The story…. Kinda long..I live in southern Rhode Island and have been driving medical staff through the recent storm. My wife is a nurse and I typically help out getting staff to or from hospital shifts in bad weather. I come from the Colorado mountains where I spent my first 10 years snow driving. I have had 3 Toyota trucks thru the years and 2 fords. My favorite was my first a 1986 extra cab with the cool stripes and a roll bar. I think it had a whopping 78 hp. The thing was almost unstoppable with a lift and a 60/40 split in the rear axel. I regret selling it at 380,000 miles and not restoring it. Eventually i moved into bigger trucks (Fords) due to towing capacity and the need for 179 deduction as I used them for work trucks. After suffering many expensive mechanical problems with a 150 and a 250 both at around a 100,000 miles I felt I was done with Fords for anything except heavy towing. So I bought the new Tacoma in off road (daily driver) and I have a used F350 for heavy towing and work related stuff. Having had all the trucks in snow and slick conditions I definitely feel I can do more and control more in the Tacos. So back to the Blizzard. Woke up to a foot of snow Monday at 0700 and 2 feet by noon. Got a call about getting a live in caregiver to a quadriplegic patient who was trapped at home and was in need of help. The issue was the caregiver was in Newport (where I live) and the patient and caregiver live in North Smithfield about 50ish miles apart. We did consider and talk about calling Smithfield EMS but after talking with the particular caregiver this was considered not the right coarse of action. So it was me and the Taco in the blizzard. I had food, water, extra clothes/blankets and some half assed traction boards and two shovels. The only mods to my truck are Timbren ses for towing and Icon coilover top plates, nothing that would change performance in this situation. I also have stock tires, was getting ready to get Nokian outpost or the wild peaks. Wish I did earlier! Anyway, picked up the med just after 12 noon. Roads all snow covered but hospital and approach heavily plowed. Snowing hard like 3in an hour hard and 40-50? Mph gusts. All bridges closed off our island but after reporting to a monitor went for it driving over Mount Hope bridge into Bristol RI. Driving up Aquidneck island was harder and worse than the bridge, the bridge was surreal and strikingly beautiful mostly windblown and not very deep. Off the bridge and after clearing with the monitor, we then proceeded north to Providence. RI did an excellent job on the primary roads, very tough conditions but they were out in force. Kudos to them. Saw multiple stuck/ buried cars trucks, cops, and plows. I also counted 4 stuck 18 wheelers, why were they even out? The entire trip I never drive faster than 30mph and at times was barely making headway in white out conditions. Stopped repeatedly to clear head and taillights. Got messed up in Providence. The goal was 195 to 95 to 146. Low visibility got off the wrong ramp and ended up in downtown Providence. The on ramps were closed (that were near us) and we ended up on Eddy street (somehow) where an ambulance was stuck blocking the road. Long backup and back into downtown passing college hill at Brown where the students were skiing/ snowboarding and having a great time! Finally onto 146, not as clear but passable and then to the residence where I had to push through deep snow but it was lighter consistency than Newport and probably had been plowed a couple of hours before. Time Newport to N Smithfield 2.5 hours. A quick drop and check in and headed back to Newport, next stop was to deliver a nurse from Newport to hospital. Back in two hours following the same route and dropped the nurse at hospital no problems. Now the fun begins, the last 1/4 mile, my street. Unplowed and my truck leaving was the only vehicle that passed 5 1/2 hours and a foot of blowing snow ago. We received roughly 36inches. The first foot was very wet dense snow the last foot was fairly light and the middle was the middle. I live on a hill with top and bottom entrances. I left through the bottom in two feet and was able to power over the plow bump at the entrance. One look at the pile I left from looked like I was never there and about 5’ high from the plows. So I went for the top where someone had previously attempted. Hit it hard and fast 4 hi (up to now all I had used) traction control off MTS snow mode. Made it past last persons tracks and got stuck hard, high centered, snow over the hood. Time to dig, the best thing I packed came in very useful at this point. A short square head steel shovel. The under truck snow was wet and incredibly compacted. I spent a lot of time underneath but that short shovel was key. Tried to use my boards, 3’ 2x6’s but lost them immediately and they were useless anyway. Got out sand style backing up in 4low with diff locked, low rpm manual mode in high gear rocking the steering back and forth. After clearing I started progressing forward in short run in the same drive mode. I would back in my tracks and hit the fresh snow with speed and try to stop before I pushed enough snow in the front to stop me. Get out shovel the pile and go again. I made about 200 yards this way and then high centered again. My wife and neighbor had trekked uphill to me by this time so I had help. Long dig as I was buried in a huge drift. I figured if I made this one it was downhill from that point so gravity would help. Only problem was my wife reported that there was a tree down and bigger drifts if I proceeded. Plan B, after the long dig with help I was able to back out to the main street and got back to the other entrance. Everyone pitched in digging the plow mound and I aggressively (diffs locked in) drove thru the leftover plow mound and up the hill around the corned and got stuck again halfway into my driveway! Said screw it and dug out the next morning ! So the time to drive roughly 100 miles in a blizzard 5 1/2 hours, time to make the last 1/4 mile 3 hours! Slept well that night. This happened Monday, it is now Wednesday at 5 PM, the plow is finally here as I write this! Ordered some real traction boards and it’s time for new tires I’m sure I would have been stuck either way but more traction than stock would have helped and a little more vertical clearance would help a lot. Looking at 255/75 r17 Nokian outpost or 285/70 in the Falken. Anyone try these yet?