I Am Moving To Burlington Vermont From Phoenix With My Wife. Just Bought A 2006 2wd Tacoma Trd Sport With Lsd In Oct. 2006. Will This Do In The Harsh Vermont Winter Or Will I Definatly Need 4wd. Will Snow Tires, Limited Slip Diff, And Some Sand Bags In The Bed Be Good Enough? I'm Not Going Off Road Strickly Street Or Hwy, Maybe The Occasional Dirt Road. Advice Please!
I grew up in upstate NY and saw alot of people do just fine with 2wd truck. Put a few sand bags over the rear wheels and run a good stud snow tires. You should be fine.
I grew up in upstate NY, too, near the southern end of Lake Champlain. Owned two 2WD pickups and never thought about a 4WD until I moved here to PA. The difference is they clean the snow off roads up there better and faster. A sandbag or two and studs should keep you going fine. Beware of Champ (the Lake Champlain cousin of the Loch Ness monster)!
The can freeze, weigh up to 300lbs, and won't slide around. (tie down straps or rings on all 4 corners I think)
I had stock tires, so hopefully the ones I have now will help, but last winter I put in 4hi whenever the road was white. Fish-tailing on a hill 2 weeks after taking delivery made my a lil paranoid I guess. It's also my first RWD vehicle so I was getting used to that I suppose.
Better tires with MUCH deeper tread, and more weight should be fine tho. The sand bags seemed to help a bit IF i could keep them close to the tailgate. If they were up near the cab it was almost like they weren't there. And that was 180lbs. I'm hoping that Shur Trax thing covering the whole bed with twice the weight will work better.
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Toytec 3" lift & AAL, 285/75r16 Kumho Road Venture
DTRL, Fog Light, locker, & diff breather mods, Bestop Supertop, Hi-Lift mount, hood struts, reinforced tailgate, BHLM, ABS kill switch, bed lights, rock lights
I guess it also depends on what roads you'll be driving daily. You say mainly just highway so I don't think you'll have a problem. I don't take my truck out of four wheel drive almost all winter unless the roads are dry. We live on dirt roads and really hilly terrain so 2wd is basically worthless.
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2005 DC Sport, 6spd, 265/70/R17 BF Goodrich AT KO's, Leer 100XQ Cap.......
Get 4 good snow tires and get 4 steel rims to save the $100 tice a year to switch out the snows/summers. Skip the studs unless you are extremely conservative or are expecting to drive very curvy or steep roads. They are loud and don't handle as well!
Skip the studs unless you are extremely conservative or are expecting to drive very curvy or steep roads. They are loud and don't handle as well!
And suck even more gas too! I had studs on my corolla (only the front) and I easily lost 5-10 mpg that winter! It went from around 34mpg to as low as 25mpg on some tanks!
I have no idea how much it would affect the truck, but with gas prices the way they are I'm sure you don't want to double the number of fill ups to get you through the winter!
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Toytec 3" lift & AAL, 285/75r16 Kumho Road Venture
DTRL, Fog Light, locker, & diff breather mods, Bestop Supertop, Hi-Lift mount, hood struts, reinforced tailgate, BHLM, ABS kill switch, bed lights, rock lights
Get Blizzaks on rims, you'll be fine. Throw a couple hundred pounds in the back. 600 bucks rather than getting killed on trade and getting a 4wd. You'll do better in 2wd with snow tires than 4wd w/ stock treads. I lose about 2 mpg in winter due to cold temps and winter tires.
I lived on the tug hill (200-300 inches a year) with snow tires and only 2wd for a decade.
__________________ 6-spd, 05' D-cab Sport 4x4, Tow pkg, TRD exhaust Summer: Stock 17's Winter: Blizzaks on 16' black steelies
Last edited by demoncleaner; 11-11-2006 at 02:17 PM.
I'm going ot be the "odd" one and say trade up to 4wd. Your ability to drive in the snow will come with less anxiety and fear, making you drive more confidently.
The 4wd, should you choose to trade it in a few years from now will also provide a higher resale % than a 2wd truck up here.
My $.02.
Dale
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1998 T4R Ltd, many miles down, many more to go!!!
I'm going ot be the "odd" one and say trade up to 4wd. Your ability to drive in the snow will come with less anxiety and fear, making you drive more confidently.
The 4wd, should you choose to trade it in a few years from now will also provide a higher resale % than a 2wd truck up here.
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