Stuck, icy steep driveway (1 Viewer)

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Deleting repost

Join at the silver level and you can actually DEKETE accidental goofs. :)
Here is what my driveway looks like and will most likely until Mid May. 12-15 degree slope.

View attachment 1886270

Holy smokes! I was imagining just a short, cement driveway in front of a garage when I mentioned a quick blast of fire! ! Lol! I’d like to see someone try to melt that... haga
 
I have the opposite problem I live at the bottom of the hill and need to be careful I don't lose control and end up in the retention pond. I ran into a problem once where multiple cars were sliding out of control down the hill on an icy night like tonight. Now I usually use little momentum to steer the vehicle into my driveway.
 
Sand is your friend on that driveway, as is a set of steelie's or other take off's with studded snow tires on them.
 
Join at the silver level and you can actually DEKETE accidental goofs. :)


Holy smokes! I was imagining just a short, cement driveway in front of a garage when I mentioned a quick blast of fire! ! Lol! I’d like to see someone try to melt that... haga
We put studs on all the vehicles in the winter. It’s about 4” thick currently even with me being accessive about snow removal. I do use a torch in the spring as I have about 10’ in front of my garage that never gets sun.
It’s slow going but I have This one:
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We put studs on all the vehicles in the winter. It’s about 4” thick currently even with me being accessive about snow removal. I do use a torch in the spring as I have about 10’ in front of my garage that never gets sun.
It’s slow going but I have This one:
View attachment 1886291View attachment 1886290

Well thanks for confirming that my idea wasn’t kooky after all. :)

Harbor Freight actually sells one like that with a piezo igniter built in for a mere $29.99...or $19.99 without the igniter built in.
The thing is an absolute beast. Literally sounds like a fighter jet, and spits out an astounding amount of flame/heat.

Just last night I was blasting weeds in the cracks between my driveway bricks...and it’s frankly a lot of fun to blast.
 
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In the short term, salt and sand. In the long term, get some real winter tires like Nokians. Studded snow tires would be the best on ice.

As others have said, the issue is the coefficient of friction between the road surface and your tires. If that coefficient is too low, even the best 4WD system won’t get you up the hill. You can improve the coefficient of friction by improving the road surface (salt and sand), or by improving your tires (winter compound, studs), or both.
 
Well thanks for confirming my idea wasn’t so kooky after all. :)

Harbor Freight actually sells one like that with a piezo igniter built in for a mere $29.99.
The thing is an absolute beast. Literally sounds like a fighter jet, and spits out an astounding amount of flame/heat.

Just last night I was blasting weeds in the cracks between my driveway bricks.
Mine sounds like a jet it’s like 20k BTUs. Very slow going. I just use it in the spring to cut channels in the ice so water has somewhere to go durring the day. Otherwise the ice takes over when thigs freeze overnight. The joy of springtime in Alaska.
 
Mine sounds like a jet it’s like 20k BTUs. Very slow going. I just use it in the spring to cut channels in the ice so water has somewhere to go durring the day. Otherwise the ice takes over when thigs freeze overnight. The joy of springtime in Alaska.

If it’s anything like this one, I’d wager it is waaaaaay more than 20,000BTU.

Need to get up a video of it one of these days...
 
+1 to a set of proper winter tires over the KO2s.

With a steep driveway, I would also make sure the winter tires are studded - that's the only way to have reliable traction on ice.
 
Sand if the ice is thick and white..... salt (and wait for some melting) if the ice is clear and not so thick. If you can’t walk on it, neither can the truck....
 
Out! The little bit of snow that fell gave enough traction that in 4lo with center diff locked the truck idled up the driveway in reverse. Thanks for all the tips.
 
I’m with @coleAK and others. KO2s in warm months. Nokia’s Hakkas in winter. As much as anything it is about the rubber compounds more than the tread. Oh, and siping helps a lot. I keep kitty litter in the LC and in our garage. Had problems with salt on our cement walk a while back - messed up he cement. As @mcgaskins suggested, I keep Maxtrax on top and a shovel that I can use to chip away at ice just in case though in ice the Maxtrax aren’t all that helpful as they are stiff. Some have suggested studs tires but if the ice is a very rare occurrence you may not want to be driving around on studs all year.
 
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Kitty litter and sand are better than salt. Plus we don't want any more rusty Land Cruisers.
 
Well thanks for confirming that my idea wasn’t kooky after all. :)

Harbor Freight actually sells one like that with a piezo igniter built in for a mere $29.99...or $19.99 without the igniter built in.
The thing is an absolute beast. Literally sounds like a fighter jet, and spits out an astounding amount of flame/heat.

Just last night I was blasting weeds in the cracks between my driveway bricks...and it’s frankly a lot of fun to blast.


Yep. I can start a blaze in my fire pit in less than 30 seconds.
 
We used to live on a (small) mountain in Virginia. Several steep switchbacks, similar to what @coleAK showed for his driveway. Only occasional snow but we'd regularly get freezing rain. Aside from chains, the best traction was throwing some gravel stone chips on the road - the neighborhood actually some gravel barrels off the road you could shovel into the hill for traction if needed.
 
So I saw at least one recommendation for using the CDL in this instance.. but was under the impression the center differential is particularly helpful in ice. Is that only when turning?
 
I would definitely lock the center diff in this situation, but it still can't overcome the basic problem of inadequate coefficient of friction between the tires and the road surface.
 
I run Blizaaks on a different set of wheels on my 200 during the winter, better than Hakka's, which aren't really that great. Michelin Ice-X is another good performer. The Blizaaks come in a close to stock size. They don't offer anything bigger, so they don't look all that great on, but they function very well. Don't do studs as they are crappy doing everything (stopping, cornering, slush, wet, dry) other than clear ice at around freezing. Mud and AT tires are horrible on the frozen stuff. I have commercial cables for really nasty stuff. They are pretty easy to put on and take off. Sand will surely help.
 
Get one of these:


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