I haven't driven my 1987 in a long time but just decided to see if I could cut a track through about a quarter mile of snow up to the plowed road. I got about a hundred yards up and carelessly backed into the deep snow and high-centered the car.

The left front tire and the rear right tire spin. The rear left is on pavement but it won't lock. Last time I checked by jacking up the rear end and spinning a tire it seemed to work. When the rear wheels have locked on mud or snow before it was often with a big clunk.

Does anyone have any tips about what I might do to encourage that wheel to lock, or do I have to wait for the snow to melt? Maybe there's some trick with the clutch or gears? My back doesn't work very well so I can't dig it out.

I searched the site but can't find anything useful.

Thanks.

Oh, this is a Raider, same as gen 1 Montero.

IF you have the LSD on yours, you can usually get the rear end to lock by lightly pressing on the brakes as you give it throttle.

If you don't have the LSD, it won't do you any good at all.

Thanks! I don't know what LSD is but I must have it, because that worked. Now I'm high-centered with three wheels spinning free.

Sounds like time to get a shovel out and dig some snow.

LSD = Limited Slip Differential.

So, did you finally manage to get it out?

Of course that's what it means, the old brain just didn't sort it out until too late to post. I think all Raiders had LSD. They all had headlight squirters, too. Their flaw is the wimpy mirrors that Dodge stuck on outside the wind wings.

Enough snow melted out from underneath and I slewed on up to the top and made a track for the Forester. Good snow car if you don't get careless and back into a deep drift.

Scar the Cylon Raider (grey) and Roxy (red) are both 87 Raiders. Scar did not come with bouncy, LSD or squirters. Roxy came with all.

There were a lot of Raiders that didn't have the Offroad Package (LSD, seat, headlight washers.)

This is just my personal observation with no statistical validity, but it seems that most Monteros I run into came with the package, and most Raiders didn't. You can find many Monteros that didn't and some Raiders that did, but it seems Dodge sold a lot more base vehicles than Mitsubishi did. Could just be my area, of course...

Shoot, I assumed all Raiders were like mine. Guess I just got lucky. Mine is the back one in the picture, although it doesn't have the leprosy spots or the wannabe fancy wheels.

That LSD been working overtime, beating a path down to the Ford Ranger. That short-bed Ranger is a zero-traction vehicle when it's empty. It's like a high-school physics experiment or an air-hockey puck on snow or ice.