preparing for winter driving (tires/weight in back)

I'm the new owner of a 2003 double cab, TRD Tacoma. The truck has 44K miles. This is the first true pickup truck I have owned. I don't count my Subaru Baja. The truck rides great, however, I'm not impressed with driving performance in the rain / wet roads. I believe it is probably the tires. They are Cooper Discovery H/T, with probably 10K miles on them is my guess. I will replace with Michelin, but I would like to get the winter out of them. Do you guys recommedn adding weight to the bed in winter time? I don't know if the poor wet driving is a function of the tires, or a function of needing some weight in the back end or both? Thanks for the input. Many years ago, I owned a 1990 4Runner that was a maintenance nightmare. It appears that this truck is very solid.

 

You didn't let us know if it was 2WD or 4WD.
It makes a difference.

I've driven 4WD with crappy tires and it wasn't the tires. Always got around.

I never needed weight in the rear but I always had 4WD.

If anything is added to the rear, make sure it's secured.
In the event of an accident, everything will just keep coming forward and take your head off.
It happens.

 

I am not familiar with the tread pattern on your coopers but one thing that can help in these situations is adding siping to the tread. Siping adds bitting edges that will help immensely in slippery conditions.

If you are not familiar with tire siping, check out this link:
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/tireSiping.dos

 

Thanks gussotto. Yes, my truck is 4WD. Good point about securing any weight.

 

^ just get some goodyear wrangler duratracs. $800 and they'll give you 40k miles of solid safety....oh and its the tires you have now...I remember when i had the stock tires on my truck...damn they were borderline dangerous

 

I never add any weight to mine in the winter just use's more gas.

 

Same here.....
4WD gets me all over the place.
40+ years of owning 4WD trucks and never need any extra weight to get around.

 

Well you are going from a Subaru that's all wheel drive to a pick up. I've driven a forester and it has excellent traction. But you just have to remember a rear wheel drive pick up can slip alot more. All of them do. But it works great in 4wd when you need it.

 

ive never had to add any weight, 4wd works awesome in the snow. plus having good tires has a major effect to.

 

^This

And on a side note I only add a 40lbs bag of cat litter to the back (directly between the wheel wheels) if I'm going up and over the passes in shitty conditions. Probably don't need to, but it makes me feel more secure mentally

 

i used to use a couple 50lb bags of salt in the old crown vic i used to drive years ago. That way if i got stuck i had something to get myself out with =)