TrailBlazer traction in snow....:(

[winterdude]

Hi, it's snowed a little here where I live, and my trailblazer is having trouble getting up our hill. This winter is no different in terms of amount of snow and texture of snow than any other year, yet my previous Mazda Tribute and 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan made it up the hill just fine in the winter time.

What is up with that? I am considering purchasing another car, because it is quite honestly not handling winter as I would like it to/ or used to.

[maxwedge]

Welcome to AF, not much info here, but I assume this is 4wd and it is working, are the tires in good condition, I wind up asking more questions here than you did!

[Jethro]

You are comparing apples with oranges. The vehicles you want to go to are FRONT WHEEL DRIVE and you obviously are driving a 2 wheel rear wheel drive trailblazer. Simple common sense tells you to have front wheel drives or 4x4s for snow and ice areas.

[winterdude]

Sorry for the lack of info.


I have a 2006 4x4 TrailBlazer, it's six months old. So the tires are in good condition, yes.

[maxwedge]

All I can say here make sure that you are actually in 4wd, I can tell there have been times that I cannot engage the 4wd in the middle of my steep dwy, I do it approaching it, the stock tries are not aggressive but unless it is icy you should be ok, again have some one look and see if the frt wheels are spinning with the rear, under power, assuming you have poor traction, this will confirm 4wd is engaged.

[rodeo02]

winterdude, were you in 4x4 mode when you lost traction? That would be highly unusual aside from the most extreme conditions. I live in VERY hilly, snowy, ski country and my 2005 LS 4x4 with about 60% tread left on the factory tires has no problems in the snow/hills. I do HATE the jolting/jarring action of the A4wd kicking in, but that's another issue!

Joel

[winterdude]

Hmm, should I go to my dealer to find out if my 4wd isn't working properly? Because I only felt/heard the two back tires spinning but not the front.

[maxwedge]

Originally Posted by winterdude

Hmm, should I go to my dealer to find out if my 4wd isn't working properly? Because I only felt/heard the two back tires spinning but not the front.

Well now the story comes out!

[phewop118]

Last year my TB EXT was having tons of trouble in the snow. Could hardly stop on a snow covered road, let alone get going again. Turns out the crappy Continental tires were near baldness at a mere 24,000 miles. I don't know how much better it will be this year, cause I have cheap Uniroyals on there and they're now up to 22,000 miles (46k miles on an 05, 2 sets of tires). From what I understand, older TB's had much longer lasting factory tires .

Anyone throw winter tires on their TB? Is it worth doing?

[maxwedge]

Got Kumhos on mine after somewhat worn Geolander HT-S's and oe BFG's, these are the best in the sno, but noisey.