Best snow vehicle you ever had

So for those of you familiar with driving on snow, what was the best vehicle you ever had for driving on snow and ice.  And for context, by vehicle, I mean some type of street-legal vehicle and not s dedicated off-road vehicle like a 4-wheeler or snowmobile or something similar.

Personally, my best snow vehicle, hands-down, was my old 1990 Ford Escort.  It was a 2-door hatchback with a 5-speed stick shift.  The body design was that of the older ‘80s and not the smaller, newer redesign that took place just a couple of years later.

With this car I drove through multiple blizzards, including some with total whiteout conditions.  I made multiple long drives in winter storms where I swore that I was moments from going off the road but somehow I didn’t.  I drove through major icing events.

Something about that little car was unstoppable.  It certainly was not 4WD and was nothing fancy, but it just worked.

So what was your best snow vehicle?

Eric

I live in the country, and a front-wheel drive 5-speed with awesome winter tires is the best. Except -- it has to have a wide wheelbase, compatible with the ruts left by pickup trucks. Otherwise you bounce back and forth and eventually end up in the rhubarb.

But the best snow vehicle is the one I can leave in my driveway when it gets ugly out there. And log in and chat with my clients and say "hey, I'd like to be there in person but instead of being stranded on the road I've made the edits to the training program you asked for. Give me your feedback!" They usually don't mind; only quietly wish they could make that judgement call.

Well sometimes it fit in ruts, most times it didn’t.  Much of the time I was the one making the ruts.  I drove through some truly hellacious weather but I always stayed on the road.

I am going to lead off with a observation made to me by an old timer in Northern MN when I was many years younger than I am now. His advice was to never buy a 4 wheel drive vehicle.  It will just get you stuck where no one can pull you out.  Instead get 2 wheel drive so your neighbor with 4 wheel drive can pull you out.

Of course, in southern Illinois there is rarely a snowstorm worth mentioning, though I have seen a few. Going back to my MN days I had a K car…82 Plymouth Reliant  …that was thoroughly tested and never got stuck.   The best part about this car is that I bought it when it was almost new with very low mileage….and very cheap.  The owner was convinced the engine was about to blow. All I heard was tappets on a 4 cylinder making the racket they normally did back then.  I was right.  I drove the car for another 80,000 …which was about the limit for a K car.

The best I ever have had is my current car... do not laugh... a 2003 Honda CR-V.

I like it better than my wife's 2017 Honda CR-V because the 4 wheel drive is simpler... it is always in four wheel drive not decided by computer like hers. It also has a regular transmission whereas hers is a variable speed drive transmission.

With winter tires, and even better if studded, I have seen it climb grades, stop and take off again because of its traction to weight ratio where 4X4 pickups could not.

I also like it because this era of CRV's are well known to go into the 450,000 mile range. Mine is at 200,000 miles and shows no rust or signs of mechanical limitations.

I love seeing the same kind of light car appearing--- mine was a 1980 Datsun/Nissan that I had for a few years in college up in Snow Belt New York. I often drove between western NJ and Syracuse/Buffalo/Ithaca, so many blizzards I can't even count. I remember getting stuck only once.  
It was a 5 speed but was constantly eating cogs or something- 5th would go, and I'd bungee the shifter in place, then 4th would go, then I'd get it fixed, repeat that several times. For the city (I was living in Ithaca, super hilly) it was great, occasionally I'd get studded tires but more often I'd just throw sacks of salt in the back. Because it was a wagon, if things looked really bad, I could really load her up, but I generally didn't.
Maybe it was so great because I really learned to drive (like to do the fun stuff) in that car, and I knew exactly how it would behave in snow and mess and ice.

A few years ago I had the chance to buy an antique car from that same year and it was delightful! I've since sold it, but I hope to get another one soon. There's something fun about a really light, front-wheel drive car with no bells or whistles.

