Does Adding Weight Improve Your Vehicle’s Traction During Winter?

During the winter, snow or ice on the road surface can make roads slippery, reducing your tire’s grip, and overall making driving feel unsafe. For some people, there’s no other choice but to drive despite these dangerous conditions. One of the ways to make driving in winter safer is to add weight to their vehicles, more specifically their truck bed. In theory, adding more weight to the vehicles allows tires to create more grip. The question is, does this practice work? 

Does Extra Weight Improve Traction?

Pickup trucks are designed to tow cargo. However, if there’s nothing on the truck bed, then most of the weight is on the front. Many pickup trucks are RWD, which means that the back wheels are responsible for pushing the vehicle forward. Too little weight on the rear axle can cause the wheel to lose traction and spin in wet or snowy conditions, which can cause the truck to fishtail or oversteer. Truck bed weights for winter riding in an RWD truck can help the tires grip the road better. 

Adding truck bed weight for winter traction on RWD vehicles is advisable, but not so much in FWD trucks. Since pickup trucks are generally front-heavy, there’s already enough weight on the front wheels without the need for additional weight on the bed. 

The same is true for four-wheel drive (4WD) and all-wheel drive (AWD) vehicles, which have the necessary traction, weight distribution, and technology to handle icy conditions. As a result, it’s not necessary to add weight to these vehicles.

How Much Weight Should You Put On Your Truck During Winter? 

How much weight in your truck bed is advisable for winter? Adding 200-300 pounds to smaller trucks will be beneficial, while larger trucks might need 300-400 pounds.

Some truck owners say that they start to feel a difference when they’ve added 150 pounds to their 1/4-ton and 1/2-ton trucks. After adding 300 pounds, the amount of traction that their trucks gained wasn’t that significant.

Meanwhile, 3/4-ton and 1-ton trucks will require around 300 to 400 pounds before the truck gains a felt difference in terms of traction.

Always consult your owner’s manual to ensure that you aren’t exceeding the maximum weight restriction for your vehicle. Remember that you should put the weight over the rear axle in your truck bed. You should also avoid putting it too close to the tailgate or the cabin. 

Ways to Add Weight to Your Truck 

An easy and safe way to add weight to your trucks is to get truck weights, which are designed to be convenient and secure. Some truck weights rely on water, so you just need to get your garden hose and fill the truck weight with water. Alternatively, you can just use sandbags, gravel, potting soil, or even rock salt, if you have bags of them. Even filling up your truck’s fuel tank can help, since 16 gallons worth of fuel weighs around 100 lbs. You should only add objects that are stable and won’t fall out or move around easily.

Driving Tips for Driving Your Weighted Truck in Winter

If you’re driving your RWD truck with or without weights, you should take note of the following tips to improve your vehicle’s traction during winter.

Some users say that investing in all-season or winter tires is incredibly useful since it’ll drastically improve your traction in low-grip scenarios. Adding weight doesn’t help your truck when driving on snow. However, it does help when driving on ice. However, this can be a double-edged sword since it also makes your vehicle harder to brake.

When driving over snow, try to ride your truck’s momentum as much as possible. Don’t press the brakes unless necessary. If you reach a full stop in deep snow, there’s a chance you’ll get stuck. Hence, you should try to avoid this as much as possible.

When it comes to driving over ice, you should avoid having momentum. In other words, try to move as slowly as possible. At the same time, try to leave a larger gap between you and the vehicle in front of you compared to if you’re driving on dry pavement. This is to give you some wiggle room since you’ll have reduced braking performance.

Possible Consequences of Adding Weight

Adding weight to FWD and AWD vehicles can result in less gas mileage since the vehicle will need to use more energy to accelerate. At the same time, more weight also means that your truck will also have a harder time braking since weight carries momentum. However, this isn’t the case, according to users. As long as you only add up to a few hundred pounds of extra weight, it won’t be enough to substantially affect your vehicle’s ability to brake. The added weight does mean more momentum, but it also allows tires to grip the road better. At the end of the day, your truck might even brake more effectively. Adding 200 to 300 pounds is not going to make a drastic difference when it comes to your truck’s braking ability or fuel economy.

Adding 200 to 300 pounds to your truck is not going to make a drastic difference in momentum, fuel economy, or braking.

–Anthony Harlin, ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician

Putting weight on your truck is a convenient way to give your truck tire grip when you need it. However, you should first check if your tires don’t have excessive tread wear. If they do, they’ll perform poorly. It’s critical to have tires that have sufficient tread to keep you and your family safe on the road. Even an all-wheel or four-wheel drive vehicle won’t be able to generate traction if the tires can’t grip the road.

If adding weight is too much of a hassle for you, then consider investing in a set of winter tires instead. Overall, they’re a better choice because standard tires can become stiff and rigid, resulting in less traction for your truck. Winter tires are made with chemical compounds that are designed to maintain a flexible grip at extremely low temperatures.