Pickups in snow
 

Seems like a ridiculous question but just bought my first pickup after always having full size Broncos and Expeditions. Keep hearing that the light back end of pickups make them pretty squirrelly on snow. Is this the case and if so what is a remedy?
Thank you

Welcome,
I had a 2010 f150, live in mane and have a 26 mile commute to get to work, mine had a hard tonneau cover on it but no other added bed weight. I was thoroughly impressed with that truck in many a storm, it handled well - provided you dont drive like an idiot, and really charged though the snow like a tank.

Weight of some sort and good tires

Good Tires - preferably dedicated Winter tires are the best thing you can have.~I'm a fanatic about getting around in the Winter, so I have a second set of wheels for Winter, with a set of studs on them, a LS differential in the back, and in the front too, and I have traction to spare all Winter. ~ There's a little piece of blacktop pulling down into the Target parking lot in the heights, and it gets packed down to a skating rink, and when that happens most vehicles can't get up it, and the ones coming down are sliding, but the Blue Ox pull up it like it's nothing.~ There are drawbacks - one is very noisy tires on dry days, and 1.5mpg loss as soon as I put the studs on.

Sand bags and good tires

I put about 200 lbs of 1B limestone in burlap sacks in the bed.

I had to put myself in a ditch last year to avoid a pile-up on an icy hill. Even with the e-locker, I was stuck. I threw some of the limestone under the tires and I was out in a few seconds.

Yep. Had a few trucks in the past, always had 2wd's. In Canada.

The big things I try to remember...

Are my tires good?
Is the weather/Road conditions that bad?
Do I really need to go out to do (whatever)?

Even then in the winter.. Go slow, accelerate smoothly, brake smoothly, go slow and steady. Leave well in advance of when you have to be there. Don't tailgate. Leave more room then you thought you would ever need.

Second to what antony is saying, yes. Limestone. Or gravel if you cant get that. Couple hundred pounds of limestone over the axle can help, and the benefit of having something to give traction in a situation like antony was in can save you a lot of money and headaches. Studded tires can SOMETIMES help if you live in an area that permits them, and tire chains can help as well if fitted properly. Trucks are more tail happy if unloaded so consider that.

4wd will help if used properly, but it is not a "fix-all". When I lived in Edmonton and Yellowknife the first vehicles in the ditch, were pickups and SUV's. A lot of people get a 4wd or awd and assume their invincible and can go 120kph in a blinding snowstorm. We all know how that happens.

When I started doing accident investigation for the organisation I work for the root cause of most ditching was:


Speed unsuitable for the conditions.

On occasion, there were of course ditchings to avoid collisions with other drivers that were less... skilled at driving. That's unavoidable.

Take your time, drive it like it was made of glass, consider carefully the conditions, drive slow and leave lots and lots of space.

My ext cab ranger was great in the snow. 31" duras, 4.0L w/a manual was amazing in 4hi and 2nd gear. No weight in the bed.

The last two winters with this truck I couldn't give you a good result. It had the craptastic pirelli scorpions and there wasn't much tread on them. I'm sure I could have used some weight, I can't wait til this winter with the coopers.

I find weight isn't a necessity, just don't drive like a jerk. Use common sense. Mind you I drive for a living so take that into account.

I had my ranger for 7 years, 5 with the duras. The one winter with the stock goodyear wrangler rt/s was a little sketch. It seems Ford chooses garbage for a stock tire. Once that's changed things get better.

While I agree completely, another route to safety is to learn how to drive. Specifically, in winter and difficult conditions. Very few people do this. As you said, many think the technology will do it for them, but they should really just learn something. Even the ditching to avoid people is not so unavoidable if you learn something. Why the blank were you so close to them in the first place?!

You quoted the wrong guy, plasma seems like he knows what to do when bad weather pops up. The guy above him, antony, was the guy who bailed into a ditch.