I know were way way way away from even starting to think about winter when its still summer but I've been thinking about this all week and I was wondering just how good our trucks without 4wd go during the winter. I'm asking this because my job requires me to travel some distance to get to and from work, in fact only one other guy lives down as far as I do and me and him haven't even met each other up there yet. Well anyways the last thing i wanna have to deal with is ice and snow screwing up my already long drive up the road and since I'm driving before the suns even up that means crap is gonna be frozen and there is gonna be some ice somewhere or if it snows its gonna stick and its gonna suck. Kinda ranted a little but the main question is how do they do? What can I do to improve it so I'm not just slidding down the road when I make a turn or hit a hill? Most of the roads I take are main roads so they will be salted but that still makes me curious. Could I buy a cheap 4wd vehicle and not worry about this? Yes I could but we have enough vehicles as it is and if I can avoid doing so I'd be happy. Thanks in adance as always, Shadow. Also the big reason I'm asking so far ahead of time is because I'd like to be able to have things in order and ready to go long before hand since I barely get any free time to do my own projects anymore due to work and other things.

 

Chains or studded tires and some weight in the bed towards the tailgate.

 

I got a heavy old chevy camper top that takes two strong men just to lift off the ground and 4 to set it on the truck safely so I could probably use that during the winter with the truck.

 

Back when I was too poor to own a 4WD truck, I always had to shovel my way out of the drive when we had snow. So I killed two snowbirds with one stone. I shoveled some of the snow into the back of my truck. Made for good weight for traction and when the snow on the ground melted, so did the stuff in the truck. Nothing to unload! Good tires with proper inflation helped too.

 

4WD doesn't help you get stopped on ice or keep you from sliding off/spinning out. And, from what I've seen, much of the time it also only means that you're farther from the road when you do get stuck. Plenty of guys get along just fine on the roads with 2WD. Being smart about how and where you drive is far more important.

Jason

 

A GOOD set of REAL SNOW TIRES will help immensely… not these wimpy all season things that are passed off as winter tires. You need an open self cleaning tread design… not too wide. Skinny is better in snow.

While I do not like buying tires on-line www.tirerack.com can be an excellent source of research…

The other guys are right about weight, too. A good 300-500 lbs. makes a difference.

I've been driving in WI and the UP of Michigan my entire life. I have never owned a 4X4 truck. I did drive them for my demo when I worked at the Ford store for six years… a 4X2 will work fine with the right tires and weight.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

 

By the sounds of it I may be investing in a good winter tread tire for the rear and keeping my almost new goodyear wrangler Rt/s tires in the front since they seemed to do okay in what little snow I hit last year. Krooser I belive that camper top of mine by itself weighs in close to 300 pounds if not a hair more so that thing by itself will do a world of good and give it some use after all. My only concern is making sure they have a good mix between a good aggressive snow tire and still not hurt my mileage any more than my old mud tires used to do (they just got replaced as they were dry rotting). I'll take a look on tire rack, I personally don't do it allot but my dad uses ebay of all things to source good tires for his truck and we have only had one defective tire come in on us and they sent out a new one free of charge and took the old one back after we reported it to the seller.

 

We used to put hay bales in the bed of our trucks regardless if its 4x4 or not. I don't know much about snow but we certainly get a fair bit of ice in the winter. The key to ice is balance and trucks are about the worst balanced thing made. You have 500-1000 pound engine in the front and almost nothing in the back and being rear wheel drive it makes it spin tires very easily. Sand bags are a great thing to have on hand. Put about 3-500 pounds of them as far back in the bed as possible. If you get stuck, pour some of the sand behind or in front of your tires to add grit to the ice. We've survived many a winter in a 2wd this way

 

I second TG99, sand or kitty litter or that stuff you put on shop floors to suck stuff up behind the wheel wells is a must, yes the shell will help but you can't thane the shell off use it for traction, if you have a locking diff your screwed, when the rear is locked you'll find turning to be a real big problem

 

I got a good old open diff so I won't have that issue, the kitty litter is an idea I've never thought of using before. I will have to keep a few bags of the stuff with me this winter.

 

Studded tires, some weight in the back and common sense will get you through most. If you do get stuck, have a tow strap you can hook to your truck with you. Pretty good chance of getting a little help that way.

 

That is a mistake IMO, if you're going to buy snow tires get a set of 4, your biggest problem in snow is stopping and all your stopping power is in the front so if you don't have traction there it doesn't matter what tire you have out back. I have had mixed results with AT tires in the winter, on my heavy xtended cab 4x4 they worked half decent but on my reg cab truck they were totally useless and the Goodyear ATs are just garbage in the snow.

 

I'm a child of the 50's and we went thru the regular routine of swapping summer tires for snow tires every fall. There were millions of cars and trucks that did this before we had front wheel drive cars. Worked then… still works now.

Now I will agree with you IF you buy tires like Blizzaks and other high tech winter tires. I tried Blizzaks on just the rear of my Mark VIII and they were terrible… very sketchy handling. But regular old fashioned snow tires without the fancy rubber compounds do just fine.

When I was selling new Fords we had so many complaints from folks who had 4X2 Rangers and Aerostars about p*ss poor traction in the winter. We would make them happy by installing a good old fashioned set of Firestome lug snow tires for them and we also offered free mounting and dismounting every spring and fall. Our traction complaints went down about 90%… but the OE tires Ford put on these vehicles could get you stuck on a single snowflake!

 

I drive my ranger in 2wd all winter except when plowing