Anybody have a “sandbag” set up. 4x4-4x2, non studded/extreme weather tire winter driving thread,

Same here, works great and it removes itself as the weather warms.

 

I used to carry around a couple bags of sand or a few chunks of heavy firewood. Either build a wood frame to keep it from sliding in the bed or just lay a tire or three flat in the bed to keep things put. Sure, it looked a bit hillbilly but so what?

 

You just reminded me of a good memory.
When I was about 5, the guy across the street brought home a load from Big Bear. He unloaded it in his yard and let us neighbor kids have at. First time any of us had touched the stuff. This is what his truck looked like.

 

When I lived in Wyoming, I used the 40# bags of water softener salt from Wally World (very cheap and available). Piled right back against the tailgate to maximize the weight transfer - biased to the passenger side. The wood frame to keep them where you want is the way to go.

 

I have one of those. 1/2” thick weighs about 100lbs

 

After having three Tacomas I've settled on two 60# sand bags. One over each tire with a small choker around each with a ratchet strap holding them to the side. Keeps them from moving around and easy to take out when I need the whole bed. When I didn't strap them the bags would always move around, even with a bed mat.

 

As a Texan ive only seen snow a handful of times in my life and only recently drove in the stuff. Sandbags worked for me for the .2 inches lol

 

Normally I use 2 sand bags one over each wheel well. Last year traveling back to Seattle I got caught off guard in south eastern Washington and could not find any sand bags but they had garden manure on clearance for .25 a bag ended up putting about 30 bags in my truck worked great and the garden was happy.

 

When snow is called for in my area, I just buy extra cat litter for the back. Never goes to waste (2 cats) and as an added bonus, provides great traction material if you do get into a slippery surface.

 

200 LB piece of industrial conveyer belt cut to fit.

 

Hard to weigh its very awkward and floppy

 

for sure . I’m just going by the weight listed on the farm store description. Haha

 

I run severe snow rated tires, add no weight to bed, and just drive. Michigan winters are snowy and icy, and our damn roads are not fixed, but I have no issues. When it is especially sketchy I simply use 4WD, that is what it is for.

 

If it's going to be really icy I throw 2 5 gallon buckets in the back corners. One full of rock salt and the other sand, adds weight and if needed I can scoop them out under the tires for traction.

 

With my current tires I found I didn’t need any ballast the last two winters, but I have used all sorts of whatever I could find in years past. Sand bags and similar things are nice, because they are easy to remove when I need to use the bed. A big pile of snow and ice; not so much.

 

Only need to shove it in 4WD during a storm. Other than that, the streets are plowed. No weight required for me.....

 

Winter Tires.

 

Just get good quality winter tires as others suggested, and forget about sandbags. Love my Nokian LT3's... point and shoot....

 

The RTT is handy for this.

 

Back when I had a 2WD Toyota and used to go back country skiing and snowshoeing every weekend I'd put a couple hundred pounds of my photo sand bags at the back end of the bed and that helped a lot. Still had to chain up all the time anyhow because you'd have to go through the CHP chain control areas. Got really fast at putting a pair of chains on often being the last truck in and first truck out of chain control but it still got old and it's been 4WD ever since and only once have ever been forced by CHP to chain up with 4WD. Dude claimed it was ice but the road was dry and when I got to the second chain control, that officer looked and me and said, "what the fuck do you have chains on for?" After a while they'd get to know you and know whether or not you knew how to drive in snow and ice and mostly would just wave you on through. These days the 200 lb SnugTop is more than enough weight for me.