It is what it is
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I manage a fleet with a variety of Transits:
1x 2018 350 Cargo Ext High Roof, Quigley 4wd, 3.5 EcoBoost running GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC 12 XL in the winter
3x 2019 350HD cutaway, RWD dually, 3.7 V6 running Nokian Hakkapeliitta CR3 in the winter
2x 2020 350 passenger, AWD, 3.7 V6 running Conti VanContact A/S for now
My experience in winter is that the Quigley 4WD w/ snows is the top dog. Kills it in the snow and ice; a tank.
The AWD with all season tires has been substantially better at ice starts/stops compared to the RWD dually w/ Nokians. I plan on getting snow tires for them this winter.
The RWD dually's are fine with Nokian's but the distribution and control isn't as balanced. It stops fine at speeds on the highway in bad conditions, but struggles to get moving in slippery/uphill conditions.
Yes, for snow: SRW (and ideally a skinnier tire) is better since the tire will sink down and hopefully make better ground contact compared to a DRW and the added width. I can't speak to that very definitively, as I've only had SRW 4x4/AWD and RWD duallys (we had a few Econoline RWD duallys previously). But the duallys haven't been that stellar in snow and the "float" vs "sink" concept for DRW seems to happen in my experince.
As concrete jungle mentioned up thread, we have a 2018 High roof promaster that my husband uses as his daily driver here in Jackson WY
We have good winter tires on it and it has done fine by us. We have chains but have never actually used them.
The rear axel height is a bit of a bummer, but it hasn't ever stopped us from getting to the campsites and trailheads we want to get to.
We did come from a VW Eurovan before that with FWD as well, so we weren't afraid
Although I would say that if I lived in some regions with a ton of ice (new England) or heavy, wet snows (PNW) I *might* consider springing for an awd van, but also maybe not bc this one works fine in 99% of the time
You hear about some people overbuilding their FWD vans and then they get heavy in the rear and are less stable driving so beware of that
My husband built ours out with a fairly simple, open design inside (no sink, stove, etc) and it was weighing in around 6200 lbs last time I checked at the weight station.
Awesome, thanks for chiming in. I'll be doing a pretty lightweight build and most of anything with weight will be toward the center and front of the van.
I saw that off highway van does a 3" lift for the van that actually raises the axle height as well so if I find myself wanting more clearance I might go that route. Folks have me leaning toward the PM so will probably go that route and report back through the winter if I have anything to add.
Coming from a rock crawling background, I lean toward the Sawzall and sheet metal fab to fit larger tires (for more clearance) whenever possible, and lift only as absolutely necessary. Of course this can mean regearing diffs.
I've been running a PM as a daily driver and travel rig since 2015. Gotten stuck in the mud twice but never in snow. Good snows ftw. Rear axle has never been an issue and I've driven it plenty of places I shouldn't. For $26k off the lot it's been a good value.