What To Do When Your Truck Is Stuck in Snow

You should learn what to do when your truck is stuck in snow if you’re a pickup driver. Remember these techniques because they could help you the next time you’re in a difficult situation.

Clear the Snow

The first thing you must do is remove the snow around your tires. The best tool for this task is a snow shovel, but you can also use a heavy-duty screwdriver or an ice-scraper. You want to clear snow from underneath the tires and on their backs and fronts. After that, make a path long enough for the car to move forward and back. You only need to clear enough room for the truck to gain momentum.

Get Traction

Hopefully, this will be the last step in your job. One of the reasons why pickups are better than SUVs and other large vehicles is that their power can help them out of sticky situations. Use that power to your advantage by slowly moving your truck forward and back until you get the proper traction and drive out of the snow. Don’t gun the accelerator. A nice back and forth should be enough to get the job done.

Accelerate and Brake

Though it may seem counterintuitive, you can’t gain traction just by accelerating. You should apply the brakes simultaneously. Braking while accelerating will eliminate useless spinning and help you get traction. However, don’t try this technique for more than a few moments. It may negatively affect your transmission.

Push and Accelerate

If none of the other options work, you should get some people together and see if they can help you move your truck. With you accelerating and a team of two or three people pushing, you can hopefully move beyond the blockage that stopped you.

Use Cat Litter

Cat litter should be the final option you go to on our list of what to do when your truck is stuck in the snow. If you’ve exhausted every other method, you can coat the area around your tires with kitty litter, which will help you gain traction as you try to move the truck. If you don’t have kitty litter, you can also use branches, plywood, cardboard, and even your truck’s floor mats.