Automatic transmission in snow

You better hope that auto and engine are tuned to shift where you usually shift.

The one we had were. (2001 Rockwell auto, 500 detriot) We got used to it. In snow it did well, no cruise and no jake. Especially when it slid and tried to jackknife on us it maintained power to the drives and shifted where necessary (It had wheel spin sensors to tell engine and transmission what is what.. used to annoy me with wheel spin indicator on dash until I pretty much quit worrying about it) coming out of the jackknife.

You did drive a auto in what I called manual mode, a paddle switch on the wheel locked in a particular gear. Whatever it might be just about torque but below horse, call it 1400 or so all day long. With a eggshell under the hammer. Lightly applied and lightly removed.

Once the interlock is in, you can tell it knows to expect a problem with sliding. Hard to explain. You might be in mid 4th gear for 10 hours or whatever all day until you get out of the snow zone at 15 mph (Finally) but you do what you have to do.

Don't allow the auto to be auto in snow or ice. Make it slave to your will.

 

Last night I went out in the storm we got in north east pa and ny with a dd15 with the dt12. 81 and 380 covered in wet slippery snow hovering at 32 degrees. Snow cleared up at the water gap and turned into black ice. 80k plus some since my company doesn't give 2 ####s about weight. Power divider kicked in, manual mode and jake on low I had no problems at all. Trailer didn't get a mind of its own not even once. kept it around 45 and 35ish on the hills. Swift, jb, werner and few O/O in the ditch.

if I only had 10k in the box it would be a different game but 50k plus on with tandems almost all the way back it did real well

 

talking a 2001 and these new 2016 models is model a to new car no comparison

 

I also pull tankers and have a Volvo i-shift. I hate it more than Satan....but, when accelerating, i "mock" shift by letting off the fuel when i need to catch the surge. Nobody wants to let off the pedal while climbing a hill, but its better than the big bang.