Driving In Snow and Ice

Weight can help or hinder. Weight in the right place is good, weight in the wrong place is useless at best, a liability at worst. Many people place weight at the back of the bed (near/against the tailgate) or near the rear axel. The correct location is FORWARD of the rear axel. Think about it; weight behind the rear axel causes the front of the truck to raise slightly be using the rear axel as a pivot causing a potential loss of front-end traction and steering. NOT good. Weight directly over the rear axel will help a little bit, but not a lot. Weight forward of the rear axel causes the truck to load such that the whole frame is pressed down, providing additional weight over the rear end and additional steering weight as well.

I have four 110lb steel "bricks (8x8x16) which sit in a wooden frame positioned such that the rear-most edge of the frame is several inches forward of the forward edge of the rear axel. We don't get a lot of snow on Vancouver Island, but what we do get is wet and very "greasy", and just plain nasty to drive in. In the 30+ years I've been driving around this area, I've seen more than a few empty pick-ups go flying by me on the highway only to wind up in the ditch a mile or two down the road. With the weight properly located, and 4WD (and decent tires) I've gone places that tow-trucks and other vehicles have not been able to get to.

 

Honestly we ran hill climb competitions in the winters, all different vehicles with varying tires and weights and configurations. Weight never helped anyone over someone without it.

When I was in the Air Force, the guys used to drive forklifts on the flight line and slam on the breaks because their 20k pounds would slide 50 feet from 15mph. Pretty obvious weight meant nothing to traction and only made them slide longer

 

I guess it comes down to trial and error. Try this try that. My drive in our last snow storm I found turning all traction aid off helped me- manual trans.

 

this. it's the whole package including how you drive. and if you're dead serious about snow & ice traction tires are the way, no substitutes on the tires.

 

Dedicated snow tires (not all season) will help much more than weight in the bed of your truck, unless you don't want to use 4WD. Also remember 4WD will give you traction, but won't help with braking distance, only good snow tires will do that.

Source : Drives in snow from November til April

 

I switched to studded winter tires and the difference between them and stock goodyear wranglers is pretty significant.

 

Everyone knows that driving skill, tires and 4wd are important factors, but the original question was simply about weight in the bed. All other things being equal, weight distribution makes a difference in vehicle handling in the snow.

In my experience the order of importance is this:

1) Driving skill
2) Tires
3) Weight Distribution
4) 4x4 vs AWD vs. 2WD

 

I'd put tires before skills, doesn't matter how good you are, if you don't have tires adapted to the conditions, you are running after troubles.

 

Inertia's a bitch, ain't it?

 

Funny you say that because I live in a climate where our winters and snow last 6-7 months, and a lot of people still have the same argument - weight or no weight. I prefer weight because of the length of my truck and where the weight definitely doesn't sit over my rear axle. Last year I had no weight and stock tires on my TRD off road and I did mostly fine so it's hard to say whether my new Nokian Hakkapeliita R3s are doing their job really well, or if the three 45lb sand bags I put in are helping. Possibly both?