Caliper

We got our first real snow today since I bought my fatbike. It's pretty good, 4"+ of fairly wet snow, so after getting home of course I want to play with the bike in the yard. I had a blast, it was deep enough that my pedals were hitting the snow slightly and I could also get a pic with just the snow holding the bike up

Aside from all the fun, this is my first time riding snow this deep and fresh and one of my issues is that I'm spinning out the rear tire very easily, even at pretty low pressure. I noticed that the Juggernaut Pros (4.5" version) that came on the bike have a rotation direction on the sidewall, but that arrow puts the ramped side of the lug trying to provide traction for braking, and it seems like it just makes the tire slip and spin out when I'm trying to go. It was so that I had a hard time going up even the moderate grade in my driveway. I get that the direction on the sidewall is probably optimized for braking, but I was wondering if anyone has reversed these for the rear to get better drive traction in the snow? Or is this just not a great snow tire in general?

qclabrat

give it a try, might help a bit
Don't expect fat tires to work like velcro. Even snow spec'd tire like the Dillingers, Lou/Bud and Avalanche will slip and slide.
Riding on snow is a different beast, practice going up your drive and learn to keep your weight on the back tire even when standing or leaning forward.
Fresh snow is hard to ride on, even for fat bikes, after it packs a bit, it will be much easier. Wait till you get the footers, that's when you'll give your upper body a heck of a workout.

btw; where in MI are you located? We were supposed to get a dusting here in NJ, but nothing so far.

Caliper

SE MI. It's pretty early to get something like this, but we got a bunch here. It was pretty steady from about 6am until midnight. Of course, we're also far enough north that this time of year I go to work and return home in the dark so riding time is limited.

I've ridden on packed snow all last winter, even a few inches of fresh powder, with a 29x2" tire and never had trouble like this. I didn't ride anything this deep then, but last night I was many times struggling to go even a few tire revolutions before the rear tire would just spin in the snow and left me stalled. The only way to get going was to roll the bike back and forth to make a packed down area that I could get rolling on first. Trying to start in the deep stuff just left the rear tire spinning in place. I'm sure there is no way the rear tire would give me enough traction to push through much deeper snow.

qclabrat

just realized I meant to say Snowshoe not Avalanche..
The Juggernauts are more sand/dirt tires vs snow spec'd. See the differences between them and Dillingers. Also snow tires tend to be on the bigger size to maximize flotation


Dillingers 5s (lot more knobs /sq inch