Winter driving skills?

Why don’t they teach winter driving skills?  When another snow storm was heading for us, and the forecast said 8-12 inches, the man with the tractor told me to take the full size 4x4 pickup home.  His only advice was don’t bury it!  Good thing, actually, before it had even started to snow, my driveway already had some good drifts blowing across it.  I probably wouldn’t have made it in my car.  Back to winter driving skills, I do what works:  drive really fast and hope to stay on the road while busting through drifts.  If I get stuck (as long as it is not in the ditch) I usually carry a scoop shovel, scoop some snow and manually push my car out.  Yes, push it out, (I've had a lot of practice in this) there is something to be said for lightweight cars. 

So we had about 6-8 inches of snow, but of course 8-18 inches was sitting on my driveway.  I walked the drive – yep, pretty deep.  I didn’t need to go anywhere, but kind of thought the tractor and blade would show up, sometime, but they never did. 

The next day, I had to get out, and early.  With trepidation, I called and was told my drive probably wouldn’t get done today, but I had 4 wheel-drive.  Not really knowing the capabilities of said vehicle, I asked if it could tackle 8-12 inches and was told, don’t break anything…go through the field instead.  You know, I kind of like “waiting to be rescued”, the responsibility isn't on my shoulders.  That’s a lot of pressure – don’t break anything. 

So, I put the snow boots on, had snow pants, stocking hat, gloves and the scoop shovel in the truck ready to go, just in case I found myself walking.  I used my only winter driving technique – drove fast and decided to opt for the path of less snowfall, through the field.  (It’s kind of nice to have 80 acres to choose from).  With palms sweaty, I made it. 

I asked many coworkers about the capabilities of a full size four wheel drive pick up.  I was told 8-18 inches shouldn’t be a problem.  How come vehicles don’t have that sort of capability written on their sticker?  With a driveway like mine, it would be good to know… how does a Jeep compare to other all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive vehicles? How much different is a small sized pickup versus a full size?  A general rule of thumb would be nice.  Do you think dealers would allow me to test drive – only in the winter on my driveway?  Depending on the snowfall it may take a few years to finish my research.

With my new found courage and the knowledge that driving to my house is mostly downhill, I decided to try the driveway itself when I came home.  It was a wild ride, 18 inches was more the norm and yet I still made it.  The drive out the next morning really showed how deep the snow was, but I made it again.

The man with the tractor finally showed up and was rather impressed with the capabilities of his truck, or was it my driving?