are tire chains required on the front tire? 2nd gen tacoma

NO!

You are adding weight to add weight to the rear axle because the rear axle is having traction issues. If you reduce weight on the front it moves it to the rear. You want equal distribution or some other arbitrary balance of your choosing. If you wanna add more weight to the rear with the least amount of weight added then put it in the most rearward position. This is the most basic of center of gravity calculations. You fail high school physics and it seems you're not the only one who did.

All you are doing is changing the balance. Your ability to brake and steer is purely based on the balance of weight between front and rear. If your fronts have too much traction then you are susceptible to oversteer and swapping ends.

 

You can believe whatever you like, but I caution ANYBODY from listening to you, since your suggestion is not only incorrect, but also *DANGEROUS*.

You are right in one thing, that reducing the weight from the front in this manner causes it to apply to the rear, but you are INCORRECT that doing so is your only objective. By reducing the weight on the front, you are reducing your ability to brake and steer, which can contribute to a loss of control, collisions, and death.

If you want to add traction to the rear, you have two options;
1) Add it directly OVER the rear axle, leaving the weight on the front tires UNCHANGED,
2) Add it FORWARD of the rear axle, increasing weight down on BOTH axles.

Option (2) is your best choice for maximum safety, since extra weight in the back can require extra traction on the front to control.

The ONLY time when you want to add weight BEHIND the rear axle, is to counterbalance additional weight that is added AHEAD OF THE FRONT axle, such as a snow plow.

 

You're so wrong its funny.

It's obvious that you can't do the math and find out.

The actual amount of weight on each axle is irrelevant. It's the ratio of weights between the axles.

I caution anyone to listen to this guy but people seem to value ignorance and superstition instead of real math. So go on about doing things inefficiently by feel and dumb luck.

 

So when you add so much weight behind the rear axle that the front wheels are hanging up in the air, what then?

FYI: I've felt the necessity to report your post for distributing very DANGEROUS misinformation.

 

Haha, I reported your stupidity too...lol.

Since you CANT do the math, if you've added enough weight to suspend the front axle, you have 100% of the weight on your rear axle. Not exactly BALANCED front to rear is that?

So going from 60/40 front/rear, to closer to 50/50 f/r which is arguably the best, and you've just described the outlandish 0/100% as an argument for you lack of math skills?

You really need to ask yourself WHY are you adding weight to the rear. Rhetorically that is.

 

I'm going to have to agree with tgear.shead on this one. I was questioning the placement of sandbags a few years ago and all of my research led me to place them over the rear axle. Too much weight behind it will remove weight from the front axles and possibly make steering difficult. Same thing happens when having too much tongue weight on your trailer.

 

There is many, many people that had a problem in high school physics and math. It doesn't keep them from keeping bad advice alive. If you add weight behind your axle you don't have to add as much to increase your rear axle weight. If you want to keep your front axle weight the same then by all means add it over the axle. If you don't understand that it's the ratio of weight between front and rear, then you wont understand.

Edit: BTW some steering issues are cause by the change of alignment due to the vehicle's rake being changed by tongue weights and rear loads and such. Caster/ toe changes from the vehicle being ass-low. After barring that, then it's still the ratio of weight between front and rear.

Some people add a modest amount of weight and without any empirical evidence claim they've improved something and perpetuate some sort of advice based on absolutely nothing, when in reality they havent changed a thing or it didn't change as well as they thought or as good as it could have been.

 

You are clearly one of them.

 

Nice try scooter, but I aced high school physics, and my engineering degree was paid for by scholarship, straight A's, and I'm now a pilot and do weight and balance calculations every day of my life for the past 20+ years.

I can do the math. It's clear you CAN'T.

If you (could) added 20,000 lbs to the rear axle of a tacoma, over the axle, and left the 2500 lbs alone on the front axle, you would have great acceleration traction, but your braking would suck, and you couldn't steer it to save your life. So the actual weight per axle is irrelevant. It's the difference between the front and rear.

I think tgear is one of those guys who won't take a payraise because he thinks he'll make less money because of tax brackets.

 

Ok, for ease of the math challenged. Assume a truck with 2500lb on the front axle. Assume a 100lb sandtube added either over the axle or back of the bed at 2 feet behind the axle. Assume a wheelbase of 10 feet.

For the weight over the axle you increase the rear axle weight by 100lb and front remains unchanged at 2500.

For the weight at the back of the bed, 100lb *2' = front axle loss(lb) * 10' (equalize moment about rear axle). Which means you lose 20 lbs from your front axle. From 2500 lbs. You went from 2500 lbs to 2480 lbs. Thats less than ONE PERCENT loss of weight from the front axle. You guys think that matters?

The gain on the rear axle is 12' * 100lb = rear gain(lb) * 10' (equalize moment around the front axle). Which is 120lb increase on the rear axle. So by moving the weight to the rear of the car you moved 20 pounds of weight from the front to the back (plus the weight of the tube).

Tgear and the rest of the mathtards you are worried about losing one percent of weight from your front axles for woowowoowo steering and braking. That's like 3 gallons of gas. For heavens sake KEEP YOUR WINDSHIELD WASHER AND GAS TANKS FULL OR YOU"LL LOSE ALL STEERING AND YOUR FRONT AXLE WILL SHOOT UP INTO SPACE!!!




Im sure Tgear will be quick to admit that being down one gallon of windshield washer fluid mounted 2 feet in front of the front axle is clearly a dangerous situation that he's witnessed hundreds of times that can lead to loss of control, collisions, coma, death, and herpes.

Lets see him show that calculation.

DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT EVER TOWING ANYTHING WHICH MIGHT PUT ANY TONGUE WEIGHT ON A HITCH at like DOUBLE the arm as the example, and WAY (weigh?) more that 100 lbs. You might lose control, collide, and die. That's it...Mathtard Tgear has spoken...no more bumper pull anything, it's clearly unsafe, hafta have 5th wheel or gooseneck, he just can't make it make sense.

 

Here to watch the rest of the fuckery....

 

Isn't California law chains on the DRIVE wheels? Isn't that the rear wheels?

 

I gotta agree with the pilot on this one. It takes one metric ass ton of firewood in the bed of my 2015 access cab to make the steering feel light.

Two tubes of sand tend to slide around when the traction light comes on and the grinning starts, but i prefer mine between the rear axle and tailgate please.

In the op's truck i would go with two sand tubes somewhere in the rear half of the bed and the cheapest chain like device i could get. He is clearly does not need a set of four nokian hakkas. Once chained up, drive 30 feet, check the chains for tightness, drive half mile, check again, then drive on.

 

Geez, can't we keep this simple? Just place a couple of sandbags over your rear axle and call it a day. Carry chains with you between Nov and Apr in California while traversing chain controlled areas, keep your speed down and enjoy yourself.

 

I remember influence lines in engineering class. . It applies here and supports one argument.

Drive slow and controlled.

 

Game, set, and match goes to archerm3 in a stunning blowout. Study up and better luck next year folks. And before you leave here is a little something to show our appreciation.

 

LOL. Yeah the sandbags go between the wheel wells and tailgate. It isn't nuclear engineering it is more like rocket science, hell anyone can do rocket science. Speaking of which please tie the sandbags down securely, if you hit something and come to a dead stop they are now a missile hazard.

Early 80's had to drive from Bremerton, Wa. to San Diego for a Navy course and went down I5. At Grants Pass they were stopping vehicles to put chains on. I was in my Iron Pig FJ55 and had chains with me but the officer just smiled at me and waved me through. He shouldn't have, I was the last vehicle to go through the pass that night and 35 years later still remember that part of the drive well.