baja's in the snow??

brs1997 · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:22 pm Post subject: baja's in the snow??

i have been i always wondering are baja bugs good in the snow? i have heard yes's and no's but mostly yes's. so i figured i would ask it here! thank you in advance!

Brian · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:30 pm Post subject:

depends on your tires.
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mrbajadude · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:31 pm Post subject:

If you haven't baja'ed in the snow, you don't know what you're missing. So much FUN.
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Multi69s · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:32 pm Post subject:

If the tires are decent, they will beat anything short of a 4 wheel drive, and maybe beat some of them.
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dustymojave · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 11:36 pm Post subject:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/index.php

I know there isn't much snow under the tires in this pic, but it was taken to show how deep the snow was. The bulk of the day and night were spent on uncleared trails. Tire chains help.

Well I suppose this post will have to wait until either photobucket or the Samba Gallery wants to earn their keep. Right now neither one is working.
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Mexicant · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:55 am Post subject:

The problem I've had in the snow is not enough weight in the front. A lot of times it'll just plow forward instead of grabbing. Goes good with just all terrain tires tho

sloboatnova · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:04 am Post subject:

I look forward to winter just for this reason. Mine handles great in the snow.
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Max Welton · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 9:48 am Post subject:

I ran a Baja-ed 63 for several winters here in Colorado. Awesome with good snow tires. My biggest problem was that my car could easily out-stop the jackass following me in his (or her) 4x4. Especially on the ice.

Max
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sicksforeveedub · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:56 am Post subject:

Ever wonder how the snow plow driver gets to the snow plow?
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Brian · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 12:13 pm Post subject:

Link

Throw some sand bags up front and it's all good.
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sicksforeveedub · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 1:22 pm Post subject:

There it is Cool

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Ian · Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 5:06 pm Post subject:

My buddy's car goes great in the snow. Driven it no problem in two feet of fresh powder. Drop rear PSI to around 10 and you're off.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

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bugdewde · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 11:18 am Post subject:

Mostly, yes.
As mentioned, depends on tires..... and snow type.
Powder is usually pretty easy... it's more like sand.
Wet snow is more slick.
Ice is.... well, ice.
So each really depends on your tire air pressure and tread design.

I've had a LOT of fun in the snow with my VWs/Bajas.

Plowing the front tires is pretty easy, just like any other type vehicle in snow. Light front end combined with brakes equals front wheel lock-up and front end slide.
So, driving style also comes into play. Slower turns, to keep from plowing the front tires and enhance the turn with some rear steering by applying some more throttle...... FUN! It's just like off-roading.

bgs · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 11:26 am Post subject:

Lol,,I tried it up in Big Bear with my old 69. Went ok
until I high sided on snow pack with the pans, frame
horns and tranny engine bottoms.Had the dog with me
who was freaking out a bit when we came to a sudden
stop. and I do mean SUDDEN ! It was like hitting
a big old pool of cement.

I had to get out and dig as much
snow out from under the ride as I could, then I jacked
it up so I could place wood limbs and rocks under the tires so
when I backed up the pans, etc would be free from the
snow as much as possible. Took me about an hour to
get out and all I had on were some jeans, a t-shirt, and
some bedroom slippers.

The ride was raised up a bit and was running
31 x 10.50-15 Cooper Discover SST type tires.

So if you're going play in the snow, bring a GOOD
shovel, a GOOD jack, and make sure there's lots of
dead branches and rocks around to help get ya out.
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Brian · Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 11:41 am Post subject:

Kitty litter. A large bag of kitty littler.
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Vanapplebomb · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 5:56 pm Post subject:

Where I live we get lots of snow each winter. This past winter we had 338+ in of snow. Very hilly here too. It's funny, if you are not familiar with 6-8in of snow each night, the cars you may expect to do great actually suck. Pickup trucks are freakin' worthless on the hills unless you put a few hundred lbs of ablest in the bed. A snowmobile or atv in the bed is just about right. Jeeps are another surprising one, they work ok in the flat ground but don't drive worth a hoot on any hills. Subaru vehicles are awesome. Great traction. Some 2wd front drive cars are ok as well. Manual transmissions are good. Automatics are aweful hard to control. Snow is awesome fun if you learn to drive in it. Believe me when I say it has more to do with how you work your feat and the steering wheel, and less to do with the tires you have. As long as your tires aren't balled, it doesn't really mater what tires you have. Big mud tires can sometimes be problematic if it gets slushy, but not to bad.

A kid up here drives a baja bug around from time to time. It takes the hills great.
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Multi69s · Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 6:20 pm Post subject:

dustymojave · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 11:02 pm Post subject:

I've dug many tons of snow with a US Army folding shovel like that. The newer versions don't work near as well. I bought mine at a surplus store in the early 70s. It was wrapped in brown waxed-on-the-inside paper with military jargon M-1 or whatever the number was, shovel, bivouac-folding, and was dated "1943". Mine came with the canvas holster. The snap on the holster broke many years ago and my friend put velcro on to replace it. But I've carried it in each of my offroad vehicles over the years and used it many times. I like how you have yours mounted in that Baja Multi69s.

This is one of the pics I was going to post above, but Photobucket and the Samba Gallery weren't cooperating at the time.

Later that nite, we were heading for home and passed over a place where there was a concrete cross drain for a wash to cross the dirt road we were following. The concrete drain is 4' deep with fairly steep banked sides. The surface of the snow was level and we did not realize we were at the cross drain until after we stopped. We were sitting on top of 8' of drifted snow and the tires had nothing but snow to push against. It was well after dark when the car stopped and we dug with that little Army shovel until the tires were sitting on snow thin and hard packed enough to get traction on. We tossed the snow over the left side of the hole down the steep wash bed. When I finally got in to drive the car out the "ramp", the snow beside the car was way higher than the roof of the Baja. In the stone dark we had shoveled a couple of dump trucks worth of snow to get it out. A winch might have helped if we had buried the spare tire in snow deep enough to pull against.
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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

Bad Hippie · Samba Member Joined: March 11, 2013 Posts: 171

Heck! Only problem I had with my baja in the snow was all those people with their 4wd's getting in my way. Got to the point where I was looking for deep stuff to plow into so I could get stuck.

Ed Chenal · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:37 pm Post subject:

A few years ago, I was in Death Valley with some other folks and we drove up into the snow. The folks that did the best had BFG All Terrains on their Buggies and Baja's . The rest of us just slid around.... I had Mud Tires on at the time but they didn't help me much.


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