Winter descended on central NY late last week and all this weekend. I got caught a day or two late, and endured a couple long, snowy drives with A/T's and no bed weight.

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Now I have the rig all set up. 4 Firestone Winterforces, 245/70 R16, 8 x 70 (560 LB) sandbags, and a 50# spare on rim. Everything is soaking wet, so I might be 700 pounds over. Everything sits in a 2x4 box, centered over the axle. The tire is double strapped to lessen the chance of it catapulting out in an accident...



2WD, manual, slick, crappy icey snow. The plowing here hasn't kept up. It would be hell with Goodyear SR-A. I have decent aftermarket A/T's and they can't handle it.

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4 snow tires, and Winterforces especially, rule. Blizzaks would probably be better, but Winterforces can be a great value - mine were $66 on sale! Drifting and spinning are still totally possible and fun, but the control is always there once you ease off the gas. Braking is probably the #1 advantage with snow grips. Studdable, but only before they are used just once.

 

very nice man looks good!

 

I got a comment and a question.

My Dak is only 2WD, so Last year I got a new set of Goodyear Silent Armor tires. With 300lbs of cinder blocks (10 total measuring 8"x16"x2"thick) I had no issues for the most part, never got stuck. Planning on doin the same thing, plus the blocks are good in case I do get stuck to lay out in front of the tires to drive out (I cut one in half at an angle to make it easy to dive up on). Just in case you are wondering, I cut a piece of 1" plywood to the shape of the bed exactly and added a few coats of latex paint, to sit flush on top of the cinder blocks, and crossed rachet straps over it in hope that if I did get into an accident I wouldn't have 10 30lb projectiles adding to the carnage.

My question is....when I was overseas we would lower the tire pressure to give us more traction on dirt and sand. Would this apply to driving in snow? And if so, what pressure would you experts reccommend?

Oh and Im curious, if I pick up a cheap set of steel rims just for the purpose of having tires strictly for the two 1/2 months of snow and icey roads what would your absolute #1 choice be? I love my Dak more than anything right now (family excluded) and I am willing to do anything to make her more safe in winter, and yes as confident as I am in the snow I always practice in empty parking lots.

 

uhm i never have...so my answer would be NO

 

Do not air down snow tires. Keep them at the reccomended tire pressure - our trucks are about 35 PSI I think? Airing them down increases the chance you will ride up on compacted snow, as opposed to penetrating to the pavement. Similarly, I would not choose oversized snow tires.

As for steel wheels, I've found they are hard to come by. 16" ST wheels from a dealer are about $120 a piece. Cragar Soft 8's are a fairly common aftermarket steel, but they're almost too nice for snow duty. eBay had some decent deals on used wheels.

 

The ideal snow tire has the largest possible diameter (height) and the least amount of width. Almost like a tractor tire, so it will dig down toward the pavement. And it ofcourse needs a soft tread that will carry snow away from the center of the tire.

For dirt/sand however, you may want to air down the tire so you they disperse the weight of the truck and allow it to ride on top.

For rims, most tire shops have them for $50 each. When I got wheels for my old truck, I ended up getting gloss black steel rims with chrome centers and lugs for $54 each.

The only thing I do in snow covered parking lots are doughnuts along with seeing how long I can keep the truck going sideways for!

 

X1000!!! but watch out for buried curbs....I busted an aluminum wheel on my S10 blazer going sideways in a parking lot with about 6" of fresh powder........didn't see the curb till it was too late... D'OH!

 

The worst experience for me was the time I barreled in to a snow covered lot spinning tires like mad and I quickly realized the whole lot was solid potholes.

 

The 3G Dakota uses 5 x 5.5 with a center locator, making them pretty model-specific. Many vehicles use 5 x 5.5 lugs, but the centering ring is the wrong size. New Rams wheels are interchangeble with Dakotas, but they start at 17".

And yes, always check parking lots for drifting obstacles!

 

I am new to the 4WD scene and always thought 4WD really means four wheel drive. When I got stuck last year I found out that 4WD is really 2WD, one in front and one in rear.