Now I know to turn off Stabilitrack in deep snow...

[mikeyk101]

So I have had my Silverado for almost 5 years and have driven in snow before. But today, the truck had been parked for a day and we had about a foot of snow since it was parked. I will point out that I am due for tires but trying to hold off for a bit. I have driven in snow many times before and have driven many different 4x4 vehicles but today was different. When trying to move, I put it in 4x4 hi and tried pulling forward. It acted like a 2 wheel drive and would barely move and was sliding side to side a bit. It felt like the wheels were just spinning and couldn't get traction. I finally made some headway after going forwards and back several times but it was still struggling. I decided to give 4 wheel lo a try. I noticed that when doing this, it deactivated the stabilitrack. This time, it pulled forward easily. I didn't even think of that. I know years ago when driving Ford Crown Vics at work, in heavy snow, we would need to deactivate the traction control or we would get stuck on a regular basis. Well now I know that next time this happens, first thing I will do is deactivate the stabilitrack...

Edited February 1, 2021 by mikeyk101

[Colossus]

Thanks for the tip.  This is my first truck with stabilitrack, my previous trucks didn't have it, just 4X4 and the G80 rear diff, and that always got me by just fine. 

[ftwhite]

Maybe it wasn't Stabilitrak being off that helped, but rather Traction Control being off. Stabilitrak tries to keep the truck from flipping over by detecting when the truck is in a skid (understeer/oversteer) and applies brakes to correct the direction of the skid. My experience is it works awesome at highway speeds. I am not sure what it would do when the truck is stuck and just spinning its wheels. Traction Control on the other hand tries to detect wheel spin and applies breaks to slipping wheels to direct more torque to wheels that are not spinning (assume because they have traction). However, in the snow, when traction is missing or at the edge on all wheels, it can be better to turn the system off and allow the driver control of spin with the throttle and rocking (like you said you did in 4L). 4L turns both off, but you can also turn them off with the button. 

[mikeyk101]

You could be right. I may have been describing wrong thing. All I know is that when switching to 4 lo, I saw the yellow stabilitrack warning light come on and the truck easily moved forward. It was night and day difference. I did already know that I could hold the stabilitrack button down for a few seconds to deactivate but didn't even think about that. I do know what I need to do the next time though.