Gladiator in snow - disappointment?

[1OffCraz]

The TC is much more sensitive than my renegade trailhawk had been. Gladiator senses slip going up hill or on a turn it pretty much kills power for two to three seconds. Took off traction control and it powers up the driveway fine. I also have snows on and 210 lbs of sand bags in the back

Exactly my experience.
My driveway is about 1000ft. uphill into the woods. If I try to go up in 4Hi with TC on, forget it.
It will basically slow me down to an almost stop, losing all momentum, and then I'm dead in the water (snow).

It's so consistent, and pronounced, I automatically push the TC disable the second after I pull the 4WD lever for any offroad condition. Mud, heavy snow, hill climb, etc.

4LO turns it off automatically. There is a reason it does that. It sucks in offroad conditions.

Don't get me wrong, I leave it on at all times on road driving. It works great for that.
It won't overpower the wheels, which is very important if you hit an icy patch at any speed.

There is a place for TC, and there are times it needs to be off.
Remember guys, they actually gave us a button for it. No Tazer necessary!

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[Wbrook24]

I’m on 35” Duratracs, too.
Have then on the wife’s QX also.

they have performed very well in wet, dry, snow, slush, and ice.

they don’t seem to be a full on MT but are more aggressive than an AT. They are mountain snowflake rated.

Ya there a solid all around tire. I will say if your getting into lots of sharp rocks and really spinning the tires trying to get up a rock face you can tear up the sidewalls and take chunks out. If thats your thing might want to look at a Nitto or Toyo with beefier sidewalls. I do wish the duratrac came in a 37. If you want good snow traction though these are hard to beat.

 

[DLAW]

So let me begin by saying I have a crap driveway, its not huge but its a hairpin turn and up maybe 3-400 feet of include. I have lived here with my ram 1500 sport for 5 years and never once did i think, man i wish i had a jeep so i could get up this driveway, it rocked it like a champ.

We just had a snowstorm, maybe a foot, cleaned it up with tractor, then we had another 4-6 inches of hail. i cleaned that up as well as could be with my tractor as well which is just a small sub compact. By god my jeep almost got stuck and felt like it was lugging its way into the ground trying to go up in 4 high. I am fairly confident my ram would have had no issues.

am I doing something wrong? as I am fairly discouraged right now, I am going to try to manually turn off tractor control next time to see if it helps.

Is is possible the condition of the driveway was particularly slippery and your Ram would have had a hard time too? No two snows are the same, and if you had the slightest bit of melt and re-freezing, it could have been a recipe for failure no matter what.

But I just took the JT out in the snow for the first time Sunday night. Drove around a few miles in 4 inches of fresh snow, not plowed, actively snowing, and it handled it like a champ. In fact I tried 2-wheel with no traction control to have some fun and actually had a hard time getting the back end loose. I'm running stock Rubi A/T tires.

 

[Gvsukids]

Exactly my experience.
My driveway is about 1000ft. uphill into the woods. If I try to go up in 4Hi with TC on, forget it.
It will basically slow me down to an almost stop, losing all momentum, and then I'm dead in the water (snow).

It's so consistent, and pronounced, I automatically push the TC disable the second after I pull the 4WD lever for any offroad condition. Mud, heavy snow, hill climb, etc.

4LO turns it off automatically. There is a reason it does that. It sucks in offroad conditions.

Don't get me wrong, I leave it on at all times on road driving. It works great for that.
It won't overpower the wheels, which is very important if you hit an icy patch at any speed.

There is a place for TC, and there are times it needs to be off.
Remember guys, they actually gave us a button for it. No Tazer necessary!

Tazer allows for it to be off in 2wd.

 

[1OffCraz]

Tazer allows for it to be off in 2wd.

So does the button

 

[Gvsukids]

So does the button

You can't turn off stability in 2wd.

 

[1OffCraz]

You can't turn off stability in 2wd.

My comment was turning off TC.
At no point did I say it turned of stability control.

 

[red/green hawk]

This can't be overlooked either...throw it in manual shift and leave it in 1st gear. I drove 12 miles up 3500 ft of elevation with tc on in 8 inches without any problems. I mainly stayed in 2nd and 3rd. Occasionally would have to put it in first.

 

[@californiajeeping]

Traction control cuts the throttle constantly in snow. Turn it off but leave ESC on. For proper snow wheeling I use my tazer and shut off everything. BLD, ESC, TCS, ABS.

unless I’m doing 60+ I keep it all off.

now we’re talking. Suspect #4 usually isnt the first one to show up in a thread, but hey,



and why would the traction control do that?

 

[Rocksalt]

This can't be overlooked either...throw it in manual shift and leave it in 1st gear. I drove 12 miles up 3500 ft of elevation with tc on in 8 inches without any problems. I mainly stayed in 2nd and 3rd. Occasionally would have to put it in first.

this worked best for me in 8" freah snow on a forest road

 

[KurtP]

Traction control cuts the throttle constantly in snow. Turn it off but leave ESC on. For proper snow wheeling I use my tazer and shut off everything. BLD, ESC, TCS, ABS.

unless I’m doing 60+ I keep it all off.

i get that. Looks super fun and i love a good time as much as the next guy. but hooning around in the snow wasnt the OP’s question. he asked about getting up his drive way after he cleared it of snow and then of hail, and in that circumstance i stand by covering the brake with the left foot and rolling into the throttle gently.

tc cuts throttle because its detecting wheel slip/spin. Giving it more gas is the answer when youre aired down and plowing deep snow. Its not, imo, the answer when youre trying to get up slick pavement.

but ill absolutely agree with you that esc is more important than tsc (if thats what you were implying)

 

[BAT]

Allow me to summarize for your convenience:

1) Gladiator not great in snow maybe
2) Its because of traction control
3) turn it off*


*If it still sucks, your probably not turning it off correctly, RTFM.

I didn't need a summary I read the post and I know how to turn off traction control. I thought it was just funny that we were already at 4 Pages at this stage as KurtP had said the pages where going to increase

 

[Deleted member 30519]

Thanks guys . I didn't think about the traction control. I noticed 4H in my driveway was boggy too when I was driving In the snow.

 

[Jonny A]

As others have alluded to... I turn TC off in snow, mud, trails etc. On the paved roads I keep it on. Works for me. I see lot.s of snow and my JTR does not let me down.

 

[mike921921]

Traction control cuts the throttle constantly in snow. Turn it off but leave ESC on. For proper snow wheeling I use my tazer and shut off everything. BLD, ESC, TCS, ABS.

unless I’m doing 60+ I keep it all off.

SNOWnuts!

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