Slegacy96 Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 The snow has reached Philadelphia. Forcast 10 - 17 inches. How deep is too deep for a Subaru to get through? P.S. Never will I buy a car without AWD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenSisters Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Different Subarus have different ground clearances so some will probably do better than others. I doubt if I ever had to drive through anything more than about 8 inches. Two things to consider if you go out: At some point the depth of the snow will float the car and the tires won't develope any traction. A wet heavy snow will be worse than a light, fluffy snow. At some point, deep snow will start to pack into the radiator and push into the engine compartment, possibly distorting the fan and pushing it into the radiator. Let us know what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattocs Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 They called for 3 - 12 inches here (just north of Pittsburgh) and then today it changed from 4 - 6 inches. We got like 3 - 4 inches as of now...maybe another inch today and tonight. Just stay on traveled roads and you'll be fine. The car is only like 1/3 of the driving...if there is an idiot behind the wheel, AWD won't help you. Good luck and let us know how much you get! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95subaroo Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I'm Just north of harrisburg, snowing like crazy!!!! Just had my subie out for my first time in the snow, I love It!!!!! Don't know how I did with out one for so many years. We have around 3 inches works great so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99obw Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I have had our outback through 12"-18" on our road with snow tires and it does ok. Not saying it does great, but it has never been stuck. It's all about the tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzam Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 This is going to be a powdery "dry" type of blowing snow, should be easier than a heavy wet snow since it packs down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinsUBARU Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I have driven my Impreza through snow as deep as the front of the hood with no problems (nice dry snow) however sometimes 6 inches of real wet heavy snow is pushing the limit (especially on muddy and secondary roads that I drive on a lot). It all depends on three things: 1. The moisture content of the snow and the base that is under it. 2. The nut behind the wheel 3. TIRES!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudrat79 Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Slightly Off-Topic, But ..... I have a Guy who is getting ready to Buy a Lift For a 01 Forester, and Possibly A Winch Bumper for It as Well..... He is in PA. and Was wondering if there were any other Sick and Twisted Subaru Lovers in the State crazy enough to Mod their Subie...... Is it Possible to Get a Head Count of you Guys in PA. So I can Forward it to him...... Also do you guys up that way have any sort of Club or regular Gathering.....??? Thanks, John Wishing Hard That The White Fluffy Stuff will grace us before Winter is Over....... :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattocs Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I would love to lift my outback...my I don't have a garage/time/and a cheap source. The anual east coast meet is in Carlisle, PA in May...its a good time. I am in Butler, PA...just about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndsnewleg Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I've driven my 90 Legacy MT 10 miles out to a main road and back in blizzard conditions with snow over the top of the bumper. The snow was light enough (but still a spring storm in the CO Rockies) that every once in awhile a bunch of it would blow up onto the windshield and entirely obscure vision out of the interior of the car until the wipers were able to clear it. The radiator did seem to have restricted air flow so the fans cycled on quite a bit. I had to stop twice at the side of the road and was able to resume with no problem. Tires were good quality Goodyear all season. I had access to an Explorer but was motivated to try and test the limits of my Subaru (also to motivated to put my ex on bus to Santa Fe so I could spend some time with my kid by myself). Pleased by both results. rrm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slegacy96 Posted January 22, 2005 Author Share Posted January 22, 2005 Heres what happened. We have about 6 inches here. My Legacy did great except for when I veered off the road a little bit. Had to do some rockin but she got out ok. Need new tires so theres another factor. As for the nut behind the wheel, well Im young and inexpirienced but I think I did ok despite the fact that my wipers were frozen and i couldnt get the windshield to defrost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subeman90 Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Mudrat: where in PA is this person from....there are a few of us here in the snowy state of PA..... As for a club....I wish. Post: I didn't get out in it yet.... yet the key word here. I want to try out the new one....see how it does without a LSD in the rear....might be change to that issue in the summer though. Matt PS: all my fellow Pennsylvanians....cheer on your local football teams on sunday....Lets have a Pennsylvania superbowl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahag1978 Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I just took the Baja out in the snow, just a couple of inches so far, it handled very well, very sure-footed, I had to try to make it skid. Handled the hills like dry road. I will say, the ABS brakes kinda wigged me out a bit... this is the first car I have had them on. My Brat would go through anything to about mid-bumper, after that, it plowed and all bets were off. I picked up and delivered a wedding cake (the tiers were built) in a blizzard... made it in perfect condition! I'll take the "new" one out in a bit, before the salt trucks come around. The old ones like a low salt diet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99obw Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Takin' the suby to the movie store here in a couple of minutes....wooohooo! EDIT: Wow that was fun. The suby got a good flogging. Kicks the rear end out VERY easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slegacy96 Posted January 22, 2005 Author Share Posted January 22, 2005 Ok. Next concern. How come whenever I go through deep snow my ABS light comes on? I like it best when my Anti lock brakes work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron917 Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Ok. Next concern. How come whenever I go through deep snow my ABS light comes on? I like it best when my Anti lock brakes work. Snow gets packed in around the ABS sensors and tone rings, especially if you're flogging it.. We've got 6-8 inches so far here in Northwest New Jersey. Just got back from picking up my wife from work (2 miles), and had to take one of her co-workers home, adding an extra 12 mile drive (each way). The coworker didn't want her daughter to pick her up because she has lousy tires, so she was gonna WALK 12 miles in 3degF weather with blowing snow, at night!. I told her I didn't want to read about her in the newspaper tomorrow morning. The Subie did great on plowed and unplowed roads, and my very steep driveway. I have to take it easy, because I'm running all-season tires. Got a little bit of slip, but easy to correct. The biggest problem was the windshield and wipers freezing up, even with the defrost blowing. Had to stop a couple of times to knock ice off the wipers. We're under a state of emergency right now, so there were very few vehicles out on the road. Mostly plow trucks, and the odd Jeep. Had to drive my teenage son to/from work earlier today, before the snow got deep. The idiots were out in force, some going 2MPH, some trying go 60MPH and weaving traffic. Saw a 4Runner struggling to climb a hill, rear wheels spinning like crazy - the idiot driver probably wonders what that extra lever is for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 It's likely that the ABS light is triggered by snow getting into the wheel speed sensors and making them inoperable. Something to consider is that ABS often is undesirable in snow and gravel because of the way the loose material piles up in front of the wheels under hard braking. In many cases, you CAN stop better without ABS in those situations. As far as how deep is too deep, that depends on an infinite number of variables. However, just to give you some idea, I drove my mom's Outback which had summer tires on at the time through snow that was obstructing my vision and it didn't have any trouble going through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unverviking Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 I plowed thru 2 snow drifts today that were up over the hood... (of the 93) It was fun, except I didn't have the wipers on soon enough to clear off the windshield... I ended up parking in the middle of a 3rd drift and had to let the family out... About 30-45 minutes later I went out to pull it into my father-in-law's barn to do an oil change, etc, and was stuck. Rocked it a bit, got it free and into the barn. Snow was packed underneath up to the belts... Had to shovel it out to change the oil... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueforester04 Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Drove my 04 Forester through 12" this morning, and backed out through 18"+ thanks to the friendly plow man who left his wake behind my parked car. No problems at all, very surprised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johngenx Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Today we took our OBW out to help a friend of mine prep his cottage for sale. The road is not plowed in the winter and I led the way. The snow was two and a half to three feet deep and there was no problem. When we stopped, we had trouble opening the doors since the snow was so high! Studded snow tires, btw... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85Sub4WD Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 The deepest snow our soobie has ever been in was after we had a 20 in. snow here overnight. For those of you who do not know much about NC's weather, 2 in is consitered a lot for the region and 20 in. in one night is unheard of. We took our Soobie out a day after the initial event, but there was still 15+ in. on the streets because we don't have enough plows to handle snow like that, so most of it was untouched. It was a LOT of fun to pass stuck $50k+ SUV's in a Soob that is worth about $500 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk610 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Had the obw up to the mountains this week . WE go to ELK mountain and e stay in south gibson. Vey cold had a great time . I now know I need to tires . I'm running the stock re92's with 51k miles on them . I was pulling out of the ski area parking lot . The road is sloped to the left and i slid right into the ditch on the side of the road. I backed out about 100 feet intill the road levaled out and drove back up the hill . The grope I was with say all the wheels spining but with the old tires no traction . We had about 14 inches of snow over the week end my obw handled it no problem . Had to take it slow but will have new tires on it next year. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sconnyite Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 We just got hit over the weekend with about 12 inches here in wisconsin, and I have yet to see a stuck subaru. My 04 outback got massively plowed in while I was at a friend's house, 24" -36" plow forough. I just laughed at it, got in, and drove through it like nothing's going on but the rent. I have driven my other outbacks in up to 20 inches of fluff out west, but my new car wouldn't handle that all that well, because the bridgestone Potenza tires that came with it are absolutely terrible in snow compared to almost any after market all season tire I've ever had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cougar Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 There is nothing like reading a good, Subaru in the snow, story. Aren't these cars wonderful. I'll bet a lot of Soob owners back east are glad they own one right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganM Posted January 25, 2005 Share Posted January 25, 2005 I had my old 2WD Legacy L wagon in snow upto the hood line. Thick nasty stuff too; not fluffy powder. I wouldnt hesitate to drive through 17 inches with an AWD model. Biggest concern would be over heating due to snow packed in around the radiator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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