I have heard that dually's do not do well in snow and rain, is this so? What is your experience with dually's in snow? How is the traction when wet? How does it handle in the snow? Would you buy a dually again? I REALLY want to know. TIA!

 

Well my only experience is from a guy who drives an F350 PSD Dually who absolutley hates driving it in the snow even though he has a 4x4.

Since the outside tires have to plow their own course, it makes it hairy to drive in fresh snow.

 

Duallys are not the greatest in snow 4wheel drive only helps to a point sometimes it gets you deeper into trouble. The best thing todo is get a good set of winter traction tires for the lighter accumulations of snow and when it gets heavy get a set of chains. Having some weight in the back helps push those tires down and cut through the snow some guys even take the outside wheels off and run singles on the back.

Around here we don't get that much snow its mostly icey roads lots of black ice some years we get alot of snow but the average is about 4"s per year.

 

Been there..done that...duallys in the snow that is. Not one of my favorite things to do. Extra weight in the bed does help, but the truck still doesn't handle very well. I used to chain mine up (outside wheels), and it would go anywhere. It's no fun to chain 4x4's when a single rear wheel 4x4 will go right on about its way in the same conditions.

Examine the reason you want a dually in the first place. If you need its capacity and stability, don't let the snow make your decision.
The other thing you can do is take the outside wheels off in the winter. Truck looks funnier than heck, but it sure will drive better.

 

they do well in the rain, deep snow and deep mud is where they are the worst. have to weight the advantages with the disadvantages. how much deep snow and deep mud are you going to be driving in vs how much heavy hauling over the road are you going to be doing? mine does good in the snow when it the roads are plowed or 6" or less on the road. had one winter tried to go across the field with about 18" of snow and the duallys packed up and was stuck with all six churning. got out trugged back to the barn and hoped in my little bronco. went right across the field past the big 4x4 dually and on the road.

still would not buy anything but a 4x4 crew cab dually for the farm.

 

I've got a 2002 F350, V10, 4x4, 6 sp. 4.30's

I LOVE IT!!!!

I've taken it off road several times, down plenty of muddy/soupy roads, and i think it goes great!

Driven it in the winter as well. Not super deep snow, but very icy/slick.

I couldn't believe how well it hooked up. Even with a V10, stick, and 4.30 gears it just hooked up and WENT.

The only other superduty i've been in is a buddy's F250, 4x4, with a powerstroke. Boy that sucker seemed to spin the tires anywhere. I think the dual real wheels really help give better traction.

There's not a ton of weight in back, and having twice the rubber on the road can't hurt....

*shrugs* just my two cents.... and limited experience...

 

I haven't been impressed with a dually in the snow. I head over to Waterville and Brewster, in eastern Washington, for bird hunting in the fall/winter and there's often a foot of snow on those dirt roads off the main drag. With no load in the bed but the dog and a cooler, it's really squirrelly driving. Even with fronts and outside duals chained up, the back end wallows back and forth in the rut left by the front tire. It's pretty annoying actually. I've heard that a couple thousand pounds in the bed cures this, but haven't tried it. I haven't got stuck except the one time I didn't bother chaining up and that was on what could only remotely be called a road with a foot of snow and uphill. I had to put chains on the front to get out of that one.

In wet weather, the traction is worse than my old single rear wheel truck. With 4 tires back there, the load on each tire is less and therefore you have less traction. Sometimes I'll lock the hubs in just to pull out of a parking lot in heavy traffic. Otherwise I'd just spin 4 rear tires when I pull out while watching traffic scream up to my back bumper.

For me the bottom line is that I need the dually to carry my camper safely. So any incovenience in traction or parking or driving through drive-throughs, I just have to deal with. If I wasn't hauling a camper around, I wouldn't even consider a dually. Of course, if I didn't have kids I wouldn't even consider a crew cab either.


Harald

2000 F350 4x4 CC DRW V10 4.30ls Lariat LWB.
Firestone Ride-rite airbags, Rancho RS9000 shocks and Torklift Superhitch.
1998 Alpenlite Pendelton 11'10" camper held on by Torklift tie downs.
Remove I_HATE_SPAM_ from email address to email me.

 

Well, if you want to get really radical, why not try contacting Firematic Manufacturing in Shirley NY about the avalibility of their Super Single Wheel & Tire for the F-550 ??

It was initally designed as part of a package for Severe Duty off road Brush (fire) trucks. (The B.R.A.T.)

The Wheels
Firematic has designed a custom offset 19" super single wheel and Michelin tire combination. These third party SAE J267 certified wheels have a full 1/2" center. The custom offset allows for a single spare to be utilized on both the front and rear axles. The Firematic super single wheel eliminates blowouts due to branches getting stuck between dual tires. This custom wheel and tire combination offers proper tracking for sand, mud and snow.

http://www.firematic.com/pics/07.gif

Web site URL is http://www.firematic.com

 

i have owned 2 f 350's with dual rear wheels and i linve in north idaho the latest being a 99 psd and have pulled some heavy loads in the bad weather and never had a probleme. both were 4x4 and the latest being a crewcab i have pulled a load of logs out of one of my pastures and went across the scales at the mill weighing in over 30,000 loaded and didn't have any trouble getting out of the snow or muddy field where the logs where i will buy another dully anytime

 

This is my 2nd F-350,w/DRW's 1st was a 95'F-350, PSD, DRW,regular cab, 4x4,5 sp, 9' flatbed dump, traded for a 99' PSD,SC,DRW,4x4,9'dump,auto, and I don't see much problem in the snow, here in eastern CT, we dont get that much, but get enough,(hopefully, this year ), for plowing and snowmobiling, , well anyway my driveway is pretty steep, and I push a 9' Fisher minute mount with it,,and not much trouble, I think the correct tires make the biggest differenc, and little more weight helps alot,( winter sand), I will be looking for new tires very soon though, 42,000 miles on Goodyear wrangler's, and they are still not down to the wear bars, but wont be very good this year in the snow, well Have fun

Well I was " Cruzin down the Highway in my V8 Ford "

Gotta love it,,,,,,,,,,,,Later,,,,,,,,,Mark