I was finally able to PCS from Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX) to Fort Riley, KS. Because I purchased my truck in El Paso I have not driven it in the snow, I would like to hear from those of you with experience driving your trucks in the snow. Does the truck being dually help, hurt or is there no difference driving a dually in the snow? Do you use 4WD?

Any comments are welcome as I always enjoy reading them. BTW, I live in Iowa so driving in the snow (usually in my Avalon and F150) is not new to me. Just haven't driven the dually yet.

Thank you,

Randy

 

No personal experience, but I've talked with guys who have dually's and drive them in winter. It seems that it requires a little more attention as the truck will "float" more. Depending on the conditions 4x4 will most likely be an asset.

 

So far no real difference to me. I have a lot of snow time. It seems to me that you don't need to lock the front end as soon as a SRW. But I still think a SRW will be better in the really deep stuff.

 

We got about 5" of snow overnight. My street wasn't plowed when I left home and I needed 4wd to get moving. I have a dually with GY Duratracs and I was just spinning the wheels until I put it into 4H. No weight in the back of the truck.

 

Dullies tend to sit on top more than a srw.

 

It has been my experience that drw truck are worse in the snow then a srw truck empty. Loaded I've never noticed much of a difference. As far as plowing goes I like a srw truck way better but as far as just snow driving goes is still rather have a srw truck

It was explained to me once and I can't conform this but with a srw the weight of the truck is on one single point where a dually spreads it out more giving each tire less traction.

 

Just spent some time in the snow in mine again last night. It's been almost 4 years since I drove a SRW truck in the snow, so I may be biased. I made it out my very poorly maintained dead end road in 2wd. Soon as I hit a slight grade I noticed the back end struggling to find traction. Hit the 4wd switch and drove another 20 miles in terrible conditions (don't tell my wife), told her it was fine.

My honest opinion is that as long as the dually is 4wd, and you use it, it's not any bit of a hindrance in snow. Yes it will spin out empty sooner than an SRW. But with the 4wd in, I have no issues controlling the truck in snow at all, minimal brakes, and shifting the trans manually does the job and keeps it controlled. Even empty, the front axle (just shy of 5k) is so heavy that it finds traction for both gettting going and stopping, and manually shifting the trans helps use that heavily loded axle to slow it down and keep it controlled.

 

This is my first dually, and diesel. The dual wheels will have half the weight on them of a SRW so they'll spin easier. I expect I'll use 4wd in the Ford a fair bit in deeper snow. I rarely used 4wd in the Avalanche unless the snow was very deep to the point I was pushing it with the bumper. With 4wd engaged the dually drives just fine in the snow.

Usually the only thing that stops me from getting somewhere in the winter is police cars and barricades when the roads are closed.

 

Thanks for all of the replies, I knew you guys would come through with some really good information!

Randy

 

Over the years I have driven a lot of DRW trucks at work, they due tent to ride up on top of the snow more when empty but at work they are never empty. The have only had a couple of problem over the years. One once in the hills with a 2 wheel drive and I only had a set of chains for singles (the outside tires only) in about 6" of fresh snow, the truck wanted to ride up on the snow and spin. The second time was on some back roads mainly in town where the city had not plowed the streets in time and there were ruts in the road from mainly SRW vehicles. The DRW truck outside tires wanted to ride up on the edge of the ruts, from one side to the other the front tires would stay in the ruts. It made for some rather exciting driving.

Randy, If you are used to driving in the snow I don't think you will have any problems. On a side note, what part on Iowa are you from?

 

Snow wasn't the problem, it was taking a 2X4 truck out onto a muddy road coming back from school creek after wheeling all day.

 

Ballast is the key for success in any 4X4 truck if there is deep snow!

Ballast is some type of weight!

 

I've never heard of ballast before..

 

At 8800lbs or so I feel for most snow situations I have enough ballast.

 

I hear you..... But the only problem is that I would be willing to bet that we have more than 60% of our weight over the front axle.. Would be interesting to get some scale weights on these trucks..
I am leaving the 300 or so pounds of HD Fifth-wheel hitch in the bed of mine for ballast.