Freak blizzard today and alot of cars were stuck on 25 degree inclines in the road. I own a 99 (dont know why i put the year in there, it might be relevant) ford ranger splash 2.5L engine truck. It is a very light truck and i think its rear wheel drive. how all can i add traction to it w/o spending tons of money (ie, no $350 set of snow tires).
I’m thinking of either buying 1 snow chain or making one myself out of chain from Lowes but the latter idea is probably very very poorly thought out as if something gives then you have a chain flying at 30 mph underneath your car and in the street. Can you use just one store bought chain on your car or do you need either a set of 2 or 4 to make them work? do they sell those plastic snow tire chains (with plastic pads) instead and are they any good for autos?
also i should add about 300 lbs (the trucks load capacity is 500 lbs) of crap to the bed. it’ll probably have to be snow as there is nothing else i can think of putting back there. i have about 200 lbs worth of free weights maybe i can put those back there in a box.
i was going to do that, put a bunch of snow in the back. but i think putting about 150-200 lbs of my free weights back there would be a better idea as i could secure those over the area where the axle is instead of distributing the weight all over the bed, which is what i’d do with snow.
Don’t put in free weights unless you figure a way to secure them. If you have to panic stop or whatever they could bang up the inside of the box. Sandbags work best, and can be improvised easily. Snow is adequate in a pinch. Make sure you pack it together so you get enough in there to actually weigh something.
sand sounds like a good idea. dont know where i’d get sand except maybe Lowes. how much does a 50 lb bag of sand go for.
i guess i could go to the park and get some sand or some dirt there. I’d have to do it discreetly though, perhaps a hat with the word ‘park official’ written in magic marker is called for?
If your going to add weight use sand. Its cheap and if you need sand to help you get unstuck…voila, its already there! As far as chains DONT make yor own. Buy a set. You cant buy one chain as your trucks differential will render the chained tire useless and spin the free one.
Only requires two for the rears. The chains are designed to provide longitudinal traction so putting them on the front as well wont help much for steering. Putting them on the rears should help you get underway but your not gaining latitudinal traction so take care in the turns.
I lived for years in a VERY snowy climate. I used to keep two small cement blocks in my garage, which I’d put in my trunk every winter to give added traction. It makes a huge difference. You can get such cement thingies at Home Depot for a few bucks. Decent chains are a pain in the ass, unless you’re negotiating deep snow for a prolonged period. I wouldn’t use the plastic ones. Ten minutes on a bare road and they’re toast. Oh, and while you’re at Home Depot, don’t forget to get a bag of sand for emergencies. As for steering, there’s only one piece of advice: slow down.
I used to put kitty litter in my trunk during the winter. It worked well. Sand would do the same thing. I used kitty litter since I would use it for it’s intended purpose after winter.
in each of the 6 winters I spent in NNY, I would put sandbags (at least 200lb worth) in the bed of my truck, and about 40lbs of salt (toss it behind the wheels when in the parking lot that hadden’t been plowed. when you put in the weight, make sure that you have it on or ahead of the rear axle. if you have it behind the axle, it will take weight off of the front axle and that is bad for stearing.
I would also recomend keeping a cheap snow shovel back there, never know when you need one.
Tire Chains are the way. It is true that you have to cough up the dough ($120/pair last time I looked!) for good ones, the little tiny “cable” ones don’t work well, and don’t last very long besides. And some sporty-type cars now that have front-wheel-drive have McPherson struts that run so close to the front tires that you can’t mount the old-fashioned heavy-duty chains–there isn’t enough tire clearance for safety’s sake. For you folks I don’t know, tie a couple tennis raquets to your feet and get out and walk I guess.
…As obvious as it seems, I have always doubted the “add weight” idea–have any actual scientific driving tests ever been done? …Because the problem of traction is not enough forward friction to move the vehicle’s weight. So adding more weight results in more friction–but also in …more weight. And sports cars as well as off-road vehicles with good handling tend to be light, not heavy… Also consider that an average vehicle weighs around 4000 lbs, adding 200 lbs is only a 5% increase anyway… And that most of the rolling resistance is the non-driven wheels. So for a pickup truck, it would seem to make the most sense to put the weight in the far rear of the bed, in order to shift weight off the undriven front wheels, and onto the (driving) rear wheels… Which is how dragster rear suspension geometry is set up–to transfer weight to the rear driven wheels as much as possible. -Has Cecil got an opinion on this?
-I’ve had 4WD’s most of my driving life so I have not had the concerns nor the opportunity to try these things in detail…
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Make sure you can legally use chains where you live. When I lived in Washington, chains were very common, as were studded snow tires. I’m in New England now and chains and studs aren’t allowed where I live. I put cinder blocks in the back of my truck. 6 32 pounders @ 99 cents each. I prefer sand, as it stays in place better, but there was nine left when I went to get some. It’s very cheap also though. The weight, whichever type you use, should be placed over the rear wheel area. By the way, you sounded unsure of whether your truck is front wheel or rear wheel drive. Pickups are never front wheel drive. They’re either rear wheel only or all wheel. Drive safely!
Now that I have qualified myself as an expert in this thread (WooHoo! I can truly claim this!) I can tell you, 200 lbs of sand in the bed makes a huge difference. You need a 2x4 too. Buy the “tubes” of sand and put them in the very rear of the bed. The Ranger bed has little notches right behind the wheels that are made to fit 2x4s. With the 2x4 there, the sand won’t slide around. The sand can come in handy if you find yourself spinning on a sheet of ice.
You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes. Buy sand before investing in chains. I don’t think you need chains, but if you do, keep in mind that the Ranger’s drive tire is the rear right.
Well, it works (my dad always kept a couple of weights, inc parts of an old truck transmission, for just this purpose - or he’d get us kids to sit right at the back of the estate car) - it’s more about the distribution of weight than the overall amount - an unloaded RWD pickup or estate has very little of it’s mass at the rear.
As to sports cars, they tend to have the mass distribution sorted out from the start, but IIRC the very early 911s had lead weights added to the front when they went racing, and it was common to put weight in the back of an Austin Healey 3000
Oh yeah, and slow the fuck down in snow! I thought my time had come when I was in a line at some lights and a truck barrelled up behind and couldn’t stop. He just managed to steer onto the other side of road - where he narrowly missed an oncoming Alfa.
DougC, adding more weight does indeed mean that it take more power to get moving, but this really doesn’t matter very much. What is important is that increasing weight (or, if you want to be technical, increasing the normal Force of the ground on wheels) is the most significant measurable component of friction. The increase in power you need to move another 200 lbs is not an issue unless you apply the gas too quickly and put too much force on the wheels. The increase in traction more than outweighs this negligible difference.
Wesley Clark, if you’re trying to climb 25 degree snowy slopes, I don’t know that anything will help you very much. 25 degrees is STEEP!
Tombstones, My mother used to have an old gravemarker, unused, in the back of her Pinto. I don’t know where she got it, or why she had it, it did have a name on it, and a born on date, luckily no died on date.
Other than adding weight, dump the truck and buy a 4X4.
On someone posting that ALL pickups are rear wheel drive, remember those VW Rabbit pickups.