[The_Lizard]

Yesterday I visited my friend with the hickory forest, and we made the year's first fire in the snow-filled fire ring. The stones for this ring are the ones in the back of my car as seen in my Gallery section.

My friend had been drinking, um, all day. (I had only started with chilled vodka at lunch with my parents, but that's another story.) I got a small fire started, and my friend said he was going back to his house to sleep for a while. Fine, I thought, I'll just enjoy hanging out in these snowy woods with my car and the radio.

So I was surprised several minutes later when he drove up in his Honda Passport. But he didn't quite make it to the campsite...

He did not apply the throttle steadily, and he could not make it up the slope to the site. The truck started to dig through the snow and into the leaf litter. I stood and watched as one front wheel spun and the other stood still. To be fair, I should mention that the tires were half-worn and they didn't have much bite.

Ahh, the aromas of hot axle grease, rubber, and steam...

After enough of this amusement, I told him to wait while I pulled out my tow strap. I hooked my OB up to the truck, but I didn't have enough weight and grip to pull it up out of the holes it had dug. I could have tried harder by snapping the tension on the strap, but I didn't want to stress my rig. Plus, I had the sense to quit before I dug myself in, too.

Later, I looked at my car's wheelspin spots, and saw that three of the four tires had spun.

Well, it was time to bail him out. So I got in the truck, and backed it out of its wheelsipn holes, downslope. Then I very gently pulled it forward at a different angle, and got it out under its own power, with very little fuss. He got in, and I drove back to his house.

Conclusion: the OB was better in the snow, without feeling like a truck when you drive it. However, it's a bit lightweight for pulling a truck out of a hole. And both vehicles suffered from not having a slip limiter in the front diff.

PS: I haven't been out to the car yet this morning, but I'll bet it smells like wood smoke.

 

[The_Lizard]

An image of the car in the woods

 

[Jondalar]

WOW looks so cool having snowy woods to drive around in, something I can only dream about here, snow like that is a good days drive away from me even in the middle of winter

 

[Kevin]

Well I've pulled two Jeeps out before with my OB, a '03 JGC and Wrangler. I can say that the H6-3.0 has some serious balls, I mean I never would have even thought it would do what it had done :17:
Pulling for my car was somewhat of a struggle, although I'd say most of it was due to the crap RE-92 tires.

And yes taking an Outback into the woods is great, let alone snowy woods but I don't know if I'm vailiant enough to do that yet. Maybe when I get some Nokian WR's

 

[The_Lizard]

And yes taking an Outback into the woods is great, let alone snowy woods but I don't know if I'm vailiant enough to do that yet.

This is old snow that has melted and refrozen to a little more than an inch, was probably about 5 inches before. Nothing much to bog down in, but enough to make the surface more slippery.

The real trick to driving in woods is, don't lose track of where the trees are especially when you're backing and/or turning, parking, etc. It sometimes helps to get out and inspect where you think you can fit, before you actually try it.

Edited to add, I cleared the undergrowth out of that site late last summer with a Ryobi 790r with a brush blade - and a rake.