Found the limits of my 4WD Denali with all season tires in snow

[Boatguy]

So this is our first winter with the ‘17 Denali. We’ve been on 4 multi day trips to the mountains—always when there are snow storms—and it has performed perfectly in AWD (edit: Auto) and 4WD. Never spun the tires (when I didn’t try to) or had trouble stopping on snow. I bought good tire chains for it, hoping never to need them. Well, I needed them on our last trip to a cabin very close to Donner Pass.

Seems there is a layer of ice from the recent cold snap and the snow blowers (the berms are too high for plows) remove the fresh snow, leaving the ice. The steep, winding cabin roads were just too much for those all seasons and it was a slip and slide. I guess I could have removed 5 psi from the tires and gave it a go, but what the hell, I just chained up. It took all of ten minutes. Now I can climb anything and my stopping distance is halved. There are people who live in the cabin next to us with 4WD pickups with very aggressive tires and I have pulled them out of the fresh snow twice.

This Yukon has the 20” tires, so I can use “Class S”, low clearance chains. The diamond pattern chains from ETrailer.com did the trick.

The last picture is the “road” to our cabin taken before the next 6 to 8’ of snow fell. Not much room for sliding sideways, which is what happens when that G80 locks up when you’re going uphill on ice and lose traction.

Hands down, this is our favorite road trip car, bar none.

 

[adventurenali92]

That’s awesome! Lots of snow. Mammoth lakes had that much snow a couple of weeks ago when I went up for a snowboard training camp. I was worried about having to chain up, I have the same 20inch wheels that you do, on my 2006. But I don’t have chains that fit my 275/60 series nittos. When I got there, there was nothing requiring 4x4s and AWDs to chain up and the AWD in my 2006 handled fantastically. Like you said these trucks are hands down the best road trip trucks! Haha

 

[HiHoeSilver]

So this is our first winter with the ‘17 Denali. We’ve been on 4 multi day trips to the mountains—always when there are snow storms—and it has performed perfectly in AWD and 4WD. Never spun the tires or had trouble stopping on snow. I bought good tire chains for it, hoping never to need them. Well, I needed them on our last trip to a cabin very close to Donner Pass.

Seems there is a layer of ice from the recent cold snap and the snow blowers (the berms are too high for plows) remove the fresh snow, leaving the ice. The steep, winding cabin roads were just too much for those all seasons and it was a slip and slide. I guess I could have removed 5 psi from the tires and gave it a go, but what the hell, I just chained up. It took all of ten minutes. Now I can climb anything and my stopping distance is halved. There are people who live in the cabin next to us with 4WD pickups with very aggressive tires and I have pulled them out of the fresh snow twice.

This Yukon has the 20” tires, so I can use “Class S”, low clearance chains. The diamond pattern chains from ETrailer.com did the trick.

The last picture is the “road” to our cabin taken before the next 6 to 8’ of snow fell. Not much room for sliding sideways, which is what happens when that G80 locks up when you’re going uphill on ice.

Hands down, this is our favorite road trip car, bar none.

View attachment 217554 View attachment 217555

Looks like fun! I'm curious what you mean both AWD and 4WD, though?

 

[cardude2000]

Looks like fun! I'm curious what you mean both AWD and 4WD, though?

Probably just means it’s worked well in the snow in both modes.

I use AWD when it’s just a little snow or I’m not in the hills and 4wdH in deeper snow.

 

[cardude2000]

So this is our first winter with the ‘17 Denali. We’ve been on 4 multi day trips to the mountains—always when there are snow storms—and it has performed perfectly in AWD and 4WD. Never spun the tires or had trouble stopping on snow. I bought good tire chains for it, hoping never to need them. Well, I needed them on our last trip to a cabin very close to Donner Pass.

Seems there is a layer of ice from the recent cold snap and the snow blowers (the berms are too high for plows) remove the fresh snow, leaving the ice. The steep, winding cabin roads were just too much for those all seasons and it was a slip and slide. I guess I could have removed 5 psi from the tires and gave it a go, but what the hell, I just chained up. It took all of ten minutes. Now I can climb anything and my stopping distance is halved. There are people who live in the cabin next to us with 4WD pickups with very aggressive tires and I have pulled them out of the fresh snow twice.

This Yukon has the 20” tires, so I can use “Class S”, low clearance chains. The diamond pattern chains from ETrailer.com did the trick.

The last picture is the “road” to our cabin taken before the next 6 to 8’ of snow fell. Not much room for sliding sideways, which is what happens when that G80 locks up when you’re going uphill on ice.

Hands down, this is our favorite road trip car, bar none.

View attachment 217554 View attachment 217555

That’s an insane amount of snow lol.

My OEM all seasons (continentals) were absolute garbage in the snow. Blizzaks do the trick but road feel is still really low so I just take it slow.

 

[HiHoeSilver]

Probably just means it’s worked well in the snow in both modes.

I use AWD when it’s just a little snow or I’m not in the hills and 4wdH in deeper snow.

How can you have AWD and 4WD? Is this some new fangled thing?

 

[Tonyrodz]

How can you have AWD and 4WD? Is this some new fangled thing?

AWD is just......AWD.

 

[cardude2000]

How can you have AWD and 4WD? Is this some new fangled thing?

They’ve had Auto4WD and 4WDH/4WDl for at least 2 gens I think? If not 2 gens then since 2015.

 

[adventurenali92]

How can you have AWD and 4WD? Is this some new fangled thing?

He’s talking the auto 4 setting and then 4HI and 4LO. At least I think that’s what he meant.

 

[Boatguy]

That’s awesome! Lots of snow. Mammoth lakes had that much snow a couple of weeks ago when I went up for a snowboard training camp. I was worried about having to chain up, I have the same 20inch wheels that you do, on my 2006. But I don’t have chains that fit my 275/60 series nittos. When I got there, there was nothing requiring 4x4s and AWDs to chain up and the AWD in my 2006 handled fantastically. Like you said these trucks are hands down the best road trip trucks! Haha

We were up at Mammoth maybe 3 weeks ago. A cabin at Convict Lake Resort to be more precise. The “roads” along the cabins really put the 4WD to the test. Since there was no ice, the all seasons performed fine. On one of the trips into Mammoth, we went to Twin Lakes which was ice city. I just kept it under 20mph and came out the other end. We never broke loose accelerating, but stopping was horrific if you needed to stop fast.

For whomever asked, I use Auto (kind of AWD) when traction is good and light snow conditions, 4WD when it’s all snow and or ice.