Unexpected: Snow/Ice Benefit of LRA 24 gallon tank (1 Viewer)

[Heritage 2020]

Greetings,

The roads are quite icy here, which is not a regular occurrence. I filled the LRA 24 gallon tank on the LC last night—just to have 65 gallons in the tank just in case. Mine has F/R Harrop lockers, but if you have no grip,…, traction systems don’t help.

On a drive this morning, I will say that the 40 gallons over the rear axle create a subjective “planted” feeling—which is good to have on ice/snow. It’s subjective because I can sense it when testing my grip levels.

My subjective feel is based on driving our other current family trucks—AEV Rubicon and Super Duty PSD (both 4wd) under similar conditions (KM3s and Falken AT3Ws). Both of our other family trucks have significantly less weight (4 door Jeep and a pickup) over the rear due to fuel tank placement on those vehicles.

Never thought that having more gas over the rear would make such a difference.

If you are out and about on icy/snowy roads—please be safe!

 

[OregonLC]

Good call on keeping the tanks topped. And not just for traction. We live in snow country and try to treat the 1/2 mark as 'empty' in the winter. Accidents, down trees, unexpected weather can stack up and put you beyond fuel range in winter conditions. Figure 1/2 gph for idle (more so for cold start) if you need to maintain shelter when stranded. Another way to put that is figure every hour of idle costs 7 miles of range.

But yes, weight can be your friend. Traction is F=μN. Increase the normal force (N) and you increase the friction for any given coefficient. That and, of course, aggressively airing down. Weight can, however, also act against you if steep. At some slope the added traction from weight becomes less than the additional force required to climb the slope. A heavy truck will also will float less if deep causing the vehicle to high center early rendering the gained traction useless.

Similar to you, I've not found that lockers benefit much on white roads. Lockers shine when the vehicle is flexed out over big obstacles with one (or more) wheels in the air. ATRAC, however is really, really good and dynamically optimizing traction without binding the vehicle up.

 

[Heritage 2020]

Good call on keeping the tanks topped. And not just for traction. We live in snow country and try to treat the 1/2 mark as 'empty' in the winter. Accidents, down trees, unexpected weather can stack up and put you beyond fuel range in winter conditions. Figure 1/2 gph for idle (more so for cold start) if you need to maintain shelter when stranded. Another way to put that is figure every hour of idle costs 7 miles of range.

But yes, weight can be your friend. Traction is F=μN. Increase the normal force (N) and you increase the friction for any given coefficient. That and, of course, aggressively airing down. Weight can, however, also act against you if steep. At some slope the added traction from weight becomes less than the additional force required to climb the slope. A heavy truck will also will float less if deep causing the vehicle to high center early rendering the gained traction useless.

Similar to you, I've not found that lockers benefit much on white roads. Lockers shine when the vehicle is flexed out over big obstacles with one (or more) wheels in the air. ATRAC, however is really, really good and dynamically optimizing traction without binding the vehicle up.

Thank you for the advice and of course the science behind it, which matches my seat of pants feel.

My experience is Jeep and Ford pickup truck oriented—and I’m appreciative of all of the insights.

 

[OSS]

And for those of use who don’t have giant gas tanks - a few sandbags thrown on the back will do the job too.

 

[NoClue]

Funny how you see Icelandic arctic trucks with gigantic tires for flotation, but I'm assuming it's for extremely deep & powdery snow

 

[Artie]

Funny how you see Icelandic arctic trucks with gigantic tires for flotation, but I'm assuming it's for extremely deep & powdery snow

Sooooo thic!