It’s a snow machine

[Tom Jensen]

The last two days have given me the first opportunity to drive my ‘23 Lariat in serious snow. I’m very impressed. The vehicle, with the OEM tires, handled hills, curves, backing, and piles left by plows without a hitch. I even made some deliberate moves to test spin recovery and abrupt stopping and the truck responded beautifully. After driving lots of 4WD trucks and SUVs over the years in the Cascades, BC, the Rockies, and now in Virginia,, this truck is by far the best handling. I have one more reason to love my Lightning.

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[Pioneer74]

There were a few different brands of OEM tires. Which ones do you have?

 

[21st Century Truck]

Hey Tom,

I was out and about in my Lightning as well yesterday.

My truck has the OEM Hankooks.

Everything went really well, handling the snow drifts, the snowplow-created snow banks and ridges, etc. etc., until... about after 7 p.m. when the water that melted off the fluffy morning snow in 34 degree daytime weather and then had seeped underneath the snow began to invisibly freeze on the roads.

Around 7:30 p.m. I happened to be going to an acquaintance's house on South Taylor Street in South Arlington. This is a straight street that steeply and directly descends toward Four Mile Run down in the valley below.

...and then the truck, ABS braking the entire way, lost all traction and slid about 35 feet down the steep street, aiming directly at the 1st parked car on the right curb. No transition, no warning. No matter what I did with the steering wheel and the brake pedal, the Lightning felt just like my former M1A1 Abrams tank on iced-over Korean hillsides in Winter... when a tank loses traction, it loses 100% of it and won't stop until something at the bottom stops it. Many thanks to the Lightning demigods that my truck found its footing, kinda-sorta, about four feet from that parked car and managed to swerve left.

I then went to Clarendon in central Arlington and again had a no-warning forward slide, this time at a dead level, for about two feet into the thankfully deserted intersection. At that point I declared defeat and meekly snuck home.

I write this post to remind everyone, as the truck chose to remind me, just how heavy these wonderful trucks are, and that all the electronic safety gizmos like ABS etc. can't overcome laws of physics, in this case a layer of invisible, smooth black ice that formed yesterday evening under the existing snow & slush on streets I know very well.

 

[Tom Jensen]

Hey Tom,

I was out and about in my Lightning as well yesterday.

My truck has the OEM Hankooks.

Everything went really well, handling the snow drifts, the snowplow-created snow banks and ridges, etc. etc., until... about after 7 p.m. when the water that melted off the fluffy morning snow in 34 degree daytime weather and then had seeped underneath the snow began to invisibly freeze on the roads.

Around 7:30 p.m. I happened to be going to an acquaintance's house on South Taylor Street in South Arlington. This is a straight street that steeply and directly descends toward Four Mile Run down in the valley below.

...and then the truck, ABS braking the entire way, lost all traction and slid about 35 feet down the steep street, aiming directly at the 1st parked car on the right curb. No transition, no warning. No matter what I did with the steering wheel and the brake pedal, the Lightning felt just like my former M1A1 Abrams tank on iced-over Korean hillsides in Winter... when a tank loses traction, it loses 100% of it and won't stop until something at the bottom stops it. Many thanks to the Lightning demigods that my truck found its footing, kinda-sorta, about four feet from that parked car and managed to swerve left.

I then went to Clarendon in central Arlington and again had a no-warning forward slide, this time at a dead level, for about two feet into the thankfully deserted intersection. At that point I declared defeat and meekly snuck home.

I write this post to remind everyone, as the truck chose to remind me, just how heavy these wonderful trucks are, and that all the electronic safety gizmos like ABS etc. can't overcome laws of physics, in this case a layer of invisible, smooth black ice that formed yesterday evening under the existing snow & slush on streets I know very well.

I am shocked — shocked! — that you took a taxpayer-owned M1A1 out into dangerous driving conditions without stopping to put on chains. Aside from that, I wholly concur that F=MA everywhere, and there’s no negotiating the physics of friction with black ice. We are just Newton’s apple when we reach an icy slope. I know that hill you skated down. Luck was definitely smiling on you. Today will be a real test of ice driving all over the region. I’m staying home.