The first real test of my ‘90 Escort was a blizzard in December 1991.  I was home for winter break from college and to pass the time and earn a little money, I was able to work a few hours at the place I worked at over summer—a DQ.  On the day in question, I was getting ready to head out in the morning but was checking the weather closely as winter weather was expected.  The store owner had already said that she was not going to be in.  About an hour before my shift started, my manager for the day called me and told me not to come in as she was already snowed in.  The storm was approaching from the West-Northwest and the manager lived northwest of town.  I lived Southeast of town so I hadn’t seen anything yet.  My mother was relieved that I would not be going to work that day.

But then I remembered that it was Wednesday.  We got our deliveries on Wednesday and we were out of just about everything.  I called my manager and told her that I would be going in just long enough to get the truck unloaded and then head back out.  I did have a key as I frequently served as a night manager.  My mother was not happy about this but didn’t argue.  I figured that I had an hour before the storm hit (distance between my manager and me was almost 40 miles).  

I set off into town and the sky was an ominous, dark gray, and for being mid-morning, there was almost no traffic.  Snow started to fall before I even got to the DQ, but not enough to warrant too much caution—yet.  10 minutes after leaving home, I pulled into the DQ, got inside and the moment I entered, the phone rang—I just knew it was my mother panicking and I was right.  She insisted that I leave immediately as the storm was closing in much faster than anticipated.  As she was telling me this, the supply truck pulled in.  I told my mother that the truck was here, that I was going to help unload—a process less than 5 minutes long—and I would be immediately on my way back.  All was taken care of and I was back on the road in 5 minutes.

As I left town, I took a different route home as the route I took in was notorious for drifting over in a heartbeat.  I got on the alternative route which is typically a 15 minute drive, and immediately as I got out of town, I was slammed by a wall of snow.  I slowed to a crawl and made my way VERY SLOWLY home,  this route, while not as sensitive to drifting, is not a straight road that follows a cardinal direction.  Also, it is one of the few places in Central Illinois where there are rolling hills.  The snow was intense and the wind blew fiercely.  At times, the visibility dropped so low that I could not see the front 2/3 of the hood of my car!  If I could have stuck my hand out, I am pretty sure that it would have disappeared!  This was true whiteout conditions!  

When this happened, all I could do was to drop the car into neutral and let it roll to a stop until the whiteout passed.  I was afraid of breaking as I didn’t want to skid, especially when I couldn’t see!  I don’t think that the car ever came to a complete stop, but it did get pretty slow a few times.  Once when the whiteout cleared, I saw that I was about to go off the left side of the road!  That certainly made me even more alert than I already was.  Quickly I pulled back into the correct lane and slowly made my way home.

What normally was a 15 minute trip took 2 hours.  I got home safely, though I saw plenty of stranded cars on the side of the road.  As always, I had really packed for cold, but I didn’t need it.  It was good to be home, but it made a great experience—just not exactly one that I want my own kids to go through!!

Eric

Pretty much everyone here drives 4x4 pickups or SUVs.  Many times you simply can't get to work or the grocery store without one.  Few things work better in snow than a 4x4 pickup with a load of firewood in the back.

Some vehicles are certainly better than other I suppose but hugely important is whether or not you know how to drive in snow. I do believe 4 x4 is helpful as is a bit of extra weight in the rear and good tires. My 1997 1967 Chevrolet Impala handled it fine. One time I drove past a stuck snowplow in my 1981 Ford Pinto. Another time I plowed the snow myself in my 1991 six-cylinder 4 x 4 Toyota Tacoma when the drifts were deeper than the hood. It was pushing up the hood like slow motion waves of water, until I had to use the wipers to keep the windshield clean.

I doubt the Impala nor Pinto would have handled the last example but in 4 low and knowing how to drive, nothing ever stopped the Tacoma except one thing. That was when I plowed my way out to the black top and found it, had been plowed by the county, and they left a pile about four feet high across my road, which partially thawed by their salt, had refrozen into a solid barrier. I couldn't go over it and I couldn't knock it down. I had to go 3/4 of a mile back home in reverse and get an ax.  I worked in a different department for the county at the time and even though it took two hours to chop my way out, thus making me late, my time sheet did not reflect that, and my boss did not say a word about it.

