grane

Time for a UniMog?

justthebest

I have to chalk this one up to tires. As far as the GL's capability when properly equipped, in the record snowstorm in the DC / MD / VA area a couple years ago, I not only passed 3 stuck snowplows, I roamed DC for two days without getting stuck once. So slap the right tires on and have fun wherever you want.

pteam

I have the standard tires on my GL350 which are 20 inch 275/50/r20 Goodyear Eagle LS, the tires it comes with from the factory.

I didnt have a problem in the snow this winter with the GL. My thinking is because there was always hard road beneath the snow. When there was no hard surface to support the 6000lb weight of the GL in the wet grass there was nothing for it to grip onto. As said before I tried pretty much everything. I dont have the offroad package but I tried it with ESP on and Off. I turned on the offroad button, tried it on and off. Raised the height of the vehicle, and downshifted with paddle shifters. I even put pieces of wood under all 4 tires and still couldnt get traction. ALL 4 tires were spinning.

gbigpapa

If all 4 tires were spinning then your tires were the sole problem that day. ESP, diff locks, downshifting, lowrange, etc.... won't help. All those systems are designed to direct power to the wheel with traction. In your case the tire treads were fully packed with mud and acting like slicks and providing zero traction.

lstoker

Very true! A packed tread pattern is exactly like a slick, you simply don't have anything to grab on to.

Germancar1

Hard to believe this, looks like driver error IMO. I just can't see it unless the tires were really crappy??? Foot to floor trying to get out????


M

pteam

How can it be driver error? Read my post above to see all the things I tried. I floored the gas like 50 times over two days. If simply giving it gas would have gotten me unstuck I wouldn't even be posting. Your remarks just sound ignorant.

JimBarnhart

My experience is wet grass can be one of the toughest things to get traction on. It starts to slip and as soon as it does the grass is gone and the tread fills up with mud. I've experienced wet grass slippage in hay fields, etc with my Dodge Ram 2500 before with good tires. Fortunately it happens when I'm in 2WD and moving to 4WD and going easy I've never gotten stuck. I've been in feet of snow, muddy roads, steep conditions and nothing is as easy to slip on as wet grass.

But I could see in the right conditions of wet grass, 4WD, quickly filling the tread with mud that it would be hard to move out of even a small dip in the turf created by the spin.

I don't see this as driver error. I think that tires that are better suited would have prevented getting stuck, but you probably still could have spun the wheels on the wet grass. I suppose it could be argued that you could have reacted faster and not spun so deep, but I certainly wouldn't criticize you for that. It's not a situation where you'd expect to spin the wheels.

Germancar1

No need to be nasty about it since it sounds like you can't drive. The fact that you said you floored the gas tells me that you're clueless about getting a vehicle unstuck in such a situation. Was just asking a question in the first place. You're the one looks like a fool getting stuck like that, since you wanna be that way about it.


M

MKW

Next time you anticipate driving on soft ground/ wet grass , carry a bag of kitty litter - that stuff thrown under slipping tires works very well !
I've helped many a friend with front wheel drive slippage on the upward hill of our winter place get unstuck by tossing some of it under their spinning wheels when icy .

Fourdiesel

Cat litter - good tip!

Stoneseller

I had a 3/4 ton 4wd pickup equipped with BFG all terains get stuck on wet grass / slick mud once. I was parked on a very slight incline at a produce stand on the edge of an apple orchard.

I imagine I could have gunned the engine hard enough to dig some ruts and rock myself out, but I did not want to cause damage. The farmer hooked his tractor and gave me a nudge, that was all I needed to move on out.

I believe a hand push by two reasonable strong people would likely have been all that was needed in either mine or the OP's situation.

MercedesGL_ftw

Not sure what you mean

http://youtu.be/8ri7vkDLQdE

BlownV8

You got that backwards. Too narrow is a problem in mud. You want wider tires in mud and low traction conditions. Tire flotation refers to spreading the weight out over the greatest area as possible so you don't "dig in."

hyperion667

LOL!

