1-day Snow Wheeling Trip near Foresthill, CA - A Jeep, a Canyon and a Ram 2500

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JCWages

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Grass Valley, CA, USA
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Justin
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Wages
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1. Big heavy trucks are terrible in snow
2. Always carry proper recovery gear
3. Buy a quality air compressor with a 20min+ run time
4. The Falken Wildpeak A/T3W and our trucks are pretty capable in snow
5. Airing down the tires is a VERY good idea, especially for heavy rigs

Northern California is getting hit with a little storm that is dumping a bunch of snow in the Sierra Nevada. That means it's snow wheeling time! My buddy sent me a text at 7am yesterday asking if I was going wheeling. He recently picked up a nice Jeep Wrangler and has been itching to go out with me. So of course I dropped everything I was doing (house remodeling stuff), loaded up the truck and headed out in search of adventure.

The first stop was Tractor Supply for some sand bags. Last time I was in the snow I had some traction issues on inclines with the heavy wet snow. I figured some weight in the rear would be helpful. 300lbs of sand should be good. :grin2: I bought 2 extra bags for the work truck. But I like how much better it rides I'm going to leave 200lbs in the bed for while.


My Jeep buddy brought along a friend with a huge Ram 2500 diesel with a 3" lift and 37" mud tires. But I'm not intimidated by these guys.... Nope. lol It didn't take long before we found snow. Unfortunately it was a really wet rainy sleety type snow. That is fine from a traction standpoint but it sucks getting out of the rigs and getting drenched.

[/IMG]

We let the Ram lead since he lives in the area and knew where we were going. It didn't take long before our progress was halted. Turns out the Ram is so heavy that it keeps sinking the front end in the snow and getting stuck. They tried shoveling snow from around the tires considering the snow was only 1.5' - 2' deep at most. That didn't work. Nathan then used his Jeep to try and tug the Ram free but that didn't work either and was starting to look unsafe so I grabbed the Maxsa traction boards. Originally we placed them behind the tires but didn't get the front edges under enough tire tread to grab. We repositioned them and viola, instant success. I was happy to see that despite 30F temps and that heavy truck the boards didn't crack or melt when he spun the tires on them.


After that the Ram backed down the hill and tried to park but promptly got stuck again. Nathan and I continued up the hill without even a hint of slippage. At the top we parked and Nathan walked back down the hill to check on the Ram and see if he wanted to leave it parked and ride with us. I waited up top with Ellie where I threw sticks for her to fetch in the deep snow drifts and took glam shots of my truck. :)





Still waiting....



After awhile I went down to check on the group and they were trying to air down the massive tires on the Ram but nobody had a pressure gauge down here. lol So we all took pieces of broken twigs to depress the tire valves and release air while we tried to visually judge what 20psi would look like in a 37" E-metric mud terrain.... We air them down until we can see a decent sidewall bulge then head back up the hill towards the other rigs and the Ram slowly creeps up the hill that had thwarted his progress multiple times when his tires were at regular street pressure. Once he was up with the other rigs we used my pressure gauge to set his tires at 23psi. We had gotten them to around 28psi+- using the twigs. They had some serious bulge at 23psi and without beadlocks we didn't want to risk blowing a bead. I don't have experience with such heavy trucks and he usually drives it in sand. 37s, powerful diesel and massive King shocks must be a blast!


Nathan leading us now with me behind and the Ram behind me. As we climbed the snow got a little deeper and tracks from earlier traffic were disappearing. Still, no trouble with traction. It became a game to see who could get out of the deep ruts and stay out of them the longest.



After a few more miles we reach a peak and the tracks ran out and the trail headed downhill and curved to the left. Both trucks stopped at the top and the Jeep proceeded forward to scout it out a bit so we wouldn't risk all of us getting stuck. Up to this point the Canyon and Jeep had zero issues. We just floated on top of the snow but the Ram and gotten fully stuck twice and semi-stuck more than a few times. With the storm just getting started we knew that everything we had already been through would only be getting worse on the return trip.



The Jeep made it just around the corner before getting stuck.


I stood around for a bit to see if he could get unstuck by himself while his dad and dad's friend went down to help/watch. So I took more photos. :)



After a bit it looked like he was definitely stuck and the Maxsa boards were up here in the bed of the Ram. Here was my chance to rescue a Jeep! I proceeded to do a 20 point turn between the ruts while avoiding hitting the Ram. It's amazing how hard it is to get out of deep ruts without momentum. I finally got turned around and started to back down the hill so I could tug the Jeep free. As I pulled into view of the Jeep I noticed Nathan was methodically but frantically trying to back the Jeep up the hill. He kept sliding into the little ditch on the left side of the road but he was always able to extract himself with a little back and forth "rocking" and some steering wheel input. I stopped my truck and watched him slip and slide around the trail going this way and that and almost doing circles while making his way back to the top. It was comical to say the least. Short wheelbase vehicles are so much fun. LOL Unfortunately I didn't get any photos or videos of the action.

