Well the time has come, I am trading in my Explorer for a new truck or "newer". It has come down to a Ram 4x4, new F-150... now those were my first 2 choices because of the 4 wheel drive and I go to school in West Virginia which is all hills and I counted a Lightning and Harley out because of the RWD only, but I wanted to know from all your L and Harley owners how winter really is in the L or harley. Any input would be appreciated. I go shopping tomorrow.

Thanks
-Sean

 

I just answered this question in another forum. Here's the link if you find it helpful:

http://www.chicagosvt.com/forums/showthread.php3?t=1038



I drove my L all last winter on the stock tires (F1's - summer rated only). No problems, but we never really did get more than a couple of inches of snow at a time last year.

This year I'm considering picking up a set of winter tires. I've seen used sets for about $300.

I used to have a Ranger, and I always had to LOAD it with sand. But it was stick, and was fairly easy to drive in the snow. I never put any sand in the L last year, and it was still heavy enough to drive fine.

Other than not wanting to smash up my new L, I actually love driving in the snow. It's like a tilt-a-whirl!

Forget about the snow. If you want a performance vehicle, the months of great driving far outweigh the few days you would have to worry about winter driving.

 

The lightning is a pretty specific type of vehicle. Sounds like your not really *hooked* on getting one.

You could either get one and a cheap winter car. Or... just go get ya a 4x4 ford.

Rich

 

I have an idea.

People have multi-way chips with "street" programs, "race" programs, etc. Why not have a "snow" or "rain" program? Remember when the ZR1 came out? It had a "valet" mode that cut out half of the cylinders. Why not the same thing for snow? Or activate the dreaded "boost dump" to keep the engine NA.

Any thoughts on my brainstorm?

 

This last year I had to drive my Lightning in a few snow storms and it was aweful. I did get a kick out of the speedo being driven off the tranny...so at one point I was showing like 90mph going up my driveway.

I don't think a power cutting program would be all that much different than just putting it in "2" and trying to keep from breaking the tires loose.

 

My truck sits when it snows... F that.

 

I agree!!!

 

Actually, I think it cut out half of the intake runners. It still ran off all eight cylinders.

David

 

I solved my problems of worrying about driving my L in the snow and bought a beater for $500. Little more expensive then if you went with snow tires for an L, but priceless if you get smacked up by some douche bag that don’t know how to drive in snow…



The beater, a 1987 Dodge 600se, viper/hemi…

 

Yeah,
I did the same thing, 90 Camry for $1000! Now I can do what I want to the lightning and not worry about old man winter. P.S. I got tired of dumping 500-800 pounds of something into the bed every time the weather man said SNOW!

 

What he said!
Wana race that hemi? LOL

 

It is NOT just a hemi, it is the Viper/Hemi, be AFRAID, be VERY AFRAID...

 

Hey Sean, I live in South Jersey and I drove my L for most of the winter(when it was fairly close to stock). I can tell you that it can get real scary. This year I'm picking up a beater for the winter, being far from stock now. But like someone else said, Lightnings are vehicles for the enthusiast and you don't seem too sure on buying one to begin with. But if you're in the South Jersey area and want to go for a ride, I'll glady take you out and scare the crap outta ya.

 

LMAO.........those words sound familar, but still lack any threat