I am running 19" Goodyear Wrangler DuraTracs on my 2011 LR4. Went up to Mt. Baker, WA to take my daughter sledding on Christmas day. The road up featured hairpin turns and switchbacks with steep inclines covered in poorly ploughed roads. The snow was packed powder with a bit of sand mixed in. We made it okay, but I had to be on top of my game the whole time. My sense is the LR4 is heavy and tall so it can't take corners at any speed under those conditions. The slightest momentum into the turn and its center of gravity tends to want to keep moving forward and slide you into the ditch. It's just physics. So you have to crawl around hairpin turns and then climb those steep inclines with little momentum. Once again, the vehicle is heavy and it feels like it might want to bog down or stall without the momentum to keep it going up the incline.
The answer to all of this was maintaining a slow, but steady, pace. Slow enough to not slide through the corners, but fast enough to have a bit of momentum heading up the steep hills. The other thing I noticed is that the LR4 felt a lot more grounded and in control if the drivetrain was pulling it forward rather than it rolling freely and braking, even at slow speeds. I'd feel a lot more confident if I could come to a dead stop on one of those inclines and the 4-wheel drive would kick in and pull me up it rather than spinning my wheels uselessly or even sliding back down the hill. I don't know what it would do under those conditions and I'm not willing to find out. I just kept it moving and hoped for the best.
Don't mean to knock my own ride, I just wonder if the height and weight are limiting factors when it comes to driving in certain demanding snowy conditions. To me, it feels a little bit like those Canadian curling shows I sometimes saw growing up. The stone would slide across the ice and the players could guide it with their brooms, but its weight and forward momentum were controlling. You could guide it, but not stop it, until it ran out of steam.
