Section on off road techniques?

[Billofthenorth]

I've looked but didn't see, is there a section where we can discuss off roading techniques?

I am specifically wondering about driving in snow, now I've lived in snow country my whole life so I am not unfamiliar with it but it seems to me we might all have different things we do in the snow and could report back here as to what works and doesn't to prevent or unstick ourselves. And snow on a trail will be different from snow on the street.

For instance I've never tried airing down my tires to see if I can 'float' on the snow like you might on sand. Around here we'll get 14 inches overnight and the under carriage gets hung up or the bottom layer is slick and you get no traction. Maybe sand traction mats would work...or not. I guess I have some experimenting to try this january eh.

 

[CJim7]

Airing down helps tremendously in the snow, the more contact patch you have the better.

I cut my teeth driving Montana winter roads, and had to re-learn it with the CJ. This is going to go against what everyone believes, but when I installed a rear locker, the jeep actually handled better. After several years of open diffs and spinning down the highway uncontrollably, I was immensely impressed with the fact I would get positive rear traction equally. Trust me, I tried as hard as I could to get this thing to lose control...and all it wanted to do was go straight. Letting off the gas disengaged the locker to allow cornering....easy as pie once you get the hang of it.

However, the front locker was another story. I will never engage the 4wd in this jeep on icy or snowy roads unless it is absolutely necessary (like when Im in the ditch) Offroad not included...f&r lockers are flat out fun offroad in the snow.
Back to that subject, you have virtually zero control with the frontend locked up on icy blacktop. Better to use the differentiating front axle as a rudder...seriously.