My old plow truck which was a 2001 Ford F350 Superduty 4x4.

The heavier the better - had some big ol' tires, steel flatbed, diesel engine.

Diesel maintenance, and requiring electricity to plug in the block warmer is what ultimately led me to utilizing a gas engine in my current F350, its still kind of an "oldie" tho being a 2004 model :)

Years ago, I had a early 90's lightweight Toyota pickup truck 4x4 4 cyl that did very well tho too...it was a 5 speed and typically took a bit more "on the throttle" to go but it would spit and spin it's way just about anywhere!

As a kid I had a sled.  That was the best snow vehicle I ever had.  We lived in Oklahoma then.

Now I don't need a snow  vehicle here in sunny Texas...

My old Toyota was also a five-speed stick. There was nothing fast about it but in 1st gear and four low it drove itself, all I had to do was steer. Snow, mud, rocky creek beds, it just didn't care. It had almost 400,000 miles on it when the frame rusted out, otherwise I might still be driving it.

I have lived in snow country my whole life.
For the last 20 years, I have owned nothing but second-generation Subaru Outbacks (2000-2004)
In my opinion, it is the best year group Subaru made!  

As mentioned, you must know how to drive on bad winter roads, whiteouts, blowing snow, drifting, and possibly the worst, heavy wet slush.
Just last week we made the 60 mile drive to our dentist, snowing heavily the whole time, and we passed several vehicles in the ditch.
My 03 five-speed Subi just tracked on down the road with never a slip.
On the way home 2 hrs later it had warmed up, and now we had 6" of slush with snowpack underneath... this sucks...
About 45-50 mph was about as fast as it felt safe to drive (we were passed by several UPS trucks)
Coming around a blind corner we came upon a full-grown cow moose standing casually in the middle of our lane.
If you have never seen a moose up close (we got stopped about 3 feet from her) the bottom of her belly was about midway up our windshield...
Moose also have no fear, they do not hurry to move no matter what might come along, instead of continuing across the road she changed her mind, and staying in our lane she turned about, and gazed at Subi with a WTF look (I'm walking here ! Do you mind!) while she slowly walked off the road.
Subi did her usual outstanding job of casually coming to a stop (Liz's eyes were saucers) like I said looking at her belly makes you visualize what could have happened... Moose versus car accidents rarely have a good outcome for the humans involved.
Glad I was in the Subaru rather than my 73 Ford 4x4 truck

thomas rubino wrote:I have lived in snow country my whole life.
For the last 20 years, I have owned nothing but second-generation Subaru Outbacks (2000-2004)
In my opinion, it is the best year group Subaru made!  

...

I just bought a Subaru Crosstrek with the wilderness package 3 months ago.  So far, I just love this thing.  Very nice to drive, decent power, lots of fun to drive.  I don't like all the features on new cars because it just seems like more things to break in the future, but it's really a nice vehicle.

Thomas,

My wife is a big fan of her Subaru.  And my wife is even more of a snow-bird than I am (though definitely not the adrenaline junkie that I was in my earlier days). She is on her second, having donated the first to our youngest daughter.

And most importantly, knowing how to drive on snow is vital.  In fact, if one doesn’t know how to drive on snow & ice, then nothing else really matters.  The best, 4WD vehicle in the world will be useless if one doesn’t know how to drive in the snow.

When I was in college, I had a girlfriend who had never driven in snow.  One day I offered to show her the basics, and when the car didn’t do exactly what she wanted/expected, she gave up.  A while later, she was driving on snowpack and was going too fast.  When she applied breaks at the normal pressure, sure enough, she started to skid.  Of course, her response was to press harder on the breaks which were already locked up and doing nothing by this point.  Eventually she practically stood on the breaks, applying as much pressure as she could possibly muster up.  The car eventually skidded to a halt just short of hitting a mailbox.  

