How many lbs do you put in your bed for winter driving?

Too many variables to consider....reaction time and road conditions would be the biggest factors. That is why you go slow and allow extra distance between the vehicle in front of you.

 

Duratracs are snowflake rated but are better in deep snow. In plowed snow and ice, they don't have near as much sipping as dedicated snow tires or the soft cold temp rubber. I'd say duratracs have 1/4 of the sipping or even less. They're good tires though if someone only wants 1 set for year round use.

 

depends on how many people I'm taking to the party .. lol

 

I have always put something in the back of my truck for traction. Bagged rock, tube sand, a couple beer pallets made of good wood, cinder/conc blocks. Just go to HD or Lowe's and get four bags and you won't regret it. Just dump it in the yard when the season is over.

It is for traction, goes over the rear tires, unless you live in Florida.

 

230lb~ shell with rack & awning, rear plate bumper with tire swing 150lbs.. certain days gravity just does what it wants no matter what. first few gears in manual makes crawling down snowy hills a bit more controlled.

 

About 400lbs of 2stroke fun!

 

Does anyone here know the weight distribution of the various configurations of Tacomas? I personally shy away from adding weight. When I have added weight to various trucks l had in the past, I placed the weight in front of the rear axle. Weight behind the rear axle, especially up against the tailgate subtracts weight from the front. The weighs like sand bags get water logged then frozen. They can smash the front of the bed if they slide. As others have pointed out, extra weight adds stopping distance. It also increases sway and center of gravity. If you start to go into a slide I suspect the extra weight might actually hurt more than help.

Also I suspect than when traveling at speed on slush or wet snow, the primary danger is loss of traction and or hydroplaning with the front tires. At speed, the rear tires are tracking though the trail made by the front tires. The front tires, especially when not powered, have a tendency to ride up on slush and deep patches of water. I suspect that when traveling on a highway through partially salt melted snow and ice, most loss of traction starts at the front.

 

I push all vehicles I've owned in the snow to their limits and if I wasn't on the throttle, the loss off traction always started at the front with understeer. This was with suvs, pickups, and wagons. Loss of traction while on the power is where they differed.

 

I will say a low center of gravity awd with some of the best studded snows is much more tossable yet planted than a truck. Our vibe (matrix clone) rips around like a rally car. Not much clearance but in this picture, it was not stuck. I stopped and took a pic and took off again easily. Open diff too. Our last outback had an LSD which gave a little extra boost.

 

Bro. He didn't make it.

Don't you know the legend of the TW ghost members?!

Wait, is Thanksgiving, not Halloween. I always mix em up

 

Well I'll toss in my two cents I guess. I think no matter what your driving the most important thing is snow tires. I have owned several pickups over the years and have always run weight and all season tires up until the last few years. It's always been ok but not great. My other vehicle is a 2013 Focus ST and I drove it for two winters with dedicated snow tires (Blizzaks) before I got the Taco and that thing was a tank in the snow. Drove through snow deep enough to be pushing over the top of my hood and kept on going, was also an absolute blast to toss around on icy roads. I'm a believer now, I will never not have winter tires again. Ran the Taco the first year I had it with the stock all seasons and 200lbs of weight in the bed and it was squirrelly as hell and never felt all that planted like my focus did even in 4hi. Last couple years I switched out to Blizzaks on the Taco as well with the same 200lbs and it feels much more planted and stable now. Might try it without the sand this year and see how it feels and report back.

tl;dr Snow tires first. Weight second. but that's my .02

 

In a 2wd I added 12 pcs of 24”sq patio stones. Could have been only 8 but it was years ago. Right over the axle. In a 4wd I don’t because that same weight makes for a great pendulum and once you fishtail that weight is harder to stop. The further to the rear and the worse the pendulum effect.

Adding weight is great for getting traction to move forward. But it also has to be stopped. In a 4wd you have the front axle to help get you going so why add weight that will need to be stopped? In a 2wd you need the weight for the rear tires to grab to get going so there is a benefit to offset the hinderance when stopping.

 

Someone has to have done a controlled test on this. I can't find one but here's an interesting explanation of when and why weight in the bed could help:




Led Schwab tires says the same thing, basically:

https://www.lesschwab.com/article/d...he-back-improve-my-cars-traction-in-snow.html

 

1" rubber horse stall mats work well, though with the short beds you'll probably have to chop off a foot.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/4-ft-x-6-ft-x-3-4-in-thick-rubber-stall-mat?cm_vc=-10005

 

I didn't put any in when I lived in snow land

 

#s???

As many Tinder matches I get per night...

*bah-dum-tssshh*

Regardless of Tinder or weight... None used in snowy/icy conditions.

 

Wow haven’t heard lake effect snow in years. Makes me almost miss the old 716

 

I know if I move out of the 716, I sure won’t miss it

 

I’m actually visiting family there in 3 weeks. I’ll be there for a week. I do miss the food sometimes

 

In the past I've always kept 5 5-gallon buckets full of sand that I threw in the bed whenever there was snow in the forecast. But that was in older trucks without all the electronic traction control wizardry. (This is the first new truck I've bought in at least 20 years. I've never even owned anything with 4-wheel ABS, let alone the advanced traction control systems on newer trucks.) I also very rarely needed 4wd in any of those trucks, even though I'm usually the first one driving on un-plowed roads over the mountain in the morning.

This year I donated the sand to my daughter's school. I'm going to see how the truck with all the electronic doo-dads does. If I think I need it, I'll pick up a few bags of sand and re-fill a few of the buckets, however many will fit within the OEM bed extender. The 10" we got a couple of weeks ago had me thinking I might want to do just that.