 

[21st Century Truck]

I am shocked — shocked! — that you took a taxpayer-owned M1A1 out into dangerous driving conditions without stopping to put on chains. Aside from that, I wholly concur that F=MA everywhere, and there’s no negotiating the physics of friction with black ice. We are just Newton’s apple when we reach an icy slope. I know that hill you skated down. Luck was definitely smiling on you. Today will be a real test of ice driving all over the region. I’m staying home.

...bbbbut that was Army Training Sir!

 

[Formerly]

Hey Tom,

I was out and about in my Lightning as well yesterday.

My truck has the OEM Hankooks.

Everything went really well, handling the snow drifts, the snowplow-created snow banks and ridges, etc. etc., until... about after 7 p.m. when the water that melted off the fluffy morning snow in 34 degree daytime weather and then had seeped underneath the snow began to invisibly freeze on the roads.

Around 7:30 p.m. I happened to be going to an acquaintance's house on South Taylor Street in South Arlington. This is a straight street that steeply and directly descends toward Four Mile Run down in the valley below.

...and then the truck, ABS braking the entire way, lost all traction and slid about 35 feet down the steep street, aiming directly at the 1st parked car on the right curb. No transition, no warning. No matter what I did with the steering wheel and the brake pedal, the Lightning felt just like my former M1A1 Abrams tank on iced-over Korean hillsides in Winter... when a tank loses traction, it loses 100% of it and won't stop until something at the bottom stops it. Many thanks to the Lightning demigods that my truck found its footing, kinda-sorta, about four feet from that parked car and managed to swerve left.

I then went to Clarendon in central Arlington and again had a no-warning forward slide, this time at a dead level, for about two feet into the thankfully deserted intersection. At that point I declared defeat and meekly snuck home.

I write this post to remind everyone, as the truck chose to remind me, just how heavy these wonderful trucks are, and that all the electronic safety gizmos like ABS etc. can't overcome laws of physics, in this case a layer of invisible, smooth black ice that formed yesterday evening under the existing snow & slush on streets I know very well.

Sounds like you have the rubber track pads in?

 

[Firn]

The last two days have given me the first opportunity to drive my ‘23 Lariat in serious snow. I’m very impressed. The vehicle, with the OEM tires, handled hills, curves, backing, and piles left by plows without a hitch. I even made some deliberate moves to test spin recovery and abrupt stopping and the truck responded beautifully. After driving lots of 4WD trucks and SUVs over the years in the Cascades, BC, the Rockies, and now in Virginia,, this truck is by far the best handling. I have one more reason to lov my Lightning.

Agreed! I'm no stranger to winter driving and the Lightning impressed me a lot.

 

[Tom Jensen]

There were a few different brands of OEM tires. Which ones do you have?

The Goodyear Wrangler. I’ll probably go with Michelin Defenders when the original set wears out.

 

[mb0220]

The vehicle, with the OEM tires, handled hills, curves, backing, and piles left by plows without a hitch.

Plows without a hitch leave the same kind of piles as plows WITH a hitch...

 

[Adventureboy]

Definitely the best truck that I've owned for winter conditions. On ice, you need full winter tires with lots of sipes. There is plenty of mass in the Lightning to prove Newton's laws. OEM tires are ok on snow, but @21st Century Truck's experience will be the same for all of us on ice right around the freezing temperatures.

You need as many sipes as you can fit on the tire for ice.

 

[21st Century Truck]

Definitely the best truck that I've owned for winter conditions. On ice, you need full winter tires with lots of sipes. There is plenty of mass in the Lightning to prove Newton's laws. OEM tires are ok on snow, but @21st Century Truck's experience will be the same for all of us on ice right around the freezing temperatures.

You need as many sipes as you can fit on the tire for ice.

Yeah so true.

I've got my German RUD snow chains in the truck and they work very well on ice. However, with all the main roads pretty clear, it was pointless and even dangerous to ride in my county on chains last night, with clear streets intermixed with iced-up uncleared streets.

 

[Tom Jensen]

Plows without a hitch leave the same kind of piles as plows WITH a hitch...

My English teacher mom would have been so ashamed at my grammar.

 

[Tom Jensen]

Good thoughts.

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