I live in South Dakota we have a 2000D (the wife's) and a 1996 jeep (mine). When the snow gets deep I drive the D. With good tires you will love the D in deep snow.

 

Durango's are great! i have a 2002 4.7l slt+ with 31" bfg at's and all i ever wanna do is go play in snow. no worries gettin stuck. drive cautiously. and remember if you do start sliding TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE GAS. DO NOT BRAKE AND TURN YOUR STEERING WHEEL THE SAME DIRECTIONS AS YOUR REAR END IS SLIDING.

you'll get out of your slide and be fine. durango's do well in snow like most 4x4's with good tires.

have fun!

 

oh by the way. in the month of november we got like 25 or so inches of snow and we are gonna get another 5 inches tnight and maybe 7-8 inches duraing the day tomorrow. so i know how it does in snow lol

i'm in Minnesota FYI lol!

 

My Durango is awesome in snow. I've taken it out in the country and TRIED to get it stuck and couldn't. In 2WD deep drifts can stop it, but once I switch to 4 HI, I've walked through drifts higher than the hood like they weren't even there. I've never needed to use 4LO in the snow. Needed it a couple of times when I was intentionally pushing the limits on "minimum maintenance" roads after a rain (basically mud pits), but 4HI has been all I needed in the snow. It's a heavy vehicle, so as long as you have good all season tires, you should have enough traction to keep moving.

Just remember what 4WD is good for, and more importantly, remeber what it's NOT good for. 4WD helps you get moving, and it helps out on turns where the back end might otherwise swing around on you. It does absolutely NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING AT ALL for helping you stop. And don't think your anti-lock brakes have some sort of magic. They will help you maintain steering when you stop on slippery roads, but you still need to allow PLENTY of distance to get stopped.

I live in Iowa also, and every winter I see current year model 4x4s in the ditch because someone bought it thinking it would allow them to drive through a blizzard as if it was the middle of July.

As far as the Durango specifically? I gave up my fascination with sports cars 20 years ago and have driven 4WD vehicles ever since. My Durango is an unstoppable tank in the snow, but then I grew up in Iowa and learned to drive in the winter on slick roads, mostly in rear wheel drive muscle cars. The Durango is much better than the two GMC Jimmy's I've had, and better than the Grand Cherokee. It's about even with my old Tahoe (a much heavier truck).

Just respect the snow, and remember that while 4WD makes it "easier" to get around, you still can't drive like it's the middle of summer.

Oh, another tip for winter driving... Gravel roads will actually have BETTER traction than paved roads when it's icy. They're the very last to get plowed, so you'll need to be comfortable busting through snow drifts, but there have been several times where I've made it home safe and sound by taking gravel roads when I'm pretty sure I would have ended up in a ditch if I'd tried it on the icy highways.

 

i will agree that back roads are safer than highways in the snow, i dont worry about myself in the snow its the other people that dont know how to drive in it that bother me, also everything coreybv said is spot on about the D and snow driving in general (when i was learning my dad took me to a giant empty parking lot and let me loose to learn how to handle slides/stoping, starting ect, this was in my old 2wd dakota before i had the D, if you have never driven in the snow before i suggest spending some time doing this to get a good feel for how the truck reacts with a very small chance of doing damage to you, your truck, or anyone else)

 

I agree with shrpstr325 about getting some practice in a safe location like an open parking lot. There have been many times where the crazy "Dukes of Hazard" style driving me and my buddies did when we were young and dumb has actually saved my butt where other "safer" drivers would have landed in a ditch. Mainly because getting into and out of a slide is second nature to me. (There are situations where intentionally putting your vehicle into a slide can help you avoid an obstacle that you're on the way to running into, but it only works if you've had practice.)

The other thing you want to do is hone your rocking skills (forward, reverse, forward, reverse...). When most people get stuck in the snow, they do the worst thing possible: Put the car in gear and stomp on the gas. That creates friction heat, melts a little snow which quickly refreezes into ice, and now your stuck even tighter. Plus you probably burned 20,000 miles worth of tread off of your tire, assuming you didn't ruin it completely.

Rocking back and forth, while being gentle on the gas pedal and trying to never spiin the tires, will gradually create a longer and longer path that you can move in, eventually long enough where you can build up enough momentum that the weight of the vehicle will carry you through the drift and into a more open area. (Unfortunately, I can't think of a good way to practice this without actually getting stuck. Still, winters in the midwest seem to provide plenty of opportunities whether we like it or not....)

It can be counter-intuitive when driving a heavy, muscular truck with a giant engine, but on slippery surfaces your best bet for getting moving is often to develop a very light, delicate touch on the gas pedal. It's all about traction, and a spinning tire has ZERO traction.

 

There are 3 types of tires.

Soft
Medium
Hard

Soft are mud & snow tires. They stay soft even when cold and are built with large lugs for maxamum traction and getting rid of snow so it doesn't impact in the treads, this causes ice skates.....LOL Problem is they ware out quickly because they are so soft.

Medium are A/T tires and are a mix between a hard rubber (which lasts more mileage) and soft that gets more traction. If you get a good lugged A/T terrain tire like Cooper Discovery or BFG KO series tires, you get the best of both worlds. You get good handling in snow and mud, great off raod terrain handling and 4X4, and a good mileage before waring out.

Hard are Touring tires. They are really hard rubber lasting a long time and most if not all have a very slight lug. In the snow they can't get rid of the snow in the treads because they are tightly formed and thus are ice skates. Next they get REALLY freaking hard and can't flex just like ice and so they become ice skates again. Also they suck on off road and mud. Also they aren't built as heavy so puncture is easy when off roading. These are mainly meant only for on road in hot, wet, and just basically meant for a California truck.

A driver needs to look at their driving area, weather, towing, and road types when picking a tire.


As for a rear end getting loose, mine used to but I had it built like a brick **** house. 10k in performance and MANY other custom modifications that leave most people to shame. The thing is, mine wasn't the normal machine. Even in in 4X4 mine would get loose, but that goes with the territory that I built. Hell I could get my tires to break loose on dry asphalt with 750 lbs tongue weight lugged on, truck with 5 people in it, and towing 7,300 lbs and all having 31x10.5x15 BFG KO's. But again, my Durango wasn't the normal. So I don't care that this person has this or that, the main thing is you have to drive it like you should be driving it to stay in control.

If you drive like you should with the road conditions, have the correct tires, there shouldn't ever be a problem.

 

Today we are having blizzard conditions, and roads were iced over( on my way to work.) D drove like a champ, didnt even have it in 4 wheel, only time I slide was when I wanted to . Has great control, not too shabby stopping ability, and is a pleasure to drive.

I have to agree with you sharp, I dont trust others either, when it snows seems like only retards are out, people act like they have never lived in the upper midwest.

Great advice coreybv, but im no novice, been plowin snow for 4 years now, and survived snowmagedon last year. I totally agree, if youve never experienced driving in a snowy enviroment, get some practice, practice loosing control, and practice safe driving.

Thx for that Info Hydra, Im glad you hate me equally,lol.

 

LOL....Your welcome!


As for the 40 mph thing out there, I think the owners manual states not to go over 45 mph while in 4X4, but I have done 70 mph with no issues just to see. Thing is, if you are in 4X4 on the road then it is most likely too slick to go 45 mph. So reliant on that statement, I would tend to think a person should pull off a exit ramp and take it out.

 

I play in the snow all the time. durango rips right through it. i keep pushin it in the snow to see what it is capable of.

as long as you don't ram into a 8 foot high snow bank that is not only high but deep. you shouldn't have any problems.

So i had a blast diggin last night lol