unpleasant surprise today with my 94 eb

got into my 1st winter squall here in ohio this morning. white out, loss
of traction, the whole 9 yards. i let up on the fuel, let it coast to
about 30 mph , pushed the 4 wd button.....wham! the next thing i know
i'm doing a 360 spin!.....don't know what happened or anything.
recovered from it and pulled over on the side. checked everything
thinking i might have broke something.nothing the matter. the road
conditions were as slippery as i've ever seen. i'm no stranger to 4 wd
but this was ridiculous.......any ideas what the hell i did wrong or
might have happened?......any thoughts are welcomed

How about this...next time, move to the side of the road, STOP, go into
4 wheel drive mode, and then proceed. The road is slippery enough
without putting two extra sliding tires on the road at once. Gradually
do it and you shouldn't spin. I love my Explorer, but on rain, snow, or
ice, without proper driving technique and proper tires it handles like a
pregnant pig on roller skates.

THE BIG GUY wrote:
> got into my 1st winter squall here in ohio this morning. white out, loss
> of traction, the whole 9 yards. i let up on the fuel, let it coast to
> about 30 mph , pushed the 4 wd button.....wham! the next thing i know
> i'm doing a 360 spin!.....don't know what happened or anything.
> recovered from it and pulled over on the side. checked everything
> thinking i might have broke something.nothing the matter. the road
> conditions were as slippery as i've ever seen. i'm no stranger to 4 wd
> but this was ridiculous.......any ideas what the hell i did wrong or
> might have happened?......any thoughts are welcomed
>

Like Richard said.... do sudden things when your on snot, expect a sudden
reaction. There are umpteen dozen things that could have given you your
moment. 4WD is great, but it ain't magic. It has the possibility of getting
you into more trouble than you can get out of if used unwisely....


"THE BIG GUY" > wrote in message
...
> got into my 1st winter squall here in ohio this morning. white out, loss
> of traction, the whole 9 yards. i let up on the fuel, let it coast to
> about 30 mph , pushed the 4 wd button.....wham! the next thing i know
> i'm doing a 360 spin!.....don't know what happened or anything.
> recovered from it and pulled over on the side. checked everything
> thinking i might have broke something.nothing the matter. the road
> conditions were as slippery as i've ever seen. i'm no stranger to 4 wd
> but this was ridiculous.......any ideas what the hell i did wrong or
> might have happened?......any thoughts are welcomed
>

THE BIG GUY wrote:
> got into my 1st winter squall here in ohio this morning. white out, loss
> of traction, the whole 9 yards. i let up on the fuel, let it coast to
> about 30 mph , pushed the 4 wd button.....wham! the next thing i know
> i'm doing a 360 spin!.....don't know what happened or anything.
> recovered from it and pulled over on the side. checked everything
> thinking i might have broke something.nothing the matter. the road
> conditions were as slippery as i've ever seen. i'm no stranger to 4 wd
> but this was ridiculous.......any ideas what the hell i did wrong or
> might have happened?......any thoughts are welcomed
>

What sort of tires (and with how much tread) are you riding around on?

You do know that 4WD does *NOT* make it easier to go in a straight line
in the truly slippery stuff. It just makes it easier to *go* at all...

-Fred W

BTW, I don't personally consider "about 30mph" all that slow when
driving in really bad road traction. If you had to slow down to reach
that speed you were probably driving too fast for the conditions.

I recall with the '92 I had that the 4WD had to "spin up" when first
engaged. I could visualize the electric hubs and the transfer case
engaging at slightly different times. Seems to me that the resistance
from doing that probably locked the front wheels for a short time,
causing the problem you describe. If you were on ice, it is probably
safer to stop before engaging the 4WD.

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 10:06:45 -0500, Fred W
> wrote:

>THE BIG GUY wrote:
>> got into my 1st winter squall here in ohio this morning. white out, loss
>> of traction, the whole 9 yards. i let up on the fuel, let it coast to
>> about 30 mph , pushed the 4 wd button.....wham! the next thing i know
>> i'm doing a 360 spin!.....don't know what happened or anything.
>> recovered from it and pulled over on the side. checked everything
>> thinking i might have broke something.nothing the matter. the road
>> conditions were as slippery as i've ever seen. i'm no stranger to 4 wd
>> but this was ridiculous.......any ideas what the hell i did wrong or
>> might have happened?......any thoughts are welcomed
>>
>
>What sort of tires (and with how much tread) are you riding around on?
>
>You do know that 4WD does *NOT* make it easier to go in a straight line
>in the truly slippery stuff. It just makes it easier to *go* at all...
>
>-Fred W
>
>BTW, I don't personally consider "about 30mph" all that slow when
>driving in really bad road traction. If you had to slow down to reach
>that speed you were probably driving too fast for the conditions.