At that point, she was literally shaking and couldn’t drive (she shouldn’t have been, she didn’t know what she was doing on snow having given up even trying to learn) at which point I took over and drove back just fine.  It wasn’t particularly slippery, it was snowpack, not ice.  But she didn’t see it that way.  She went on and on about how slippery the road was and that she was literally standing on the breaks but the car kept skidding.  I tried to explain that what she experienced is precisely what happens when skidding starts and one applies the breaks even harder.  Of course, she would not admit that any of the event was in any way a result of her actions—it simply was an impossible situation.  I stopped trying to explain how to drive on snow at that point.  There was no point.

And I have had numerous students get into car accidents while driving 4WD on snow.  Inevitably, they are all astonished that they went off the road, had a collision in “their tank.”  I had to explain that once they were sliding, extra weight was only going to be harder to stop, especially on slippery conditions.  And every vehicle had four wheel stop.  They are a little humbled by this information.

So absolutely Thomas, I agree with you wholeheartedly!

Eric

I had an '81 Subaru GL wagon, with the 2WD-4HI-4LO transfer case.  It was old and raggedy when I bought it (every indicator light lens was broken out), and the synchros in the tranny were pretty well smoked, so that you had to double clutch the 4-speed, except for sometimes between 2 and 3.  With a fresh set of Power King snow tires ("the cheapest snow tires money could buy"), I could go anywhere my youthful sensibilities would permit.  I charged through stuff so deep the snow was rolling over the hood and up the windshield.  Ill advised, but I did it.  I would say that was the best snow car I've ever had, hands-down.  Eventually, it got so rusty that I had to stop driving it.  To jack it up, I had to use a piece of plywood between the jack and the unibody jack points, to act as a snowshoe to spread out the point load of the jack, else the jack would just punch through.  The brake lines were all weeping due to corrosion, and the floorboards were punky.  I ran primary wire and mounted dash switches for a bunch of stuff that had quit working, including having an "enable/inhibit" switch for the ignition to replace the keyed column switch.  It was really too bad, because, except for the transmission issues, which would have been repairable, the mechanicals were still solid.  The interior was really well laid out for a driver.  It was a great car.  But the body and the electrical system were disintegrating around me, and I moved on to greener pastures.

I also have had 2 Land Rovers (glutton for punishment!), also acquired very used, which were pretty good in the snow with decent snow tires on them - a 1991 Range Rover Classic, and a 2003 Discovery Series II.  Maintenance, even DIY, and using salvage yard parts or ordering from over the water, pretty well ran me to the poor house, but when they were working, they were great in the snow.  One nice feature both of them had was a heated wind screen (wind shield in 'Murican speak).  There was an array of fine wires buried within the glass which worked like a rear window defroster, but better.  Though I usually run a cold windshield in the winter, at least as much as possible, when under way, there was nothing like a heated windscreen in freezing rain.  I sold the RRC to a young fellow who runs an auto body shop as a resto project.  I still owe him the floor mats and a couple of other peripheral items, but there was a bunch of original paperwork and everything, even though I was at least the third owner.  Even the original Land Rover badged ball point pen, though the ink had long since dried up.  I still have the Disco, but it's waiting for either a full engine rebuild with top hat liners or a diesel conversion.  But that's a whole other story!

The worst vehicle I ever had in the snow was a 4-speed Toyota Tercel, though that could have mostly been a tire issue.  Narrower tires with true snow tread might have helped.  I wish I still had that little car, especially whenever gas is over $5/gallon, US.  It was a nice little grocery getter of a car, but it wasn't much in the snow.

Kevin, you made a point about heated windshields (Murican here!) that I thought I would point out.

One feature my Escort did NOT have was a heated windshield aside from blowing hot air from the inside defrost.

In the early January of ‘99, I got back from Christmas Break a bit early to beat some weather.  As soon as I got home, I found out that school was canceled on Monday, then Tuesday, Wednesday, had school on Thursday, but were out again Friday!

I decided I was going to visit my girlfriend (Now Wife) in Chicago (she was still in med school) and I drove off—right into an ice storm!

