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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- I bought this van new, about 16 years ago. It's a 2004 AWD Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. I've got over 219K miles on it now, it's taken us on lots of great road trips. Just a few years ago I drove it cross country, from Seattle WA to Cape Cod, MA and back. About 7,000 miles of US Interstate sight-seeing. And I've driven it on tons of skiing and windsurfing trips all over the PNW.
Monday Dec 14, 2020 we took it up to Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascade Mts, an hour east of Seattle on I-90. Our local mts had been getting lots of recent snow and I wanted to get some video, showing some of it's capability. Note - I'm not using snow tires, it'd do even better with em, but for what I need, all season highway tires have always worked fine with this great AWD snow car!
I came up with 3 tests on "little used" roadways and parking lots. The snow on the roads & hills was actually very packed, which coupled with the warm temps, made it very slippery. The unpacked snow in the parking lot was less slippery.
Test 1 - is just a hill climb up a moderate hill while doing some slalom weaving back and forth. It's the beginning till 50 seconds
Test 2 - is a long boring section, but it's important cause so many of us get stuck in this situation. I'm going slow, with repeated stop and starts, on a shallow hill which is VERY slippery. Showing driver's side from :50 to 2:05. Then more runs showing passenger side from 2:17 to 2:55.
Test 3 - is the fun part. Flat parking lot maneuvering with unpacked snow (which has more traction than packed snow). Slippin' and slidin' around from 3:00 to 5:25:)
Then tire info from 5:30 to 6:10.
So cool!! Wish my grand caravan had the awd would have been a life saver in so many situations.
We had an '02 awd and took that thing through some serious snow storms up to Tahoe. It was a snow beast. I miss that van. Wish they still made them with awd.
Agreed. And ...they finally did start making them again (kind of). Last Sep Chrysler brought out an AWD version of the Pacifica, as a 2020 1/2 model. And then, they became totally available in many models in the 2021 refreshed Pacifica. Anyway I bought the late 2020 version in Oct, and wanted to compare it's snow performance to my '04 and that's why I put these vids together, haha!
Thanks MUCH for sharing and Video! I am looking for an AWD Van, they seem to be rare, and have had DGC's now and in the past... but never really thought of it, went back to a Subaru too, for it AWD. All the BEST to you and again, thanks for sharing! Cheers ! :)
I have 97 AWD
I drove on a frozen lake last winter
It so fun and really nice to drive
Here from the van forum to give a like & subscribe!
Still looks good I felt like the 2004 was the best one before the stow and go came
I have a DGC AWD too. I have AT+M tires, a lift and I drive through deep sand no problem. Mine does not have traction control to disable, and I usually leave it in 1st for offroad crawling. I wish there was a LSD option for at least the rear. I spin the wheels no problem, so far the trans is very reliable
Awesome, sounds great. Mine doesn't have traction control either. I bought this van new... and I don't think trac. control was available. Anyway, I'm not sure what that feature would do, in an AWD rig... although I know newer similar AWD rigs have it. I just don't know enough about how awd and trac control would work together.
There is a limited slip diff for the front for about $250. Company is called phantom lockers or something to that avail
Subscribed for more AWD minivan videos. 👍
My next goals a Chrysler Pacifica minivan with #AWD!
This is Mitsubishi L300 parking on the middle? Or how do you call it?
Yes it is
• kewl •
I had a 2004 Mercury Mountaineer that split the AWD upon loss of traction going uphill, I wonder if the newer models are better?