...for traction in their pickups in winter slay me. Put them as far aft as possible if you must use them. Reminds me of the guy who puts the Algebra book under his pillow the night before finals.
Seems to me that if the weight was aft of the rear axle that it would reduce traction on the front of the truck...if a 4X4, you'd be reducing traction on the most effective drive wheels...putting the weight right over the rear axles will increase rear traction without reducing front traction... If 2WD, with the weight all the way back, seems that steering traction could be affected too... I still agree about the Algebra book tho'...
The engine sits over the front axle; that's all the weight it needs up there. Sandbags aft just evens out the weight balance a little. Brian
That's why I used the osmosis metaphor. The weight does not get to the rear wheels through proximity. The ballast acts along the longitudinal axis, changing the net distribution of weight. To get the most change for the least added weight, move it aft. Put it on an outrigger if you want.
If you drive a 4x4 or a 2x, it does help. If you think it doesn't TRY IT! I spent a winter in N. Idaho, and found it helped tremendously in the snow....in my 4 cyl Sonoma......I went places a 4x couldn't go...although it does have something to do with the DRIVERS SKILLS............... I now drive a 4x4, but am selling it & going back to 2x...
I'm not sure I picked up on the osmosis metaphor... The longitudinal axis is exactly what I was talking about. The truck with weight in the bed becomes a simple machine called the lever. If you place weight behind the fulcrum (the rear wheels in this case) you are causing an upward force at every point forward of that fulcrum. If the outrigger was far enough behind the fulcrum it could lift the front end right off the ground. If a weight of 600 lbs was placed at the most rearward part of the bed which, for sake of example, is 3 feet behind the rear axle and the truck is a total of 15 feet long that means that the front end of the truck would be 150 lbs lighter in the front. It seems to me to be a signifigant reduction of weight on the front wheels. If the 600 lbs was placed right over the rear wheels the weight would be right at the fulcrum and would not reduce the weight on the front axle and place all the added weight on the rear. (To me the most effective spot for the ballast) I used the 600 lb figure cuz that's what I put in my truck bed during winter. Right OVER the rear wheels.
about 100 or so lbs in my trunk (pretty much right over the rear diff) give me pretty impressive traction in the snow. Of course, 100lbs is a bigger deal in a 2500lb car than whatever trucks weigh
Whatever weight is taken away from the front will be added to the rear. I thought the whole idea of lugging heavy sandbags around was to bias the center of gravity aft, since pickups are relatively too heavy up front and too light in the rear. You wouldn't need as much sand if you put it in the far back, and your MPG would not suffer as much.
I decided to move my engine to the middle....... Although putting the engine in the cab makes for a noisy, hot ride, putting sandbags under the hood and in the bed makes for great traction............ You can also make a case for putting sandbags in front of the rear wheels, because as you move forward, the weight is "transferred" rearward. .......or at least that is what someone told me long ago, in a far away place............
When I had my '96 Astro Van (2WD) I used to put 300lbs of bagged gravel in against the rear doors to allow me to drive it in the snow. Without the weight you just couldn't drive up the icy hills here in PA. O-R-H
What fun is traction in winter time? I have had 2 pickups since 96 both rwd and have not used any kind of traction aid.
Sand bags, schmand bags. Just fill the back with snow. Saves you the trouble of lifting the bags out when it warms up. While the sand all the way in the back does increase rear wheel traction, it also reduces front traction and makes it harder to recover from a spin than witih it further foreward.
