100 series in the snow

[Laxaholic]

I have a pretty stock 100 series landcruiser. how well will the cruiser do in the snow? deep snow?
Does anyone have any pictures?

Thanks.

 

[Surfy]

It depends on your tyres..

- With summer tyres you had a bad experince...
- With all year tyres a little better one..
- With Wintertyres you believe you are unstoppable
- With Wintertyres and chains you are nearly unstoppable


With bad tyres - 4wheel drive dont help much... just a little bit

 

[brussum]

Agree 100%. The tires make a huge difference. With a good set of dedicated winter tires, my 200 series has never had problems in the snow or ice. I have chains and have never used them (I still carry them in the winter though). With the original summer or "all season" tires that came with the vehicle, it was pathetic.

 

[Pskhaat]

My personal experience is that 1998 and 1999 LC100s have an interesting feature in their braking system which at least with my slightly more aggressive winter driving style would make me take pause. You may read more here:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series-cruisers/138355-poor-100-snow-ice-handling.html

On my 2004 (with ATRAC) I do not experience the same issues, I believe it was specific to the 98 & 99 model years. The right (not the left ) tires will make real and significant difference with a better experience.

Cheers,

 

[mhiscox]

It depends on your tyres..

What he said. My LX470 did well in the snow with reasonable tires. I ran Michelin LTX/MS tires on my 2000, which I thought were an excellent compromise for excellent pavement performance (including wet) while still very good in snow. With something more aggressive like the Goodyear Duratrac, I think it'd be tough to beat. To my mind, AATRAC is a pretty good system for the snow, and offers a real advantage over driver-controlled 4WD when you're driving on mostly bare pavement but then hit areas of snow and ice.

 

[REDrum]

Winter safety and drivability is all about snow tires and knowing traction limits. I ran GY Duratracs the first winter I had my '99 LC, they are snow biased All-seasons w/ "snowflake" rating, but, IMO were crap in the snow. I couldn't get Nokians in C or E rating so went with Firestone Winterforce in C rating. My LC 100 now handles no different than my Subaru WRX w/ Nokians on snow, ice, slush. Amazing braking threshold on fresh and hard packed snow, for fun I lock the center and rear diffs and the thing pulls like a skidder. During bad winter storms I drive around and pull out of snow banks SUVs with only all seasons, that their owners had a false sense of safety in....

 

[phsycle]

My stock 100 has been solid in the snow with BFG KO's. Not sure what you mean by "deep snow", but I'd imagine anything over a foot or so would not fair well for this or any AT tire. (depending on the snow as well).

 

[JohnnyS]

I'm very happy with mine in the snow, having ATRAC is almost cheating.

 

[Pskhaat]

I like ATRAC for the family, but it annoys me I can no longer do high-speed drift maneuvers into my driveway and around corners, nor donuts in parking lots, and no longer generally have fun driving sideways in snow+ice.

 

[Surfy]

I have the stock tyres on, that came with the car. I dont know the brand and kind of the tyre, i will post this info too later.

I was in the Swiss Alps, in every kind of kondition, and it was the best snow / icy experience i ever had with a car in snow.

Better than my Nissan GT- R with Snow Tyres, better than my Mercedes C-Class 4matic with snow tires.

Just amazing.