Hey guys. Winter, and the low traction conditions that come with it, is here. I know from expierience that all trucks need 4wd to get around in slippery conditions.

The bad news is, my ranger only has 2wd, and it's lighter than hell.

What would be the best way to weigh down my my rear end for some added traction? What has worked best for you guys?

Also, do you recommend snow chains?

I'm used to driving my 1978 4wd F-250, lol...

I've had expeirience driving a 2wd dodge ram (I hated that truck) in slippery conditions. It's doable, but not fun (well, it CAN be fun, lol)

But my little ol ranger is even lighter than that!

So what do you guys recommend?

 

Didn't you say that thing has a stick? Shift early for a start. Slight lugging of the engine can give the tires better bite for take-off. If it's slippery enough, the engine should not mind as much as normally. Still terribly tricky though. About the same stopping as 4x4, though. Still, the stick comes in great here, too. Slow down way ahead of suspected slow-down junctures and stuff using the downshifts. I still got stuck once with a 2.3 and rwd in about 8 inches of driveway snow. Not a big deal.

 

The tubes of sand you can get from Homer Depot, Tractor Supply and similar places, laid lengthwise in each of the rails of the bed over the rear end of the truck not only will help with driving, plus you also have something to dump out on the surface for traction if you get in a jam. I guess it depends on where you live and how adept you are with winter driving, as to how many you use, but 4-6 I think is what commonly I see done. Personally I don't think chains or snow tires are necessary unless you are really in snow belt country. Having that light truck is some benefit, too, when your only choice may be to push or pull it out of a real mess.

 

Good tires. Snow tires, if you can afford them. (Don't tell the state cops, but I run my summer tires down way longer than I would if I had to drive them through the winter, which balances out some of the cost of snow tires.)

For weight, I lucked out and had a buddy who had some bags of Quickrete sitting in his shed that got a little wet and started to set, so were ruined. I threw them in the back (under a tonneau cover), and they sort of set with the bottom contoured to match the bedliner I have, so they didn't move much. I always meant to build a little frame to hold them right over the axle, but never got around to it, so I just put three across the front of the bed, and one perpendicular to them behind (80# sacks).

Keep your gas tank full, too. That will add some weight right about where you want it, and prevent condensation from forming and then freezing up in your gas lines.

 

Tube sand, get them from gas stations in Spokane every winter. 2 bags will suffice for anything you get in Seattle, 4 bags for Spokane.

Snow tires don't do crap for a LIA 2wd unless you have some weight in the back.

 

I respectfully disagree. A few days after I bought my snow tires last fall, we got 6" of snow. I hadn't gotten around to putting weight in the bed yet, because it was a little early in the season, so I went out for a ride just to see how it would handle. It did so well I never ended up putting weight in it, all winter.

 

Well that's fine, it's not my experience. Maybe they don't have as many steep hills in Maine. But at least in the Cascade Mountains and Eastern Washington you need the weight. The snow tires are necessary components, but at least in my neck of the woods the weight is as well.

I always create a frame out of 2x4s for the bed of my truck to hold the tube sand directly over the axle, otherwise they inevitable slide back and forth.

 

I get 6 tubes, but the number is purely a preference issue. I moved my bags around according to my needs when my DD was a 2wd. For moderate snow, or slick conditions having the bags to the front of the box added weight to both the front and rear wheels, increasing my overall traction, not just rear-wheel traction. When the snow got deep and I needed more bite, I'd move the bags to the very back of the box to increase the down-pressure on the rear wheels, but I'd always move them back up because this reduces weight on the front wheels and makes the truck handle more poorly. It worked for me, but it was more work moving the bags, and using a 2x4 to keep the bags from sliding around and ending up where I didn't want them. And Customstringer is right, I've cut a bag open and sprinkled sand around my tires when stuck many times, it's amazing how much difference that makes, it's why sand tubes are my choice for weight.

 

No matter how much sand I put in the back of my truck, my truck won't go up any hill in the snow. On flat ground, in powder it does okay. On packed powder, it go no where. Slush is iffy. Ice... ha.

 

My grandad gave me a couple of good snow tires. i got 3 of them, not sure why 3, but... anywho, they are studed and have grip in powder. i did some research, and what cuase the best grip in powder is those little slits cut in the lugs. in wet snow, it's the lugs that run down the sidewall, and on ice, the little chunks of metal. sand tubes just add weight, but they are rally usefull in powder and ice, but not so much on slush.

i hope that little summery of how a snowtire works helps anyone.

feel free to correct, it's just research i conducted on my own. i was bored over christmas vacation last year. didn't know but FTE then.

 

Those little cuts are called sipes. They're more important on ice than in snow, really. In snow you just want a big open tread that will clear itself, like a mud tire.

 

I live in the Chicago area, and I 've driven in enough winters here to last a lifetime. I have a '99 ranger w/ 2.5, and M5OD, std. cab w/ longbox. I bought 5 70# sand tubes from Menards, and I have to tell you when the white crap is flyin', I go like I have 4-wheel drive with those tubes in the box, right over the axle. I hold them in place with a frame I made out 2x4's to fit in front of the wheel wells, so they won't slide forward on the quick stops or turns. They never seem to go back on take off, so that is not a problem. Been doing this for 4-5 yrs now, and works well. Sometmes if its not too big a snowfall, I use only 3 bags, but it does the trick. Your gas mileage will suffer, but you'll move through the white muck, and thats what counts. Good Luck...

 

me being lazy and not wanting to lift weight into the back of the truck i got 4, 5 gallon buckets with lids that i put in the bed empty and then fill with water to the top, havent had a bucket crack on me yet from the water freezing, I made a bracket too to hold them right up against the tail gate. Then, (did i mention im lazy) in the spring time i siphon the water out.works like a charm bc water is aprox 8 Lb a gallon. Never had any problems with it taking weight off the front end either. Just my 2 cents.

 

I'm lazy too, and cheap, lol! I'll look at those sand tubes, and see if it's money I want to spend. If not, then I'll probably go with the 5 gallon buckets. I think my dad has a few spare ones around the house...

 

I used to do the 5-gallon pails filled with sand, but it got to be a PIA when I wanted to use the bed of my truck.

For the past few winters, I have used 3x5-foot concrete sheets (you can get them at a home supply/improvement center) used for backer sheets when tiling floors/walls.

They lay flat and fit right between the wheel wells. However, because of the bedliner, they slide easily. So I put a binder strap from one front corner of the truck to the other, running the strap back under the sheet and over the end back to the other side of the front.

They take up very little space, and dropping the strap allows me to still use the bed of the truck.

I have three sheets of this stuff, but sometimes I only use two.

A word of advice for driving a 2WD stick-shift in slippery conditions: Us a higher gear and treat the gas pedal like there is an egg under it. The easiest & quickest way to lose traction is to be aggressive with the gas pedal.