DRW in the snow? long

[Pilot]

I have a few questions for those that have owned a unloaded DRW P/U and driven in snow/ice conditions. I have owned and driven DRW trucks before but all were heavily loaded panel type trucks with aggressive snow tires. I bought my new truck (see sig) to pull a 18 to 20k 5th wheel for my upcoming retirement so until I retire it will be unloaded over the winter months and used as a daily driver. I have seen and read about the poor performance of unloaded DRW P/Us on snow and ice. I got the 4X4 option on my truck because I wanted the skid plates and better shocks. With the 4X4 option "traction" tires were required. These are Continental, load range G tires with a max cold pressure of 120 PSI. These tires seem to be a cross breed between a highway tire and the T/A tire you might find on Mom's SUV. Question is do any air down the tires on your unloaded DRW truck over the winter? Also, will a thousand or so pounds in the bed be worth the effort. We have 10" of snow forecast beginning tomorrow night so I thought I'd get some advice from those that have been here before. As a side note I plan on putting on the winter grill cover tomorrow. Anyone experience any damage to the plastic grill from having the cover on all winter? Thanks.

[GreenDually]

I have driven SRW and DRW trucks in the snow here in northern PA. My Dually is only an F-350 with load range E tires on it, I don't know if that will make a difference. I prefer the dually on the snow and ice covered highways. It seems like the dually handles better and is easier to control on the bad roads. The rear end doesn't seem to slide and fishtail as easy. I never put any extra weight in mine, but it wouldn't hurt to. As far as deep snow if you have a good lug tire it will go just as good a SRW pick-up.

[tfunk88]

I have driven mine in snow, no weight in the back, and it was fine. I put the tires at 80 cold front and 70 cold rear. This is 5lbs lower than what Ford recommends for road driving, but I have found that is too low to get decent tire wear. Normally I would have them at 92-95 cold front and 85 cold rear, up about 5lbs more cold when towing heavy.

[wp6529]

When I drove my previous DRW truck in the frozen northeast, with no cargo it handled very poorly in the snow. I always got wheel spin starting up in 2WD, no matter how light I was on the clutch. The limited slip at least kept it from fishtailing. I solved the problem by loading a full layer of 4x8x16 solid concrete blocks in the bed during winter. This added ~1,000# to the rear, substantially improving traction, without taking up much cargo space / capacity (only 4" high layer), and had no noticable effect on MPG either.

[Pappy19]

While I have never owned a DRW, I have seen many, many of them having traction problems in the snow, ice and mud. I do believe that some weight in the rear can't hurt and if there is any snow or ice, just keep it in 4X4. There is so much torque on a standing start that your rear wheels will just spin, especially with DRW. If you're going to be in some real bad conditions, I'd have a set of chains or cables for the outside wheels just in case.

[rskeans]

My previous truck was a '99 F350 SRW CC LB 4x4 w/LS. It was very forgiving in ice and snow. My current truck is an '08 F350 DRW CC LB 4x4 w/LS. It is night and day between them on handling on ice and snow. The DRW is very 'squirrelly'. Extra weight in the back will help a lot.

[Pilot]

OK, we got the snow. Ended up about 12 to 14" around here. Truck did OK but not near as well as my 99 4x4 SRW. I did not put any extra weight in the bed or air down the tires. For those that say a little weight in the bed would be helpful I think you are right. Hey Pappy19, where did you get the chains or cables for the rear outers. Happen to know if they are available for 19.5" tires? Thanks.

[davydee]

I'm gonna follow this thread. We recently moved our fiver from one mud hole to another, and we had to use 4wd at both locations to move. Yep, the torque really hits those rears fast. We're at Ford's recommended psi for the tires. It feels like the rear duallys are floating in the mud. Running empty, we've only been in slush with the same results - floating rears.

[Pappy19]

Originally Posted by Pilot

OK, we got the snow. Ended up about 12 to 14" around here. Truck did OK but not near as well as my 99 4x4 SRW. I did not put any extra weight in the bed or air down the tires. For those that say a little weight in the bed would be helpful I think you are right. Hey Pappy19, where did you get the chains or cables for the rear outers. Happen to know if they are available for 19.5" tires? Thanks.

If you can't find them here, then they don't make 'em.




19.5R-19.5 Tire Chains

[MackE7]

The "Ford recommended PSI" of 70/80 is for a fully loaded truck. For an unloaded truck, you should probably be in the 30 (back) 45 (front) range. It will make a huge difference in the ride and traction.

http://marktg.toyotires.com/file/loadinflationtable.pdf

http://www.goodyear.com/rv/pdf/rv_inflation.pdf

The thing about empty duallies is that the load per tire is very low and the minimum recommended pressure in these sorts of tires is 35 PSI or so and thus you get a very hard tire relative to the load.

If I owned a dually in snow country, I would remove the inside tires for winter.

[fordsforever73]

Lot's of guys (My dually gets parked in the winter) around our neck of the woods only run singles on the back of their dually's. Having dual tires is like having fat tires, like you see on big 4x4's, and they have too much flotation and will not "bite" down and get traction like skinnier tires. If running singles, most take the outers off and then the inner ones will follow the front tire's path in snow for better control. It looks goofy but it works.

When I drive my other truck in the winter, I throw in a foam filled forklift tire, which weighs a bout 7-800 lbs. and that helps big time. I also use studded winter tires on steel rims. I find studded tires are a huge benefit to people who drive on the highway in winter months. It's no fun when your heading down the highway and hit black ice at 50 or 60 miles an hour, and your front tires only want to go straight...studs bite into the ice and get you around the corners.

[Stalwart]

The "highway" tires that came on my '08 F450 SUCK in the snow and ice, but I need the load range G tires because of the 26,000+ lb trailer I tow in the summer. I have been thinking about getting some winter wheels and tires so I can have traction in the winter months. As it is, I use 4 wheel chains, but beware, my chains took out the grease bellows on the tie rod ends and flung grease all over.

[jasonmt]

Originally Posted by MackE7

The "Ford recommended PSI" of 70/80 is for a fully loaded truck. For an unloaded truck, you should probably be in the 30 (back) 45 (front) range. It will make a huge difference in the ride and traction.

http://marktg.toyotires.com/file/loadinflationtable.pdf

http://www.goodyear.com/rv/pdf/rv_inflation.pdf

The thing about empty duallies is that the load per tire is very low and the minimum recommended pressure in these sorts of tires is 35 PSI or so and thus you get a very hard tire relative to the load.

If I owned a dually in snow country, I would remove the inside tires for winter.

I think you missed the part where the discussion was mostly about 19.5's so 35psi is not anywhere even close to the minimum inflation pressure.

[jsmichael]

Originally Posted by Pilot

<snip>
Anyone experience any damage to the plastic grill from having the cover on all winter? Thanks.

I used the winter grille cover last winter with no damage to the grille. There are no metal parts with the cover, including the hooks which are plastic. It takes about 10 minutes to put the cover on and secure it underneath the front part of the hood. If you're worried about corrosion of the grille, then periodically remove the grille cover and clean the grille.

[dieselfreak09]

Your truck weighs enough that you probbally wont have to worry about that....IMO