My windshield started to ice, and even with the defrost on full heat blasting on the windshield, ice was building up.  Of course I had my wipers going, but even they were icing up.  I had the window open enough so I could reach out and grab the wiper long enough to give it a snap to break off some ice which worked, but I couldn’t keep up.  About an hour into my journey I got off the interstate and pulled into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant to check/scrape my windshield.  I was astounded by what I saw.

My entire car was covered in at least 1/2 inch of ice!  Every surface from the top to sides was completely covered.  The front was worse!  The very back had maybe 1/4 inch.  My headlights were completely iced over and were barely visible.  Strangest of all was the antenna.  In those days, most antennas were simply stiff wires that stuck straight up out of the vehicle.  But mine was bent over, pointing backwards perhaps 45 degrees.  It had 1/2 inch of ice to each side.  Only my windshield was barely spared, but only because of the full heat of the defrost and and my wiper snapping!

Of course I cleaned off the car and headed on my way and shortly thereafter, the icing stopped.  But a heated patch for windshield wipers would have been wonderful!

Eric

It was always fun driving past all the stuck bmws and audis in my peugeot 106 1.5 non-turbo diesel. 875kg with narrow tyres. This was of course on small falls, mostly slush and ice.

The lifted 4 wheel drives with 5psi balloon tyres were amazing in Iceland.

Steve -

Yup, that's exactly the circumstance in which the heated windshield is most beneficial (and perhaps, most likely to give you a sense of false confidence, as well!).

Another surprisingly good snow car was a buddy's Mazda RX-7.  This was in the days when they were sporty cars, but perhaps not really a sports car (or maybe, more of a GT car).  I'd guess early- to mid-80s, though I can't be sure -bubble on a wedge coachwork styling.  It was rear wheel drive (possibly with limited slip diff), with a tight little short throw 5-speed transmission, and is the car I learned to drive a standard transmission on.  It was a beautiful little car.  We took it canoe camping to the Boundary Waters (drove 6 hours each way with a 17' Grumman wide body lake canoe strapped to the top!), and went on a lot of road trips with it, mostly to go skiing or camping.  But with the even weight distribution, and a toboggan-slick belly pan, it did surprisingly well in the snow.

We drove it to Duluth once in the middle of a full-on gale, with whiteout conditions, and made it to within 3 houses of where we were headed.  This included going the wrong way over the Richard Bong Memorial Bridge (Dick Bong was a WWII ace - a genuine hero, though he would have been the first to refute the assertion), because they'd dropped the gates to close the bridge.  We weren't about to stop due to a closed bridge, so close to our destination.  The trip should have taken about 4 hours of driving, in decent weather.  We left about 3PM, and arrived at 12:30 the next morning, Central time.  So, add an hour to the total elapsed time.  It was a crawl, but, we made it!  We left loaded for bear - two-man alpine tent, winter sleeping bags with ground pads, MSR white gas stove and cook kit, full winter clothing complement, food, avalanche shovels, multiple means of making fire, folding buck saw, hatchet, etc. - so if we'd needed to fort up somewhere, we could have.  We used to do a lot of winter camping, so a night in a tent during a storm wouldn't have fazed us - our mothers, maybe, but not us!  In the wan light of day, the front end loader came around to clear streets, and as the operator scooped away the snow in front of my friend's car, we could see that we were high-centered on a drift about 3 feet deep.  But, the incline had been so gradual, we hadn't even noticed until we lost forward momentum and slithered to a stop.  The loader operator gently tugged it from its perch and down onto the street, nice fellow that he was.  A bit of WD40 on the ignition electricals under the hood and vigorous application of a broom, and we got most of the worst of the packed snow out of the engine bay and sufficiently dried out that we got it fired up to thaw out.  No harm done.  We later found out that Duluth received about 38" of snow in just over 24 hours.  There were cars up on the hill on the UMD campus completely covered in snow - just a white bump.  It was a real stem winder!  But the RX7 made it.  Unfortunately, it wasn't mine, and when he sold it, I didn't even know it was for sale, or I might have jumped at the chance.  Not the most practical of vehicles, but it was a great car on which to learn to drive a stick shift.

