[Wavery]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

For Memorial day weekend we went boon docking in the Sierras. Going up highway 108 we turned left 2 miles before chains were required. The road down to the river was paved, but very twisty. About 5 miles, no problem.

Then we had 3.7 miles of dirt road, but because of the weather a lot of it was mud and muck, sometimes 6 to 8 inches deep. This is a single lane road with 4 or 5 turnouts along the way that are just big enough to pass a truck, but not a truck and trailer. If two vehicles towing trailers met head to head I'm not sure what would happen next.

It took a little over an hour to drive in, always in 4wd, sometimes in low range. Driving out the roads were dry so it only took 35 minutes in 4wd high range.

When the road was flat or uphill I had no problems towing my 2005 TM 2720. Though the truck tires are M+S, the are the factory tires and I will replace them as soon as the budget allows. Not the best for traction, but almost adequate.

The problem was the downhill sections, especially when the road was off camber, leaning towards the downhill cliff. The truck (GMC 2500HD long bed 4wd) was running fine, but the TM was slipping sideways some of the time.

I adjusted my mirrors so that I could see both of the TM tires. I did a pretty good job keep at least one TM tire in the groove made by the truck.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next time to reduce the risk, other than not going? What I have thought about was:

1. Manually use the brake controller to essentially lock the TM tires, but that might cause it to slide even worse.

2. Use some serious M+S tires on the TM, such as Wrangler as just one example. Not sure if I could find any that would fit.

3. Install snow chains on the TM tires.

fwiw, my wife was behind me driving the Chevy 1500HD towing an ATV trailer with 1500 pounds of ATVs loaded. She had less trouble than I did, probably because her trailer weight was only half of what I was towing.

It was a great weekend. It snowed Thursday night, but the 2 to 4 inches of powder melted by 9 AM.

I doubt that you would have clearance for larger tires or chains unless you went with a 4" lift (which is very doable).

For slow driving and short distances, I would think that lowering the air pressure might be acceptable (check with wmtire). That would increase traction. Using the brakes will actually reduce traction.