and I have pretty much always had to commute to my job 30, 40, 50+ miles year 'round. With that being said, I will tell you I have never been stuck in the snow out on the highway....driveways and parking lots, yes; highway, never. Of course discretion must be used before leaving the house, but the days I have missed can be counted on one hand. Had a few overnighters at a friends house who lived near work and got a motel a couple of times. Beats wreckin'! This the first winter with the 4x4 van below, never had one before.

I may sound like an old fashioned fuddy-duddy, but I always use dedicated radial snow tires. Not M+S. Oh, I've had them and some work OK, but it takes more ballast in the trunk to make them work well and that costs in gas mileage every day for five or six months of the year.

So, I try to mount a good set of open-tread lug-type snow tires on a separate set of wheels and bolt them on every October, take 'em off in April. For the car I liked Cooper Weathermasters. For my son's F-150 we got Cooper Discoverers. The E-250 had a set of Generals...snow tread. They were kinda wide so I had to carry more weight near the rear axle...250 lbs. or so. I usually had a 40# or 50# of salt or two, preferably in plastic, then whatever was handy, agricultural lime is cheap and can be used on the lawn or garden when the bags get weak. Left over Sak-crete works if you don't plan on using it for anything pretty next year. With the salt aboard, you always have something to get you off an ice patch, if necessary. A short handled shovel is good to have to spread the salt.

If I don't open the salt for snow and ice melt purposes, it goes back in next season. You might not need as much in the extended van, but 100-150# should be a minimum... along with the open-tread snows so you can cut down through the slop and snow to the pavement.

I wouldn't bother with the chains unless you get an extraordinary amount of ice where you are. They don't work that much better in inches of snow and slush that isn't packed and you shouldn't go more than 30 or so with conventional chains on (don't know about the automatic chains but it is just one more thing to keep working).

I've always believed chains would lure you into more trouble than they would get you out of. Now, we're not talking Canada or the Rocky Mountains here. In these places, all bets are off, I have no experience there.

Just my $.02

 

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I wanted to pitch in .02c re: snow handling with E350s.

I _strongly_ disagree with the posters claiming the E series is bad in snow. I bought mine (96 12 passenger van) to tow a racecar (as suggested by Clubwagon here). A van made a lot of sense for me - in addition to the race car, I ride motorcycles & ski.

SKI. Hmmm, worried about snow now....

....then I remembered something. I live in Colorado, ski most every weekend. There's a company here called CME - Colorado Mountain Express. Up until recently, they used E350s. Now, they have some Chevy AWD Express vans - but still, a lot of E350s. Their _business_ is driving in the snow. I called and asked them about it - "put good tires on, they're surprisingly *good*." Not like "they really suck, but you can make do," but more "you'll be shocked at how good they are."

I am shocked at how good it is. I've needed to chain up 3 times in the past 4 winters. Once, the snow was deep enough in my driveway that the door pushed about 8" of snow out of the way when I opened it. I'd already chained it in anticipation. Drove out, no problem. The next weekend, another storm put another 18" down - my neighborhood was a mess of frozen ruts. Needed the chains to ensure I did not get stuck in an icy hole. The third time, I was turning around in an off-camber turnaround at Vail Pass - they plow the road to a certain point, then plow a turnaround. You enter it downhill, turn left, do a fairly tight 180 (the turnaround gets smaller as the season goes on), and then drive back up and out. It is offcamber, was icy with ~12" new on top of it, about 6 trucks had been through before me.

I could not get out of that without chaining, even with studded snows.

So, I unloaded BOTH SNOWMOBILES, chained up and drove out.

IE, I tow two snowmobiles with it. The more it snows, the more likely I am to go. ~950# in sleds, ~800# trailer, and out of ~30 trips to the hills with the sleds in tow, I needed to chain up once. ONCE.

I do use good (studded) tires.

I do park downhill when I know it'll be deep.

I do use common sense - it is a 2wd open diff vehicle - but put it this way; I'm an avid skier, if it snows, I'm _going_, I work in the ski industry, I live in Colorado, I tow a trailer in the nastiest of weather, and I don't own a 4wd vehicle.

Sometimes, it limits me - one place I ride/ski has two parking choices - down low on a plowed, paved lot, or up ~3/4 mile, plowed, but unpaved. I park on the pavement. I _can_ get up to the upper lot, but why? Get there early, park as close to the snow as possible, only have to drive the sleds ~50' on pavement (and when it is good, the pavement is covered with snow).

So, yeah - I'm not buying the "bad in snow" argument. WORLDS better than a 2wd pickup. Surprisingly good. CME's livelihood depends on mobility in snowy/all weather - they use them. I can't really say my _livelihood_ depends on being able to get around - but I'm able to get around LONG after the company I work for thinks the roads are snowy enough to not go wherever I'm needed.

