Worst storm ever recorded starts tonight

whtrapta said:

Holy crap! its not that bad, but my drive was all in a whiteout, so speeds on a 70mph express way were down to about 20-30 max. You couldn't see the road, the edges, the cars in front or back. It was interesting.
here is a picture of the of the clearest times on the road.

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this is a typical drive here when it snows in upstate NY. we get lake effect snow and it makes the storms worse. we are predicted to get 18 inches or more within a few hours. they are predicting 3 inches an hour and roughly a 6 hour period it will be the worst...it all starts an hour before i go to work. My raptor can't get here soon enough....Dear FORD...HELP ME!!! and deliver my truck already!

whtrapta said:

took me 2 1/2 hours to do my normal 40 min drive! Pulled out a towtuck, a toyota car, and a van. I tried to pull a vw jetta, but they dont have any tow hooks!? so I left him in the ditch...

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Congrats - I bet those vehicles were happy to see you help!
And mercedes has no hooks either - so you have to get creative with wrapping a strap around the suspension

Ya, it just thought how horrible it would feel to be stuck for hours in a whiteout and no one to stop and help. It would be kinda scary. So, if they were on my side of the freeway or in my way, I helped them. I wasn't in a rush to go anywhere.

We had a storm here in Sarnia, ON last month that dumped 4 feet in places. Cars were stranded on a remote highway and they actually had to send in the National Guard (and probably Canada's only tank) to help rescue people.

Also, the picture of the freeway I was on, That was shut down to all vehicles a few hours ago. Thats how bad it is.

Way to go Rapta....Represent.

Did you use the hitch and a stinger or one of the tow hoops to pull these poor souls with?

It was a 3 inch strap with hooks at both ends. One in my tow hitch chain hooks, and the other on their bumper. I was amazed how easy this beast pull stuff. About a foot of fresh snow with ice underneath and it doesn't even let the wheels slip. Most of the pulls I had the cars/trucks put it in neutral.

That's cool,, I used the tow hoop on my pulls as I didn't have a stinger with me at the time.
I'm with you on ''amazed''. We were coming down off of Mt St Helens one night a few weeks ago and came upon an Acura that was off the side of the road and just plugged in. They said they had been there about 3 hours and had dug under the tires in that time only to find that there wasn't anything but more snow under them. I had to pull from the front, not ideal, and was so eager to show my wife how well it would pull that I forgot to put it in first gear, just 4Low and Drive. Before I could say yipee the transmission went throgh 4 or 5 gears and they were out.... oh and my wife...'amazed'.

OK, question for you guys. Been out tooling in the Raptor, pulling people out of snow, etc. What settings for drift-busting, max traction? I had 4hi, diff lock, off-road, and trac control disabled (10-sec. hold).

Got the pucker factor up a couple times. Finally learned my lesson to leave the wipers on fast setting after being completely blinded doing 45 and hitting these drifts around here. I'd get the windshield clear and realize I had a new course setting...right into a bridge embankment!

I'm also learning that if it's questionable if I can make it through to go slowly...then when I get stuck I can either back out or hammer through it at a faster clip.

Holy Shit this is fun! But the whole time I'm going "Don't **** up your new truck, Rich"

Don't even know if it's part of the same system, but just talked to my Mom tonight in central NJ, and they're getting an ice storm in. Apparently she's been told to prepare for the possibility of multi-day power outages.

She has my old truck, and hasn't had the occasion to take it out of 4wd (or at least the Auto 4wd mode) since she drove it home from CA->NJ after Christmas.