I ordered a Ram 1500 4x4 Sport Hemi with 3.55 rear end. How does it handle the snow? I am a newbie to trucks so please bear with me. I have an '01 Audi S8 with quattro and its the best vehicle ever for the snow. I believe the Ram has open diffs front and rear with electronic stability control. When the roads are icy or snowy, do you guys keep it in rwd or 4wd? Any suggestions or advice are appreciated.
Bob

 

I'm up in Canada, and I have owned 5 different 4x4 trucks over the years (4 chevys and now my Ram). To me, any solid 4x4 truck with decent tires will get through even deep snow without too much worry. I used to run a 2-wheel drive up here and after a few winters of fish-tailing around or weighing down the back with salt bags, I upgraded to a 4x4. Since then I have never had any worries about the weather!

I have a 2010 sport that I ran through the ice and snow for the first time yesterday. It felt solid and traction was good. The sport model has 4x4 Auto, so I left it in that for the day. I could feel the 4 wheel drive come in and out as required. If yours only has 4-hi and 4-low then you may not want to leave it in all the time. Switch back to 2-wheel drive if you get onto dry pavement.

As with all 4wd vehicles, the great traction makes it easy to forget how slippy conditions really are. You have to stay on the ball, because, as we all know, 4x4 doesn't help with braking distance!

 

Congrats on ordering a new Ram ! Any reason you went with the 3.55 w/ open diff ? Change your order to 3.92 with the anti-spin diff..

 

I have the same truck as you, but an 09. Had our first good snow here in MN so I was able to finally test out the truck. I was very impressed with the ESP and it activated several times on the road and kept the truck going straight. I also came out of a curve onto some ice and I could tell the truck wanted to fish tail but the ESP kept it straight. I even tried to get it to fish tail going around a corner and couldn't but could once I turned it off. Oh all this was done in 2WD.

 

I've got a 2wd Hemi CrewCab here in MN. Works fine as long as I've got 400lbs or so of sand over the rear wheels. It was pretty squirrelly without it (like every other truck I've owned). I've never bothered with a 4wd truck for street use and it snows 5 months a year here.

The esp does help most of the time, but if you really get stuck on the ice you need to turn it off to let the wheels spin.

 

My last truck was a 2wd and while I never had a problem getting around even in deep snow, my Ram does excellent in the snow. This is my first 4x4 vehicle and I'm really impressed. I also have the 3.55's with open diffs.

 

If you have the 20" Goodyear Wrangler HP's...you are gonna be hatin' life!
I've never driven on such crappy tires!

 

Yeah, the Wranglers are junk. New tires should be the #1 item to upgrade on these trucks.

 

If you got the non pimp-daddy wheels and tires, you would already have decent tires

20" wheels on a pickup

 

yeah. im waiting to see just exactly how bad these tires are (the goodyear highway poppers) on the 20"s.

i BADLY want to put on some 285/65's bfg all terrains, and a leveling kit up front.

BUT i cant justify the $1400 for tires right now..... damn economy!!lol