Wistfully recalling some good times...  As Louis L'Amour said, "Adventure is just a romantic name for trouble.".  Just enough trouble to count as an adventure!

Kevin

Hi James,

My BMWs were next to useless in the snow but incredible on ice.  

John F Dean wrote:Hi James,

My BMWs were next to useless in the snow but incredible on ice.  

With skill, powerful rear wheels drives are huge fun. Just after I passed my test, Dad paid for me to go on a skidpan. It was great fun for me and Dad considered it an essential part of learning to drive.

The skidpan had two cars both fairly heavy and powerful than any of my cars, one front wheel drive and one rear. The first time I went, I was cautious and careful. When it was my younger brothers turn, I tagged along and had great fun power sliding the bmw all over the place. (I did grow up playing a lot of rally computer games)

Having had that experience, I would also want to make low traction training mandatory for the driving test. So many times I’ve watched people screwing up the simplest stuff with driving on ice.

My best snow/ice cars in order of ownership were 62 VW bug (studded tires on rear), 81 Subaru GL wagon (Studded tires on all four), 93 Toyota Camry wagon (studs on all four), and my present car 2006 Honda CRV (mud/snow tires on all four).

Steve Mendez wrote:My best snow/ice cars in order of ownership were 62 VW bug (studded tires on rear), 81 Subaru GL wagon (Studded tires on all four), 93 Toyota Camry wagon (studs on all four), and my present car 2006 Honda CRV (mud/snow tires on all four).

Studded tires are verboten, here, but having lived in southeast Idaho as a kid, my dad always ran studded tires in the winter, and also had tire chains in the trunk for serious driving.  He made it a lot of places he probably shouldn't have, with the old Dodge Dart packed full of kids.  Teton Pass (yes, the one that recently collapsed) was always an adventure on a winter night.  Or, driving back through "the high country" from Rexburg or Saint Anthony when it was blowing hard.  Out there, they often had to cut drifts after a storm with the "cat" or a "rotary plow".  Once, late at night, we were waiting near the county line in a proper blizzard.  The road had blown clear just there, even though we'd been punching through small drifts for several miles.  My parents were debating just parking there to wait it out until daylight, when far off in the distance, they spotted a light.  Then, it disappeared.  Reappeared. Disappeared.  And so on.  Eventually, it became obvious as it got closer that it was Max Jorgensen in the county plow, occasionally visible between gusts, making the last pass of the night.  We followed Max home from the county line.  Thank God for Max!  Good times...

Eventually, the Dart succumbed to his continued misuse.  I think the last straw was when he used it to skid lodgepole pine to a landing.  He'd bid on a bunch of dead standing from the Forest Service, so had 40 acres to clean out.  He parked the Dart at the landing with an empty wheel on one side to use it as a winch capstan.  Put the Dart's automatic transmission in reverse and twitch the poles down to the car, stopping to reset snatch blocks and straps (no self releasing stuff for him!) to redirect the pull.  Of course, he used our Ford Fairlane station wagon, bought at the Park Service's fall auction in Mammoth, as a pickup truck, too...

I can't say either one of those was a great snow car, but I also don't remember my dad getting stuck very often.

Studded tires are less good on dry pavement, but on snow pack or ice, they are the berries.

In a true car 1980 AMC eagle, heavy, full time 4 with automatic, nose lower.  Did have to run tire cables instead of chains because the wheel wells were to small slightly oversize tires we ran.