We decided it was safer to call it here and turn around. There were plenty of side trails back down the mountain where we could explore with less risk of getting stuck on the wrong side of the mountain. I figured since we couldn't really plow fresh snow and look Instagram cool we could at least ram the ruts and have some fun.


One the way back down the hill we took a side trail and found a little puddle to play in. I had seen an "overland outfitted" Tacoma run through it a few minutes before and from my angle it looked a lot deeper than it turned out to be. It was still fin trying to drench my cell phone though. The phone survived (it's waterproof) but the sound got kinda funky after the first pass and I had to let it dry by the heater vents before I could plug it back in to charge.


We left the rigs in 2wd and had a bit of fun. Again, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Wildpeaks did in the muddy snowy slushy muck. Especially in 2wd. It was actually kinda hard to break the tires loose and get sideways without putting the pedal to the floor. All traction nannies were turned off.




We started back down the main paved road towards Michigan Bluff/Foresthill but it was raining pretty hard and no one wanted to pull over and air up the tires in that so we drove for a bit keeping max speed around 45mph. I was keeping an eye on my tire pressure on the dash display to watch for evidence of the tires heating up. After 5 miles or so I observed a 2psi gain and that was enough for me to call it. I figure if my tiny 33" tires are heating up then the 35s on the Jeep and the 37s on the Ram are probably worse off. We found a spot to pull over and the rain let up slightly. I pulled out my little Smittybilt 2.54CFM compressor and Nathan produced a little cigarette lighter powered compressor. Everyone came over to check out my setup and we discussed the merits of a decent compressor vs. the cheap units from Walmart and scuba tanks pre-pressurized. I mentioned the importance of run time when considering a compressor. On average it takes about 2min to air up a 33" tire from 20psi to 35psi. So times 4 that's umm 8 minutes. My compressor has a continuous duty run time for about 40min at 40psi and 75F temps. That is more than sufficient for my personal needs. But if you are airing up multiple rigs and temps are in the high 90s or higher than you can start to run into trouble and will overheat the compressor. As if to make my point for me. When Nathan unplugged his little compressor to air up the remaining 2 tires the compressor quit on him and wouldn't turn back on. So we used my compressor to air up his remaining tires and get the Ram aired up to a decent street pressure of 35psi. I didn't take photos of the airing up process but this was pretty cool! The heater system in the Jeep had stopped working and while airing up we noticed his return lines? were completely white with frost. It looked pretty neat.



From this point we parted ways. It was a good day.
 
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Magic Mike

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Rapid City, South Dakota, United States
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1. Big heavy trucks are terrible in snow
2. Always carry proper recovery gear
3. Buy a quality air compressor with a 20min+ run time
4. The Falken Wildpeak A/T3W and our trucks are pretty capable in snow
5. Airing down the tires is a VERY good idea, especially for heavy rigs

Northern California is getting hit with a little storm that is dumping a bunch of snow in the Sierra Nevada. That means it's snow wheeling time! My buddy sent me a text at 7am yesterday asking if I was going wheeling. He recently picked up a nice Jeep Wrangler and has been itching to go out with me. So of course I dropped everything I was doing (house remodeling stuff), loaded up the truck and headed out in search of adventure.

The first stop was Tractor Supply for some sand bags. Last time I was in the snow I had some traction issues on inclines with the heavy wet snow. I figured some weight in the rear would be helpful. 300lbs of sand should be good. :grin2: I bought 2 extra bags for the work truck. But I like how much better it rides I'm going to leave 200lbs in the bed for while.


My Jeep buddy brought along a friend with a huge Ram 2500 diesel with a 3" lift and 37" mud tires. But I'm not intimidated by these guys.... Nope. lol It didn't take long before we found snow. Unfortunately it was a really wet rainy sleety type snow. That is fine from a traction standpoint but it sucks getting out of the rigs and getting drenched.

[/IMG]

We let the Ram lead since he lives in the area and knew where we were going. It didn't take long before our progress was halted. Turns out the Ram is so heavy that it keeps sinking the front end in the snow and getting stuck. They tried shoveling snow from around the tires considering the snow was only 1.5' - 2' deep at most. That didn't work. Nathan then used his Jeep to try and tug the Ram free but that didn't work either and was starting to look unsafe so I grabbed the Maxsa traction boards. Originally we placed them behind the tires but didn't get the front edges under enough tire tread to grab. We repositioned them and viola, instant success. I was happy to see that despite 30F temps and that heavy truck the boards didn't crack or melt when he spun the tires on them.


After that the Ram backed down the hill and tried to park but promptly got stuck again. Nathan and I continued up the hill without even a hint of slippage. At the top we parked and Nathan walked back down the hill to check on the Ram and see if he wanted to leave it parked and ride with us. I waited up top with Ellie where I threw sticks for her to fetch in the deep snow drifts and took glam shots of my truck. :)





Still waiting....



