Pickup Bed Weight for Winter Traction

[Ben]

What do you real Winter guys like to put in your pickup bed for extra traction? I haven't done anything since I've been here, but have mostly been driving my 4Runner if I need to go somewhere when it's snowy or icy.

I was thinking of throwing something between the wheel wells in the bed of my 2wd truck with AT tires. Right now I have a bunch of sandbags and piles of sand lying around, so that seems the most expedient. Something better to use? How much weight do you guys put in the back?

[Bogie]

Two or three bodies. I understand that you can find 'em just laying in the streets these days.

[Kingcreek]

RWD I would use sand bags. They don’t shift or slide around and if you need to you can throw some sand down on ice for some gain of traction. I would carry enough to give you fairly even weight distribution with the front- not much heavier or lighter than what the front puts on the road.
And keep a shovel onboard.
In my Jeep I have a “chain box” ie old wooden ammo crate with chains, shackles (D shackles and 2 soft shackles), tow strap, tree straps, pulley block for winch line, concrete form stakes, heavy hand sledge, and some gloves.

[Nick1911]

I asked that exact question here back in 2008 (time flies!)

https://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=16839

That truck was moderately useless in low traction situations, weight or no.  I've since replaced it with a slightly newer 4x4 F250, which is fantastic.

[Ben]

I don't plan on driving the truck in bad conditions, but even in "good" conditions, the roads between my house and town or the highway can have icy patches, so it's more a precaution thing if I have to run to the Home Despot or something that I can't do with the 4Runner. I have that rear axle lock thingy (it auto shuts off at like 25mph though) for my F150, and also carry both a shove and a set of Autosocks in it.

Nobody here drives, or even sells, apparently, 2WD trucks, and a while back I was thinking about selling my F150 and getting a 4WD F150. A great advantage to the 4WD F150, even over my offroad beast 4Runner, is that it has a fulltime 4WD setting, so if I'm in those situations where it's mostly good road but you can hit some icy/snowy areas, you're good to go. The 4Runner only has part time 4WD, so I'm often turning it on and off, and that's just if I see a problem area. That doesn't help much with stuff like black ice.

If I were prescient,  I would have mad the swap at the beginning of the covid, when between the popularity of used trucks, and the crazy incentives Ford was giving, even losing some dough because of the 2WD, I could have put myself in my identical setup except 4WD for a few thousand dollars. Those days are over for a while.

[Brad Johnson]

Sandbags, a couple hundred pounds on the tailgate end, and a good set of chains behind the seat. I'd throw in a small shovel and a pair of insulated gloves, too.

Might see if anyone has a decent pair of used M/S or snow tires in your truck's size. It's been my experience that most AT tires royally suck in snow conditions.

Brad

[AZRedhawk44]

Back when I used to have a 2WD truck I would put a couple of 50# sandbags in the bed. 

[Bogie]

4x4 just means you can get out of the ditch easier after you slide in...
 
Drive like you have an egg under your foot, and go medium slow, and then get your TOW STRAP out when you come up on one of the idjits in their nice SUV who passed you because they had 4x4 AWD and were invincible until they slid into a ditch...
 
(oh, and Mercedes traction control rocks, but that stuff only goes so far)

[Jim147]

A big round hay bale.

[charby]

Sandbags, 300-400# is typical in Iowa for the rare 2wd 1/2 or 3/4 ton pickup. Tire chains are nice if you have deep snow or constant ice pack. You put those on and off as needed, don't leave them on all winter, hard on roads and tires.

[zxcvbob]

I used to put 3 or 4 bags of portland cement -- 94# each -- in the back of mine, way in the back behind the wheel wells.  The snow and rain hardened them into blocks with ribbed bottoms that matched the truck bed so they didn't slide side-to-side.  (I never had them slide forward either but that was a possibility) Also when I switched to skinny tires that helped a lot.  I had this idea to cast some lead rear bumper weights, but I got rid of the truck before I ever got around to that.

I've got a new (to me) 3/4 ton 2WD with enormous fat tires, and I'm thinking about getting a pallet of concrete blocks for it; I will use them in the spring to make raised garden beds.  OTOH, 3500 pounds might be too much for winter traction.  Maybe I'll just get 500 pounds of blocks for now and see how that goes.

You might think filling the bed up with ice is a good idea, but it's not.  It will really speed up the rust.

[charby]

Sandbags, a couple hundred pounds on the tailgate end, and a good set of chains behind the seat. I'd throw in a small shovel and a pair of insulated gloves, too.

Might see if anyone has a decent pair of used M/S or snow tires in your truck's size. It's been my experience that most AT tires royally suck in snow conditions.

Brad

AT tires work great in the snow, it's the mud "only" tires that suck.

[Bogie]

Are studded tires legal there? Put 'em on when things get gnarsty, take 'em off when stuff melts...

[K Frame]

We used a layer or two of concrete blocks and bags of coarse sand on top of that. If we would get where we needed more traction, we'd break open a bag of sand.

[bedlamite]

I've got 4 bags of concrete that got wet several years ago.

[dogmush]

I always used sandbags.

[Ben]

AT tires work great in the snow, it's the mud "only" tires that suck.

I didn't catch that in Brad's post. Yeah, I have zero problems with AT tires with the old mountain snowflake. I mean, nothing beats snow tires, but for the not crazy Winters we get here, and sensible driving, ATs are fine. I'm running Hankook ATMs on the 4Runner and only had one "ice slide" last year, right in front of my driveway. 

As for studded tires, they are legal here, but again, my area of Idaho doesn't get inundated with snow, so it would be overkill for me, especially since being an unemployed bum, if it's that bad, I stay home in front of the fire. 

[RoadKingLarry]

I will generally put 6-7 bags of "tube sand" which usually run 60# in the back of the truck. I'll put 3 of them in the back of the Wrangler.

[Bogie]

At the Lake of the Ozarks, when I was there, we would do studded in the winter months. Didn't do much for snow, but you could get going on ice.
 
But they didn't help much with steering if you were going too fast. Nothing does.
 
Currently, one of the kids who I have to work with is running street slicks on his go fast straight line fast and furious thing... He's gonna discover real fun some evening soon...

[Kingcreek]

When I was in college I had a 1972 VW super beetle with a set of studded Michelins snow tires for winter. That thing would go almost anywhere. During the superstorm of ‘78/79 I drove around stuck 4x4s

[grampster]

I've got five 40pound bags of water softener salt in the back of my 2wd 2004 Colorado..and a set of snow tires.  Gets around pretty good in the snow.

[HeroHog]

I actually had the wife get all the way in the back of the van (1966 E-100 Ford) and jump up and down. She has never forgiven me but we got to the tire shop where I worked and put some better tires on the back of that thing!

[Ben]

Sandbags seem to be the most popular option. I'll give them a go since I already have the fixins.

[Angel Eyes]

I will generally put 6-7 bags of "tube sand" which usually run 60# in the back of the truck. I'll put 3 of them in the back of the Wrangler.

Same here.  Currently have 5 bags between the wheel wells of my pickup.  It helps.

[Kingcreek]

I've got five 40pound bags of water softener salt in the back of my 2wd 2004 Colorado..and a set of snow tires.  Gets around pretty good in the snow.

This is a great idea if you hate your vehicle and want it to rust out so badly that it hardly even has any scrap value.