In the SUV type world my father's scout.  Early 70's  Solid transfer case, limited slip diffs and most importantly the right  gear in the back end.  When we unloaded it to sell following his death,  Tire chains plus full set of repair gear.(there were actually 6 sets of tire chains for the 4 wheels plus repair links and tools), Over 100 feet of chain, 2 come alongs, 2 handy man jacks, shovels, 70 feet of cable, 2 jerk type tow ropes, sand bags, salt bags, hundreds of feet of baling wire, then spare water pump, fuel pump, belts, upper and lower radiator hoses, radiator stop leak, hose clamps, fuel line, ignition module, plugs, wiper blades, a complete set of hand tools to use the spares.  Several gallons antifreeze, full oil change worth of engine oil, transmission oil etc

C. Letellier wrote:In the SUV type world my father's scout.  Early 70's  Solid transfer case, limited slip diffs and most importantly the right  gear in the back end.  When we unloaded it to sell following his death,  Tire chains plus full set of repair gear.(there were actually 6 sets of tire chains for the 4 wheels plus repair links and tools), Over 100 feet of chain, 2 come alongs, 2 handy man jacks, shovels, 70 feet of cable, 2 jerk type tow ropes, sand bags, salt bags, hundreds of feet of baling wire, then spare water pump, fuel pump, belts, upper and lower radiator hoses, radiator stop leak, hose clamps, fuel line, ignition module, plugs, wiper blades, a complete set of hand tools to use the spares.  Several gallons antifreeze, full oil change worth of engine oil, transmission oil etc

Well, someone got him or herself a real deal, there, thanks to his conscientious preparedness!  Here in the Midwest, the Scouts rusted out in no time flat (lots of road salt - I swear there is some sort of circular collusion between the salt industry, the state highway departments and the auto industry; maybe I'm too suspicious, however).  If it had lived its life in the mountain west, it may have been nearly pristine.  I saw one a few years ago in Durango, CO which had sun faded paint, but no obvious rust, which I found pretty amazing.  I've almost bought several old Scouts here in the land of rust and crust, but the bodies were so far gone, each time I decided I didn't want that much of a project.  There are a couple of restored Scouts around - there's one on my way to work.  It always seemed to me that there would have been a market for Scout rebody kits (maybe a fiberglass tub, like Jeep and VW rebody kits).  International mechanicals were usually pretty solid, and repairable.  A few Scouts were sold with a little inline 6-cylinder diesel in them, as I recall.  I think Chrysler marinised the same engine and used it in some boats.  As I remember, it was Japanese - maybe one of the Fuji Heavy Industries brands?  Isuzu?  It's been a while...

For anyone contemplating true tire chains (not the fancy cable chains for tight clearances and low-profile tires): you can buy bulk side chain and cross chains, and the hooks for attaching the cross chains to the side chains.  Proper side chain has a higher manganese content in the steel, and will wear better, though chains are really only intended for low speed use, no matter what, and high speeds will wear out chains in a hurry.  Tortoise, not hare.  You can also get compound action (think bolt cutter mechanism) chain pliers, made to open and close the cross chain hooks.  I found a pair of chain pliers used a couple of years ago in the basement of a junk shop (they're definitely antique, but the price was right - I don't think they knew what they were), but the last time I checked, chain pliers from the far east were available for around $100 US.  Name brand, maybe double that.  That was before the pandemic, so I'm sure prices are higher, now.  I just offered yesterday to bring in my chain pliers, so the maintenance guy at work can use them on the fork truck's tire chains, since we've now had our first real snow; it's definitely time for the chains.  If you are running much stuff with chains (garden tractor - chains over turf tires are a nice combo for all season use, ag tractor, firewood truck, street vehicles), it may be worth your while to price out repair parts from some of the major vendors, and a set of the compound action pliers.  You can add (or subtract) cross chains to adjust lengths.  Cross chains and side chains can be cut to length with an angle grinder, so you can adapt "found" chains from one tire size to a smaller size.  In the long run, this can save you money, and you'll be prepared to mend broken chains when that happens.  When, not if.  Food for thought, anyway.

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Its my 77 gas rabbit and my 2 diesel 83 and 84 rabbits on tall skinny tires that did well for me in rain, slush, snow ,and hard packed snow.  All these wide tires just don't do the trick unless you are in deep sand or mud.   My 2024 ford maverick hybrid has 65 series tires and I would replace them with an 85 series tire but that would void the 8 year 100,000 mile warranty.