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First time owner would like to get some little help from you guys Thank you
Newbie saying hello
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8,958 Posts
Welcome!
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338 Posts
Welcome. Lots of good info. on this forum.
My pm has been a horrible nightmare in the snow... I am pulling a lot of weight tho
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604 Posts
OEM tires. It snowed about 3 inches here in Baltimore a few days ago and it was the first I had gone thru in the PM. The main roads were slushy and I did fine. The secondary roads and developments that were not plowed is were I had problems. I got stuck 2 times on the way to my first job and was able to dig out. After my first job I couldn't even get going out of the development on a flat surface. I had to get chained out with a 4 wd. I am pulling a lot of weight in my box tho. I'll have to look into better tires.
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604 Posts
The OEM Vanco's are not designed for or anything near to what you want in a winter tire. It's just the way it is. They are a hard compound and a highway tread pattern. They'll continue to make you suffer until you get a winter tire. Then you'll see how nice a PM will handle in the snow...
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233 Posts
Hello Stangangmike1,
Welcome to forum and owning a PM.
Don't mean to hijack your intro but I wanted to reply to Justin's comment on how the PM drives in snow and let you know that I agree with Makevx73 comment.
I just drove my PM for the first time in snow and I was blown away by how well it handled. I drove 400km from Vancouver through mountains to the southern interior in BC Canada on Hwy #3 and drove around for three weeks in the snow. I did all the driving on the stock Vanco tires.
The drive through the mtns on Hwy #3 is serious driving in the winter. There are my steep grades and a lot of sections with hair pin turns. This drive is pretty much considered SUV allwheel drive/4 X 4 only in winter conditions.
I've had a lot of vans in the past and I would not evan consider this drive in a traditional van.
While I was in the interior it dumped a foot of snow over two days so I jumped at the opportunity to take the PM out on the un-plowed roads for some tests. This was going to be interesting because the drive through the mtns had all been on compact snow, slush, and some ice.
Test conditions were PM 3500 EXT, (not loaded), tires stock Vanco, snow medium dry, snow depth 6", road surface paved.
The first test for the PM was my driveway. I'm lazy and refuse to shovel snow if I can avoid it and all our other cars/trucks are 4 x 4 so no need to. My drive is gravel and had about 6" of fresh on it. The driveway has a relatively steep exit.
I tried several times but, I could not get up the final grade and was a bit confused after just having driven 400km through mtns. Then it dawned on me, it was a RTFM problem! So I got it out of the glove box went back into the house poured another cup of coffee and sat down to read the manual, which was hard to do because my wife was LOL at me the whole time!
Turns out those clever Italian engineers gave the PM three ESC (electronic stability control) settings. Sure enough to drive in deep snow or achieve a more "spirited" driving experience you go down one level on the ESC. The manual also states that you should turn off the ESC completely for off road driving.
Went back out to the pm with my knew knowledge dropped it down one level on the ESC and presto made it up the drive and out onto the un-plowed roads for a tour of the hood. The pm behaved super well! Braking and steering very predictable, up and down moderate grades very good. I ended the test by driving up a very steep hill (approximately 8-9%) on compact snow. The PM went up the hill. Wow super impressive!
What I learned: RTFM, play with the ESC for different driving conditions and probably by some real snow tires.
Cheers
Welcome to forum and owning a PM.
Don't mean to hijack your intro but I wanted to reply to Justin's comment on how the PM drives in snow and let you know that I agree with Makevx73 comment.
I just drove my PM for the first time in snow and I was blown away by how well it handled. I drove 400km from Vancouver through mountains to the southern interior in BC Canada on Hwy #3 and drove around for three weeks in the snow. I did all the driving on the stock Vanco tires.
The drive through the mtns on Hwy #3 is serious driving in the winter. There are my steep grades and a lot of sections with hair pin turns. This drive is pretty much considered SUV allwheel drive/4 X 4 only in winter conditions.
I've had a lot of vans in the past and I would not evan consider this drive in a traditional van.
While I was in the interior it dumped a foot of snow over two days so I jumped at the opportunity to take the PM out on the un-plowed roads for some tests. This was going to be interesting because the drive through the mtns had all been on compact snow, slush, and some ice.
Test conditions were PM 3500 EXT, (not loaded), tires stock Vanco, snow medium dry, snow depth 6", road surface paved.
The first test for the PM was my driveway. I'm lazy and refuse to shovel snow if I can avoid it and all our other cars/trucks are 4 x 4 so no need to. My drive is gravel and had about 6" of fresh on it. The driveway has a relatively steep exit.
I tried several times but, I could not get up the final grade and was a bit confused after just having driven 400km through mtns. Then it dawned on me, it was a RTFM problem! So I got it out of the glove box went back into the house poured another cup of coffee and sat down to read the manual, which was hard to do because my wife was LOL at me the whole time!
Turns out those clever Italian engineers gave the PM three ESC (electronic stability control) settings. Sure enough to drive in deep snow or achieve a more "spirited" driving experience you go down one level on the ESC. The manual also states that you should turn off the ESC completely for off road driving.
Went back out to the pm with my knew knowledge dropped it down one level on the ESC and presto made it up the drive and out onto the un-plowed roads for a tour of the hood. The pm behaved super well! Braking and steering very predictable, up and down moderate grades very good. I ended the test by driving up a very steep hill (approximately 8-9%) on compact snow. The PM went up the hill. Wow super impressive!
What I learned: RTFM, play with the ESC for different driving conditions and probably by some real snow tires.
Cheers
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