A Little Winter Driving Fun

I drive a 2007 Toyota Tundra 4x4 with 191,000 miles on it. I try to keep in practice with my winter driving skills by skidding my truck around on snow whenever I can. I do it in RWD or 4WD, both with the traction nannies turned off. On Toyota's, they use the anti-lock brakes to operate the nannies, which IMHO do nothing but impede my forward progress. I don't want the ABS coming on because a wheel lost traction for a second. Last night I did a 90 degree spin maneuver.... right in my driveway.

My driveway is gravel and 330 feet long. I clear it with my 30" Cub Cadet snowblower. Therefore, I have the shave plate up and the skid shoes down to leave a thin layer of snow behind. Otherwise I would dig up my driveway and throw gravel everywhere. Below is a video of my fun little maneuver. The pause while driving just past my utility trailer is where I shut the nannies off. They have to be manually turned off every time you start the truck and since the roads are all clear and dry I have just be leaving them on as normal. You have to press and hold the "TSC" button for 3 full seconds while stopped to turn them off.

 

 

This particular maneuver is done in RWD from a stop or barely moving, cut the front wheels all the way left or right, and punch the accelerator. The rear end of the truck slides around in the direction the wheels are turned. Here I did it briefly in a controlled manner to turn the truck 90 degrees so I could back up to the garage. Do this in a wide open paved lot with no obstructions, and stay on the accelerator to make the rear end go around in complete circles with the nose of the vehicle staying in the center of the circle. Mix it up and spin the steering wheel all the way to the other direction, which makes a "figure 8" and then circles the vehicle in the other direction. There are other fun things to do in 4WD, like throwing the truck completely sideways and then recovering using the accelerator and not the brake. With a nice wide open lot, you can learn how your vehicle handles safely. Experiment and have some fun.