I've spent most of my life in Hawaii so I don't really know firsthand what snow-sledding actually feels like, but...this morning, I had a reasonable simulation of what I imagine it might feel like - if the sled weighed 6500lbs or so, and if I were doing it before the sun came up. Regular readers of this column will know that my driveway doesn't align with the common concept. It's dirt and gravel, rutted to the point where the center-weeds do a fine job of scrubbing off the undercarriage, and it's steep as hell. After days of rain, it's...not possible.

But it does NOT always try to kill me.

This morning, since we've been through a dry spell, it occurred to me (as it did around ten years ago...but such memories fade) that I really needn't keep it in 4WD for my morning descent. The struggle for traction comes when getting it UP, not down. It did nag at me that this same thought once had perhaps led to unnecessary drama. But after that occasion, I rationalized that other factors had been at play, and shrugged it off, essentially.

I'm pretty sure it would have looked the same that day as it was this morning, to some terrified observer.

I eased it over the top of the hill (it's not nearly level, even there) and on to the steeper driveway proper...well, "proper" is NOT the word, but you get me...and I felt it pick up speed, while I pressed my shoulders into the seat and absolutely STOOD on the brakes, to no avail. It wasn't quite rolling, though, or it would have been all over even sooner; I'd have smashed through the front entry of the house across/below, etc, had that been the case.

Now, my driveway merges with a funky one-lane road. I can count the times that there's another vehicle competing for the roadway (if neither of us chickens out) on one hand, for probably the last ten years, most definitely so if the hour is 6AM, as it was. But I'll be damned if there wasn't another pair of headlights, almost directly aside me, as I slipped uncontrollably down the cruel slope.

I'm pretty sure all that saved me was my brillliant aftermarket headlights, and the other driver's primal fear of cab lights - or so I would imagine - swooping down from the obscuring high grass above, like a... twelve-valve cyberhawk - whatever that might be.

He yielded - stopped, actually - probably pretty sure I'd not ever planned to slow down. On my end of things, the engine died on its own, mercifully. Shaken pretty badly, with my bumper well out into the road in front of him, I rolled the window down enough for him to see me, and waved him on. He gave me the "no problem" hazard-flashers (instead of punching me in the throat), and I took that as a good sign.

So I think it's turning out that, for quite some time, I've had about no front brakes. And what I was doing there, was locking up the duallies, and dragging them down the slope behind me, with the massive 12V drivetrain running the show, gravitationally-speaking.

But I *still* don't understand why it would matter at all whether I'm in 4WD vs 2WH when I'm descending, in terms of this "brake" action that I normally get. I'd never use any throttle, regardless; it's strictly idling on the way down in order to provide brake- and steering-assist. Normally I wait until I'm almost all the way down, then pause long enough to go to N and shift to 2WDH before proceeding, but I've never had it run away with me like that even if I do that swapover lower down on the driveway. And the slope is pretty much consistent until near the bottom.

Does my having bypassed (locked on) the CAD about 8 years back have anything to do with this?

If I really don't have front brakes, I think that, too, has to do with the steep-assed-ness of the driveway: a long time ago I recall not being able to get all the way up (where it's a little more level), so parking as best I could, and later deciding to check my master cyl res level. I found that it was dangerously close to exposing the intake port in the cylinder itself - so it might actually have sucked in some air during that and similar absurd-driveway maneuvers.

If that's it, is there maybe some kind of after market "tall reservoir," or something akin to that, to help with the topographical madness?

 

The 4 wheel drive keeps the rear end from locking up completely because it is turning with the front end with all the weight on it.

I have been in a few old trucks, where the rear tends to lock up on snow and ice first. I have driven them in 4 wheel drive before for the enhanced braking it provides even when I do not need 4 wheel drive form forward motion.

 

Tires make a big difference as well. I have two sets of tires, one for summer, one for winter. The summer tires are deep lug mud and snow rated. The winter tires are studded snow and ice. Most of the winter the roads are snow packed and ice, so I never take them out of 4wd unless the pavement is dry. During the summer, on my 1st gen I never unlock the hubs, ever, unless it is for maintenance. On my 2nd gen, I also have the CAD locked in place.