Weighting the bed

I grew up with trucks and have always seen people put sand bags and what not in the truck beds, for the extra weight. My home town gets tons of snow and our roads are roughly 98% dirt, lots of potholes and washboard.
Now, years later, I have unfortunately moved away to paved society and to an area that rarely sees any snow. It sucks. But I finally own a truck again! It has been years and I automatically want to put weight into the back. My husband says it's unnecessary because it has 4-wheel drive! But I don't use it often...yet...so my question is, with a brand new 2017 Off Road TRD Tacoma, what with all the new advancements in technology and development in vehicles, should I still consider sand bagging my truck? What makes me ponder this is one corner in particular that road crews paved poorly. As I round it, if I'm not going really slow on that turn, the back end wants to bounce around and slip out. It's annoying af. They can't seem to pave a road around here decently, lol

 

Yes

 

I live in snow-country and an area where the roads are largely paved, but some are not. The new technology, i.e., abs, traction control, etc., does help some, but I still put some bags of tube-sand in my bed, don't feel like running around in 4wd all the time.

 

A little preload of the suspension smoothes the ride considerably and welcome to TW!

 

I weighted mine down during the bad weeks up here. -20C or worse. I used patio bricks strapped down with plywood in the rear, about 250lbs. Made it possible to drive in 2WD. I had studded winters as well on my offroad haha.

Full tank of gas is important as well.

 

I lived in California for years with no snow and moved to the Chicago area 11 years ago. In warm climates you don't need weight in the bed. Weight in the bed is for 2 wheel drive in snow. It also can be hazardous in the event of an accident. The Tacoma is a truck so it can be bouncy.

 

A couple bags of sand won't hurt anything.

 

But secure them well... in a roll-over or other accident, they can be a problem..!