After awhile I went down to check on the group and they were trying to air down the massive tires on the Ram but nobody had a pressure gauge down here. lol So we all took pieces of broken twigs to depress the tire valves and release air while we tried to visually judge what 20psi would look like in a 37" E-metric mud terrain.... We air them down until we can see a decent sidewall bulge then head back up the hill towards the other rigs and the Ram slowly creeps up the hill that had thwarted his progress multiple times when his tires were at regular street pressure. Once he was up with the other rigs we used my pressure gauge to set his tires at 23psi. We had gotten them to around 28psi+- using the twigs. They had some serious bulge at 23psi and without beadlocks we didn't want to risk blowing a bead. I don't have experience with such heavy trucks and he usually drives it in sand. 37s, powerful diesel and massive King shocks must be a blast!


Nathan leading us now with me behind and the Ram behind me. As we climbed the snow got a little deeper and tracks from earlier traffic were disappearing. Still, no trouble with traction. It became a game to see who could get out of the deep ruts and stay out of them the longest.



After a few more miles we reach a peak and the tracks ran out and the trail headed downhill and curved to the left. Both trucks stopped at the top and the Jeep proceeded forward to scout it out a bit so we wouldn't risk all of us getting stuck. Up to this point the Canyon and Jeep had zero issues. We just floated on top of the snow but the Ram and gotten fully stuck twice and semi-stuck more than a few times. With the storm just getting started we knew that everything we had already been through would only be getting worse on the return trip.



The Jeep made it just around the corner before getting stuck.


I stood around for a bit to see if he could get unstuck by himself while his dad and dad's friend went down to help/watch. So I took more photos. :)



After a bit it looked like he was definitely stuck and the Maxsa boards were up here in the bed of the Ram. Here was my chance to rescue a Jeep! I proceeded to do a 20 point turn between the ruts while avoiding hitting the Ram. It's amazing how hard it is to get out of deep ruts without momentum. I finally got turned around and started to back down the hill so I could tug the Jeep free. As I pulled into view of the Jeep I noticed Nathan was methodically but frantically trying to back the Jeep up the hill. He kept sliding into the little ditch on the left side of the road but he was always able to extract himself with a little back and forth "rocking" and some steering wheel input. I stopped my truck and watched him slip and slide around the trail going this way and that and almost doing circles while making his way back to the top. It was comical to say the least. Short wheelbase vehicles are so much fun. LOL Unfortunately I didn't get any photos or videos of the action.

We decided it was safer to call it here and turn around. There were plenty of side trails back down the mountain where we could explore with less risk of getting stuck on the wrong side of the mountain. I figured since we couldn't really plow fresh snow and look Instagram cool we could at least ram the ruts and have some fun.


One the way back down the hill we took a side trail and found a little puddle to play in. I had seen an "overland outfitted" Tacoma run through it a few minutes before and from my angle it looked a lot deeper than it turned out to be. It was still fin trying to drench my cell phone though. The phone survived (it's waterproof) but the sound got kinda funky after the first pass and I had to let it dry by the heater vents before I could plug it back in to charge.


We left the rigs in 2wd and had a bit of fun. Again, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Wildpeaks did in the muddy snowy slushy muck. Especially in 2wd. It was actually kinda hard to break the tires loose and get sideways without putting the pedal to the floor. All traction nannies were turned off.




We started back down the main paved road towards Michigan Bluff/Foresthill but it was raining pretty hard and no one wanted to pull over and air up the tires in that so we drove for a bit keeping max speed around 45mph. I was keeping an eye on my tire pressure on the dash display to watch for evidence of the tires heating up. After 5 miles or so I observed a 2psi gain and that was enough for me to call it. I figure if my tiny 33" tires are heating up then the 35s on the Jeep and the 37s on the Ram are probably worse off. We found a spot to pull over and the rain let up slightly. I pulled out my little Smittybilt 2.54CFM compressor and Nathan produced a little cigarette lighter powered compressor. Everyone came over to check out my setup and we discussed the merits of a decent compressor vs. the cheap units from Walmart and scuba tanks pre-pressurized. I mentioned the importance of run time when considering a compressor. On average it takes about 2min to air up a 33" tire from 20psi to 35psi. So times 4 that's umm 8 minutes. My compressor has a continuous duty run time for about 40min at 40psi and 75F temps. That is more than sufficient for my personal needs. But if you are airing up multiple rigs and temps are in the high 90s or higher than you can start to run into trouble and will overheat the compressor. As if to make my point for me. When Nathan unplugged his little compressor to air up the remaining 2 tires the compressor quit on him and wouldn't turn back on. So we used my compressor to air up his remaining tires and get the Ram aired up to a decent street pressure of 35psi. I didn't take photos of the airing up process but this was pretty cool! The heater system in the Jeep had stopped working and while airing up we noticed his return lines? were completely white with frost. It looked pretty neat.



From this point we parted ways. It was a good day.
Looks like you guys had a great time!
 
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Magic Mike

US Full-time/Long Term Travel Ambassador
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Rapid City, South Dakota, United States
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Service Branch
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It was a blast. Nice that we didn't to drive far either. I never thought Foresthill Rd could be fun to drive but dump a bunch of snow on it and viola! LOL
Shoot me a line the next time, haven’t wheeled in the snow in a long time.
 
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Shrunkendead

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Looks like a nice day. We love it up around the old well pump thats past Deadwood. Probably way too deep to get up that far now.
 
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