Winter Weight For Traction?

[Steven Petersen]

2 or 3 100lbs. sacks of sand over rear axle. Rides way better too. Locking differential makes a huge difference, mostly for getting started out of the yard, or pulling onto highway. For tires, get studs if you want to see improvement. Snow tires are a gimmick. You need metal to penetrate the ice. Of course in the worst conditions, there’s no substitute for chains.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I have four cracked Vortec heads that I'm keeping around for just such a reason, but it's not as much of an issue here. Be sure and put your weight just in front of or over the rear axle. If you put it behind the rear axle your rear end will try and come around if you lift in a corner, ala early Porsche 911s.

With my Jeep, I always ran it in 4Hi in snow. It was squirrely without it. With my Suburban, I followed suit, but it had a long wheelbase and lots of weight, so I found it to be less necessary. My Mustang is a no-go in anything more than a light snow. Fat summer tires and an automatic that has a little more stall built in from the factory mean that it just can't get traction.

 

[CKVortec]

I agree with everything stated above, good tires help, pickups are light in the rear etc.
My 99 suburban needs no extra weight, good studded tires and 4x4 all winter this sucker will do the speed limit in 8 inches of snow with confidence.
My 00 regular cab plow truck doesn't get much highway use, but to help keep from getting stuck and give me more traction for pushing I removed the spare tire and added a weight box there that I built and filled with cement. I'd guess it weighs about 300 pounds, I also have 4 spare tires that I leave in the bed all winter. With studded tires it is a beast.

 

[454cid]

I shift in and out of 4wd as needed, and have never used weight. 4wd mainly provides a little more directional stability at highway speeds, and faster take off at stops. So if you're not starting and stopping, and not going fast enough to need the extra directional stability, then it's not needed.

When I drove my dad's 96 2wd short box one winter, I was impressed with how it did in the snow with snow tires.... and then later found that it also had a G80. My 99 has/had neither. That 96 did have some extra weight in the form of a fiberglass tonneau cover.

 

[CrustyJunker]

This is the kind of content I was looking for! All good stuff. Funny, I've had the same sand bags for several years now. Guess time, sun, etc. finally got to the woven plastic they were sacked in. Last year a couple made a nice, clean rip sound aaaand...Mess. Repurposed the un-vesseled stuff and never bought new bags. Procrastination at its best, forgot all about it. Tossed in the two bags that remained intact and loaded up on some snow to substitute the rest. I'll just pretend I'm being efficient.

I know what you guys mean on the directional stability. Anytime I had fight the highway in deep snow, my Tahoe's speed had a magic number. Too slow, I'd be white-knuckle driving and ruts pulling my truck all over the road (partially do to bad steering parts). Any faster and it would just be a borderline loss of control/bad time. Talk about confidence!

I've always had short wheelbase vehicles...I like them and I'm used to their behaviors. Seems like you have friendlier error correction in longer trucks. Had an eye opener one time when riding passenger with my brother-in-law. He got his quad cab Ram sideways, that was a much longer process than I was used to. Stuff getting hairy over the course of several seconds and straightening back out took just as long. Definitely funnier after the action was over.


Over the years, I started buying more and more civilized tires. My travels are getting further on-road and I spend less time off-road. I always needed 4WD and tolerated big luggy tires for the rural deep stuff. Roads don't always get plowed and when the rain hits in the spring and fall, it's a swampy mess off pavement. This might be the first set of truck tires I bought with actual sipes in them. I hope they're worth the trade-off come the really messy conditions!

 

[Pinger]

Snow tyres work - they might not look like they should but they do. They are phenomenal. They are also phenomenally expensive here (UK) in the size (17'') needed for my C2500 Suburban. My choice then is an all terrain tyre - but I don't want something too 'clawy' that makes a racket on bare tarmac, consumes fuel, and is otherwise sub-optimal on bare roads. What's the mildest AT tyre that will still work on snow? Seeing as this is about the tread pattern, pics might help. I've included a pic of a tyre I'm considering - does it look like it will cope with snow?

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[Supercharged111]

Looks like it from here.

 

[CrustyJunker]

I'd say so, too. Definitely looks like they'd be quiet and behave. I don't know what kind of tires you have available to you, either. Try them out!

 

[TechNova]

true winter tires work very well. I have four 4wd vehicles, 3 have winter tires. None of the four will make it up our driveway in 2wd for the last month or so, but the ones with winter tires can start and stop on the hill in 4wd. The 89 RCSB cannot with regular tires in 4wd. You can feel the difference with winter tires but we are careful not to get too confident, still only 4 tire patches on the ground.

 

[F4U-1A]

Winter, Covid, Cold, Snow, more Snow, Cold, Covid and more Winter. But it is all good, Just got my Mossberg 590 Retrograde Persuader. Going to bird shot some snow covered tree top greens, its fun. Doggy stays inside, he does not like the boom stick. And what does that have to do with snow tires?

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