2005 4Runner.. if you could do it over would you pick a diff suspension or are you still happy with your purchase? Also I’m planning on running a similar wheel tire setup with method 312 17x8.5 0 offset with falken wildpeaks 285/70/17
