07 Yukon Denali AWD in snow?

[jerwin66]

Hey everyone
New poster. I have a 2007 Yukon Denali. Tried to pull wife's cobalt through a level parking lot filled with 3-5" of ice/snow.

My Yukon itself got stuck, traction control ON, in reverse and forward engine sounded like the trac control was working, but no power was going to front wheels that I could tell.

Turned off trac control and rear wheels spun up and front wheels didn't even try to engage.

Am I missing something? I've always had manual 4wd locking 4LO etc, not sure if I should be driving AWD differently? I thought this thing was supposed to be decent in snow but if it's spinning one rear wheel in 5" of snow i'm trading it in.

 

[cor]

You shouldn't have much of a problem. How are your tires?

 

[jerwin66]

Brand new Bridgestone Duellers

 

[Dave01]

First, switch traction control off so you have full engine control. Then, you say one rear tire was spinning. You should spin one front, if nothing up front is spinning you've got a problem. In the back you should be able to spin 2 with posi.

You should be able to drive through 8-10" of snow on level ground with no problem, I've done that a bunch in the last few weeks here, and my Bridgestones are 50% worn. I could see struggling to pull another car in an un-plowed lot, but if a driver in the Cobalt it should pull it through 5" with some effort.

 

[jerwin66]

Dave01, Thanks for the reply. When trac control was off, only the left rear tire was spinning and I didn't rev up too much when this was happening. The other day I kept TC on and very very slowly got into the gas, tapping brakes occasionally, and the front wheels eventually started grabbing like they "should". This took about 20-30 seconds though. The stabilitrac light was flashing and eventually was solid lit - is this when the system "learns" what's going on and applies power accordingly?

I'm used to driving manual 4wd trucks where I know for sure if my front wheels should be locked - guess I have to get used to driving the AWD and let the truck do the thinking for me! It's actually my wife's daily driver, I didn't want her having to think about putting in/out of 4wd and tear something up on dry roads.

Thanks
James

 

[Dave01]

I'm not familiar with the Denali, what 4WD control it has in it. Is it a rotary selector with 2Hi, Auto, 4Hi, 4Lo? Or is it just full time AWD? If a selector, choose 4Hi instead of Auto in a situation like that, then the axles are forced to turn at the same rate and might get those fronts spinning sooner.

 

[jerwin66]

Yes it's the all time, AWD, no selector. I was "surprised" by this after I took the truck for a test drive and pulled into a parking lot to make sure the 4wd worked - no knob! Now I'm paying for it in fuel mileage, but I love the truck.

 

[livingez_123]

In the AWD system, as soon as the rear tires start to spin, the front tires will also get power. There is a viscous clutch in the transfer case that senses wheel spin and moves the power from front to back, or back to front, whatever is needed.

 

[Smokymance]

5in of snow isnt much for this truck, but if that snow is covering a layer of ice, that might be an issue, esp when trying to tow a car...iv seen my friends 100K SUV tryin to get out of ice with no luck! ice is ice!