I have a couple of buddies back in the high sierras that own Rangers, and the trucks do quite well.

Just remember that any truck is light in the rear, so you have to add weight in the deeper snow. We usually added some firewood in the bed.

 

yes I figured i'd have to add weight. I just wanted to know if I would even stand a chance in it lol. My friend had an s10 that did well why another had a ranger that did horrible but I think his was a v4 I dunno lol. Thanks

 

Weight over the traction tires, paired with good technique, and any car can get around in the snow. I had an old staff seargent that owned a little chevy luv pickup, and when the other guys would take off in their big 4x4's for a campout, thinking there would be no way he'd make it.....sure enough, that little bucket would come putting in.

Granted, for serious crawling, that's a different story, but for typical traction situations, traction and technique will do every time.

I use bags of sand that you can get in tube bags at most Ace Hardware stores in the winter, and then wrap them in plastic, so they won't degrade. It serves two purposes......one, weight....and two, you have traction sand at the ready if you do get stuck.

As for the later Rangers, they're basically Mazdas from what I understand, so they can't be terrible. Probably not a bad way to go, economically speaking.

 

i was thinking economical lol

nah I drove a 79 f150 2wd this winter nice studded tires, about 500lbs in the bed and it did great never slid, only got stuck if the snow was like a 12in deep which is why I want 4wd lol :-)

I know all about driving in the snow. I was just seeing if you guys knew if the 4wd, tranny's help up on these pickups I assume they would.

 

My father-in-law has a 97 f-150 short box v6 5spd that he bought new and has never had any problems with it in the snow. It has been an awsome truck all the way around and has about 200k on it now. Mother-in-law has a 1999 expidition that has the 5.4 and has next to no problems and has over 250k on it and it is one of the most stable vehicle on snow and ice I have ever driven in snow or ice. They are both 4x4 and all stock with les schwab toyo tires. The dependability factor of both of these vehicles has been awsome.

dj

 

A winter a year ago was my first experience driving our Ranger in the snow on my way home from work late at night. The freeway was a mess so I stayed on the arterials since traffic was light. The road was covered with compact snow with new snow accumulating on top. The drive was dicey on the level since I did not have weight in the back. Once I came up to a long down hill section I knew this was going to be bad. I pulled over and put the chains on and crawled the rest of the way home.

This winter I tossed four tubes of sand into the back of the Ranger...320 lbs total. I took a drive over the Snoqualmie Pass (snowing and covered with slush) and did just fine. I hit patches of compact snow on the road on the 26 near Pullman...again no big deal. The parking lots in Pullman were all compact snow and the Ranger did fine. No snow tires and did not need the chains. I now have four studded snow tires for the Ranger but have not yet found four wheels to mount them on...

We have had our Explorer since it was a year old with 10k miles...bought from a friend that wanted something cooler. It is AWD and V8. In one year we had taken the Explorer on one 4k mile drive and two 3k mile drives throughout the Western US from cold snowy mountain weather to very hot desert driving. Did great...

During the winter I put studded TXRs on the Explorer. Meaty snow tire with studs help take the Explorer wherever we need. We have taken the Explorer up into the mountains for our Christmas tree driving through snow on logging roads and little side roads over grown with small saplings. This year I left the Explorer with our daughter at Wazzu. They had the big snow that closed the school for two days. On the Sunday she ventured out with the Explorer to go to church. Came back to her parking lot and powered the Explorer into a mount of snow about 2 feet deep. While trying to straighten out in the parking spot got stuck and slid to within 2 inches of a car next to her.

Into the pickup I go dark early Monday...drove over to Pullman, dug an hour to get the Explorer out of hard icy cement like snow and parked it into a cleared area. Got a hug and drove back to Seattle.

What got the Explorer stuck in Pullman was the very hard snow the tires ground down into when she spun the wheels a bit. The hard snow acted like tire blocks preventing the Explorer from moving forward or backward.

The only major work I have done on the Explorer is replace the rack/pinion. Other work has been the typical stuff one would expect to do.

Bottom line, I like the four banger Ranger and the V8 Explorer. This is wordy but I wanted you to understand how I felt about the two rigs.

Casey

 

One of the best rigs I've ever driven in snow was in Pullman. It was a 67 VW Fastback, with brand new studded tires. That little whizbang could go ANYwhere. When I used to deliver pizza in that town, I came up one night behind a bunch of guys trying to make it up Orton hill in their 4x4's. They'd make it about half way up, and then sliiiiide right back down again.

I was in a bit of a hurry, as I was on the clock, and gave the horn a quick beep. They got all pissed, and said, "You think you can make it up in that POS? Well, go for it!" So, I slowly took off in first, dropped it into second with low rpm's, and putt, putt, putt....went right up the stupid thing. Made my delivery, came back, and stayed in first to make it back down the hill. There were still there, and none of them said a thing. I couldn't help but to laugh.

That car was kind of famous in Pullman. It was primer grey, and I had painted the words "Retarded Porsche" on the back of it, which seemed appropo. So, most nights at the frat houses and whatnot, they'd be saying, "hey, you're the guy that has the Retarded Porsche, right?" I always got a kick out of the fact that people knew that little bomb.

I ended up getting rid of the car, as while it's capabilities in snow and ice were amazing, it's ability to keep you warm in those conditions sucked monkey muffins. The air cooled engine just couldn't offset the cold, and I didn't want one of those gas powered heaters.....always sounded like an explosive proposition to me. The other issue was that while delivering pizza, the steam from the pizza would fog up my windows horribly, and you'd end up seeing me driving around Pullman with my head hanging out of the driver's window, just so I could see where I was going.

I know....semi-off topic, but still........great car for snow and ice.

 

thanks guys for all the insight, I have been looking at rangers and I found a nice 99 black xlt lifted ranger 4x4 4.0 v6 for a price they havent listed yet, but they said it was cheap so I am waiting for them to get back to me. who knows. I have to wait until insurance gives me the money for my truck that got totaled and hope they dont try and screw me over it. Thanks for all the input, it makes what I wanted to do (getting a ranger) just so much more lol or exploder. Thanks a lot

and behemoth my friend has a 95 jeep cherokee thats 4wd and I had my 79 2wd f150 about 500lbs in bed and some decent stud snow tires on it and its a 302. well he got stuck in snow drifts after some really bad winds up in Chattaroy and I came driving down the hill and ended up actually pulling him out with my truck. lol the truck only got stuck in 1-2ft of snow other than that it never really got stuck nor did I slide lol.

 

We still have our little 83 civic that my wife had bought brand new...the front wheel drive civic with studded tires could go anywhere in the snow.

 

I had a 69 MGB roadster that with studs on the back you could go anywhere in I had it when I lived in the mountains of Oregon and drove it back and forth to work and never missed a day. Loved that car till I needed room for two carseats.

dj

 

lol I think cars can go almost anywhere if you try hard enough lol

 

I had a Buick also when I lived down there and it was useless in the snow.