so winter and snow are right around the corner here in the great northwest, and i am wondering how much weight i should be carying in my bed to get the most traction in the snow? im putting about 150lbs of brick back there think its enough? or should i get more?

 

You'll need more....150 lbs is basically only a passenger in the back, and a light one at that. Last year, I put approximately 480 lbs of sand in the bed of my truck, and it got around fine when it did snow (6 tubes @ 80 lbs per tube). This year, as I'm now in Spokane and am anticipating a much more icy winter than last year, I picked up a set of studded tires, and I have a big 'ol pile of 1 1/2" rock in my back yard that I'll be putting some in the bed of my pickup to weigh it down. I figure between around 450 lbs or so of rock and the studded tires, I'll be able to get Maynard around fine. That, and he's a stickshift, so I can use the gearing and the throttle to finess my way around as well. Being 2 wheel drive, I want to give myself as much advantage as possible.

Now, that being said, I wouldn't go much beyond about 500 lbs in the bed, as you'll then be working against the weight. Mine is a half ton truck, so 500 lbs is about max for traction weight in my mind. Anything more and you'll be working harder to go, and having a harder time stopping. I'd say anywhere between around 300 and 500 lbs above the rear axle is a workable solution. It's not so much weight that you have to work against it, but it's enough to give the traction tires some grab.

 

start low and work your way up but in my mind the minimum is about 250lbs and the most is about 550lbs (Unless you have a diesel mine needs about 670lbs to stay on the straight and narrow

 

ok cool thanks! i was jus wonderin cause this will be the first winter ive ever driven a rear wheel vehical in the snow and was a bit nervous. it already startin to get hard to get up my driveway and dont have any weight in the bed now but my driveway is a 12% grade covered in moss!(built in the early 1900s) and i keep spinning out unless i hit it at about 35, but seriously dont want to have to back down cause its only 6in wider than my truck!

 

Also if you have an auto start rollin in 2nd gear drops your torque way down and helps you keep traction. I live in an area where there is sknow well into what should be spring and sts in what should be fall lol

I actually have more problems with Fwd vehicles funny huh

 

Yeah, back in the day when I used to drive OJ in the snow and ice I would put studded tires on the rear and load about 500 - 600 LBS right over the rear axle. You talk about go anywhere. That set-up got me around without any problems. I would drop the 360 I had in it into second gear and lightly touch the gas to climb hills with ease. It also helped to have the limited slip working for ya.

OJ

 

First off, like everyone else said you need more weight. I usually run (5) 80# sand tubes stacked right at the tailgate.

The thing I will caution you about putting bricks in the backend is they will slide around and cause some major damage if you don't tie them in. You may not drive that fast normally, but in a panic situation they may end up in the cab with you. Samething can be said about tubes of sand. The tubes are full of dried sand, but after a winter of freezing and thawing water penetrates the bag and the sand becomes a solid rock. They are like 80# missles then. So I have a 2x8 that I wedge behind the wheel-wells and then a ratchet strap to tie them down, just to make sure they don't go any where. Plus I hate it when they slide forward and dent my tool box.

 

Yeah, concrete and sand bags when dried-up hard like to slide a lot. I had this happen to me so I built a form around the wheel wells out of 2X4's, two on the insides of the wells and one front and back to hold in place and it worked good.

OJ

 

Thats whats great about dodge beds is they have a dent built in the wheel wless to hold 2x4s but that is a little off subject