My current tires are wasted - Cooper Discoverer MS with worn out studs. We got almost 3' at my house two weeks ago, I was worried, but nope, no problem. Not as good as when they were new, but STILL no problem.

.02c - they're really very good, IME.



Iain

 

I have a 1-T 2003 Super Duty diesel E-350 and I'm curious if anyone has tried using any of the automatic tire chain systems with it, such as those manufactured by Onspot or others.

Onspot of North America

Onspot says that they can be used on vehicles as small as 1/2 ton pickups, so an E-350 chassis 'should' easily be fitted with them. Here in Onspot's photo gallery they feature a van that's of a very average size that's got them installed.

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I live in an area where in wintertime one must commonly transition from bare roads to icy and snowy roads back and forth several times during a typical winter trip, and so the remote-actuation concept of these chains is quite appealing.

 

Hi everyone.I just joined a few minits ago and ran into this thread.I have a 95 e-350 XLT,a 2000 extended E-350 conversion and just bought a 2002 E-350 Quigley van.The 95 and 2000 had open diffs and were TERRIBLE in rain or snow.I put TRAC-LOK's in both of them(DANA 60's) and you could plow snow with them they are so good.I am in WISC so I know what heavy snow is all about.The Quigley is an open diff,I think.And I will be putting a POSI in it also.My 2cents. Rick

 

I'm glad to hear the Trac-Loks help, I'm thinking about putting one in my van before the end of the winter. I know after I put a locking rear in my Toyota I hardly used 4wd at all, even with an empty bed and lots of weight up front. I'd like to take my van snowboarding more but I know slow icy uphill switchbacks on a mountain road will not be easy with big van.
Whats a good studded snow tire to run? I'd feel a lot better driving on the ice with something other than a AT tire.

 

+1 on the limited slip. I have had full size vans since 1986, and they have been my primary drivers in Michigan snow. I put an Auburn posi in my old 1986 GMC van, and when I bought my 2002 E-150, it was out of dealer stock with an open rear axle. I took it to a gear shop and had an Eaton posi put in (at that time, it was only a couple bucks more than a Ford trac-loc).

There was a specific Boy Scout campground with an icy access road we used to visit annually. When I first tried it with my open diff (right after I bought the E150, before I had the posi put in), I made good use of the 5 healthy Boy Scouts with me to help push the E150 up the hill. Following year, with the posi, the hill was much worse, but I just drove right up.

Of course, you'll need to drive well (maintain momentum, etc), but I have gotten through some really, really bad weather with big vans with limited slip rear axles. (And I have also owned 2wd pickups--which were really, really bad in the snow.)

George

 

Tires - I like the Cooper Wintermaster M&S with studs. Discount Tire carries them, just got a new set installed this morning (215/85-16, load range E). Last year's were 235/85-16 - too tall, really, although they fit fine.

Limited slip - I thought I'd have to put one in mine, was considering an ARB air locker, but mine has been good enough to me that I've not done it yet. I think I'd _like_ a limited slip of some sort, but with good tires, it does everything I want it to do (and I certainly don't shy away from snow).

Maybe I'll do the LSD someday. Dunno. It'd certainly be nice - when it DOES get stuck, it does so as you'd expect - one wheel spinning, no forward momentum.



Iain

 

Dad worked for the phone company, they care less about the weather, the tires on the vans and/or traction, but in all his 30 years he was able to get around. The best ones were the cell towers up degraded gravel roads, the phone vans sporting mismatched tires, if you got a flat, you wound up with what ever happened to be laying around the shop. The equipment needed at cell towers was heavy, you didn't want to tote it, so driving was mandatory, those idiot sprint employees were given 4x4 company vehicles, just not the tools or knowledge to fix a ringer, much less a tower, but they always wanted to show up when one was under repair.
The thing about a locker, posi, or limited slip is they will put you in a predicament quick, 2 spinning rear tires will whip the back end around on you, so it requires a lot of common sense.
I'd love to have studded snow tires, but unnecessary in Tennessee as to it being rare for anything to last abound here till noon, much less than fall in the first place. It used to, I'm sure we're due, just doubt any time soon. The best thing is everyone in areas with heavy snow needs to but a set of tire chains, just to be safe.
BTW 4 wheel drive in the hands of the inexperienced ends up causing accidents, when you let off the gas and it gears down, the front wheels will skid, and if you turn the wheel, you have to hit the gas to get them to pull out and make the turn, or you'll just slide into a straight line. I've been around them a lot, used to do everything from mud pits to trail climbing, just because all wheels are powered doesn't make them superior, in fact they're the opposite in the hands of the uneducated.