LEOSOPHIE

EXACTLY!

pteam

Read what every other person on this thread has said, and its clear you don't know what you're talking about.

ERC4

Both stock. Continentals on the GL and Michelin Lattitudes on the LX.

Trailer

Flooring the gas is definately not a good thing to do. In the future you may want to consider digging out infront and behind the tires to give you some space to rock the car back and forth. Once you get some movement going you can accelerate out.... that does not mean floor it.

If the material in which you are stuck is too wet and soupy you will need to add some sort of material (ie kitty litter or even rocks... but if you gas it, that will fly at your vehicle. So keep that in mind)

I don't think the vehicle is the issue here. Once you got yourself stuck, trying to get yourself out the way you did was. My wife does it all the time.

lkchris

Nope, only time you want "flotation" is when the mud is bottomless. Or you're talking sand, which is, too.

All other times, you want maximum pressure per square inch of tire contact.

Narrower tires most of the time provide best traction on wet, snowy surfaces because you DO want to "dig in," i.e. not aquaplane.

BlownV8

Here is a truck with flotation tires.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/tractor-spre...item43a9dcd28b

http://landmaxcn.en.alibaba.com/prod...tion_tire.html


http://www.nextag.com/Flotation-Tires/shop-html

http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/N...Make-Sense.php

BOYRACER

Merci beaucoup! exactly. Good grief a kia soul... who makes that???

BlownV8

Narrow tires on snow works well when there is road underneath and you have a reason to cut through the snow for traction. Wide tires will push the snow and have greater resistance on a road surface. However, if there is no road or hard surface underneath and it is very deep, you would want a wider tire "flotation" for more traction and so you don't just dig ruts and sink.

Edit: In this scenario, a tire with a more aggressive tread would have worked better since it was just mud underneath. Cutting through the mud in the OP's case with street tires will do nothing but dig ruts as he did. Tire width was fine but the tread pattern was not since it filled with mud and allowed no traction.

After additional research, a tread width of around 265 to 275 MM for a GL looks to be the perfect width for a vehicle this size in most terrains. Wider is not always better in regards to traction with the exception of smooth road surfaces. Tall and aggressive tread design is what you want for mud and jungle type conditions with good spacing between the lugs so the tire will clear itself. Wide is best for the street, sand, and deep offroad snow, or deep mud. You want flotation tires if the surface is soft enough to sink past 110% of the vehicles minimum ground clearance.

Of course, recommended tire width is also product of the vehicles weight. A lighter vehicle needs narrower tires to have enough pressure per square inch of the tread to get acceptable traction in muddy conditions. As weight increases so does the need for tire width to acheive ideal traction. So to say that narrower is better is not exactly accurate but neither is saying wider is always better.

http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/N...Make-Sense.php

BJ021

Not sure anyone said this, but turning the wheel and moving as slow as possible may have brought the vehicle back on top of the grass and allowed it to coast out. The trick is slow. I've been driving on ice all my life - and in plenty of wet muddy fields - slow slow slow. The tire width argument is a good one. But I would tend to go with narrow on a smaller rim for the best traction. Wider is rarely right. You would displace more weight around the tires - but you would need 2' wide tires to make a real difference with 6000 lbs....and that's not an option. So wider for fast driving grip - but not traction.

pteam

I did try turning the tires both ways and giving it some gas. Most of the time I was between 1k rpms and 2krpms because I have the diesel GL, you just dont rev the diesel to 4krpms thats damn near redline. 2k rpms seems like alot on the diesel thats almost half way to redline.
I was unstuck the next day and it was no big deal because I was camping and didnt even need to use the vehicle.

I've realized from reading other responses that my tires just turned to slicks with all the mud and the weight of the vehicle in the mud. All 4 tires were just caked with mud and all 4 spinning. What would have probably worked was the idea of putting gravel down under the tires or kitty litter, thats good to know for the next 50 years if I ever get stuck! I guess learning something new was the best lesson here.