How much weight to put in the back of pickup?

[punkaccountant]

I was at Lowe's buying bags of sand to weight down my pickup for better traction in snow and was debating on how much to buy. For those that drive on snowy roads I was wondering how much weight you all use in your pickups to provide adequate traction? Just curious. Thanks.

[ayotte]

I live in Sask. and have a Dodge 1500 quad cab 4wd. I use about 80 lbs of sand tied in to each rear corner. Seems to help quite a bit. We usuallly have a quite a bit of snow and ice.

[lindy]

Just remember to get max weight on the rear axle put the sand bags up against the tailgate. I've seen dozens of people put the bags against the cab, this puts about 40% of the weight on the front axle, where you've already got enough weight with the motor.

[OldCoot]

Had an old farmer that told me the following for snow conditions when I lived in the snow belt. Get an old big truck inner tube and cut it in two equal parts and tie one end shut and then fill it with sand and tie the other end shut and put one over each inner fender inside bed. It serves as added weight and if you get stuck on ice, you can open one of the inner tubes and have dry sand to throw under the tires if needed. Otherwise, the sand will get wet and be a frozen block.

[fast murray]

No sand here, if I have the least bit of trouble with spinning I use 4wd. There are alot of people around here that cling to the idea that 4wd is only for deep snow and they spin like crazy on ice at green lights and such. I'll never understand it.

[DnD]

I always had to dig my truck out when I lived in snow country. So all I did was shovel the snow into the bed (if it wasn't full already). Usually just filled the back half and always got good traction. Used this method for a Tacoma and a 1500 Dodge. It never failed to work for me.

[SaskCampers]

On my 4th 4x4 truck and have never put anything in the back of the truck. Careful use of 4wd and being prepared is all you need. Now if I had a 2wd truck like my old business truck well that had abt 400lbs of sand in the box. Now granted my current Superduty weighs almost 7400lbs empty.

[BigJohn2]

i'm not for sure how much weight but here is what I use ShurTrax.
ShurTrax All Weather Traction for Car, Truck, SUV and CUV's Shurtrax Store

Later,
John

[ayotte]

I have found that with the weight that I put in mine if I am in 2wd and on icy roads it helps keep the rearend from sliding around. Much more stable on a slick highway.

[rattleNsmoke]

I like that "inner tube" idead over the fender well that the OP mentioned. In the past, I'd shovel lots of salted sand into the bed over the liner and that would get me around plowing driveways all winter. With the truck rusted out from undr me the only area not affected is where I loaded that road mixture. If I got stuck I got out and shoveled some under the wheels.