Snow/Icy Driving setup tips?

[OleCuss]

I have the '21 King Ranch and the stock tires. Those are the Pirelli Scorpion AT tires supposedly developed for the current F-150.

On Saturday we went up to Yosemite. There was a modest amount of snow up there and was quite beautiful.

Things were also rather slick in some areas. We took it really easy and still several times had the rear tires momentarily break loose of their grip.

I also tried to back into/through some snow to park and it really didn't look like it should be challenging but the danged rear tires just spun. Even when I kicked in the rear locker it was really wimpy.

Yup, I've driven in snow many times (grew up in Northern Minnesota) but really not with a pickup truck. This was a reminder that I've got an aluminum bed and that pickups are a bit light in the rear anyway.

The tires are "AT" and the dealer told me that they are "Three Peaks" rated which is supposed to mean that they are somehow good in snow even though they look like they are pretty devoted to operation on paved clean roads. At this time I'm not interested in getting a set of more aggressive tires since I'm only occasionally going to snow (I live in Kalifornia's Central Valley).

Yes, I do have cable chains. I'm not sure they're approved for use with this system - Ford doesn't seem terribly informative on the matter but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't use them. But frankly, the issues were pretty minor and I wasn't going to put the chains on for what I was experiencing.

What I'm most interested in is what people are doing for weight to put in the back of the F-150. I figure that next time I'm going to have at least a couple of sandbags in the back (sand can be a traction device as well as weight). But I'm really not all that interested in having to store a bunch of sandbags when I don't need them in the back of the truck.

Weights (for barbells) are of some interest to me as I should be able to thread a ratchet strap through them and secure them in place that way. Putting them toward the rear would seem to be advisable. Are their better ideas?

How much weight do you recommend for putting in the back of the truck? I was thinking 300-400 pounds but I really don't know what the best/average amount might be.

We might try for Yosemite again this Saturday (or may not). If we do go it should be snowing with the current forecast being for nearly 11" of accumulation.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

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[Blueshound]

I have the same tires. For my purposes, mostly paved commute, they are perfect.

I like them on dry pavement and rain. I have also driven in wet snow and some icy dirt roads. Definitely some loss of traction on the icy dirt but predictable. I was not aware they are three peaks rated, will have to check the sidewall. If we get any heavy snow here in CT I will reevaluate.

As far as weight, I was not planning to add any. I just have a tonneau about 70 lbs.

 

[3DogKnight]

I have the '21 King Ranch and the stock tires. Those are the Pirelli Scorpion AT tires supposedly developed for the current F-150.

On Saturday we went up to Yosemite. There was a modest amount of snow up there and was quite beautiful.

Things were also rather slick in some areas. We took it really easy and still several times had the rear tires momentarily break loose of their grip.

I also tried to back into/through some snow to park and it really didn't look like it should be challenging but the danged rear tires just spun. Even when I kicked in the rear locker it was really wimpy.

Yup, I've driven in snow many times (grew up in Northern Minnesota) but really not with a pickup truck. This was a reminder that I've got an aluminum bed and that pickups are a bit light in the rear anyway.

The tires are "AT" and the dealer told me that they are "Three Peaks" rated which is supposed to mean that they are somehow good in snow even though they look like they are pretty devoted to operation on paved clean roads. At this time I'm not interested in getting a set of more aggressive tires since I'm only occasionally going to snow (I live in Kalifornia's Central Valley).

Yes, I do have cable chains. I'm not sure they're approved for use with this system - Ford doesn't seem terribly informative on the matter but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't use them. But frankly, the issues were pretty minor and I wasn't going to put the chains on for what I was experiencing.

What I'm most interested in is what people are doing for weight to put in the back of the F-150. I figure that next time I'm going to have at least a couple of sandbags in the back (sand can be a traction device as well as weight). But I'm really not all that interested in having to store a bunch of sandbags when I don't need them in the back of the truck.

Weights (for barbells) are of some interest to me as I should be able to thread a ratchet strap through them and secure them in place that way. Putting them toward the rear would seem to be advisable. Are their better ideas?

How much weight do you recommend for putting in the back of the truck? I was thinking 300-400 pounds but I really don't know what the best/average amount might be.

We might try for Yosemite again this Saturday (or may not). If we do go it should be snowing with the current forecast being for nearly 11" of accumulation.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

I live in the woods of northern Minnesota and have approximately 200 to 300 pounds of lead bars in the bed of my SuperCrew 5.5 box F150. I made a 'fence' for the bed that will prevent the bars from sliding forward when I hit the brakes. The extra weight serves two purposes. It will ride even better than without the weight and it helps with traction. I do have four wheel drive but I've always added weight in the box of my trucks in winter for those reasons. My tires are the stock 20 inch Hankook tires that came on the truck. I hope this helps.

 

[OleCuss]

I have the same tires. For my purposes, mostly paved commute, they are perfect.

I like them on dry pavement and rain. I have also driven in wet snow and some icy dirt roads. Definitely some loss of traction on the icy dirt but predictable. I was not aware they are three peaks rated, will have to check the sidewall. If we get any heavy snow here in CT I will reevaluate.

As far as weight, I was not planning to add any. I just have a tonneau about 70 lbs.

Thank you. Yeah, I like them for most purposes.

I was unable to find the "3-Peaks" logo on the sidewalls which is a good bit of the reason I asked the dealer. I'm not confident about the dealership's answer.

 

[OleCuss]

I live in the woods of northern Minnesota and have approximately 200 to 300 pounds of lead bars in the bed of my SuperCrew 5.5 box F150. I made a 'fence' for the bed that will prevent the bars from sliding forward when I hit the brakes. The extra weight serves two purposes. It will ride even better than without the weight and it helps with traction. I do have four wheel drive but I've always added weight in the box of my trucks in winter for those reasons. My tires are the stock 20 inch Hankook tires that came on the truck. I hope this helps.

Quite helpful indeed! I'll need to check out the hardware options and I'm betting I could build something like that fence without too much trouble.

I'm not enjoying the price for the lead so I'll be trying to see if I can find tractor weights and such cheaper - I'm not betting on it, though.

 

[3DogKnight]

Quite helpful indeed! I'll need to check out the hardware options and I'm betting I could build something like that fence without too much trouble.

I'm not enjoying the price for the lead so I'll be trying to see if I can find tractor weights and such cheaper - I'm not betting on it, though.

A long time ago I bought a John Deere 90 skid steer that was used for unloading snowmobiles and ATV's from flatbed semi's at a recreational dealership and there were lead bars mounted on the rear for added balance. Those came in handy in the future because of the small size vs the weight. The so called fence for the bed of the truck was very easy to make. I made it out of 1 1/2 oak for the vertical pieces and 3/4 pine for the horizontal pieces. It also works very well for preventing gas and diesel cans from sliding forward when I tap the brakes. Retired old farts like myself have a lot of time to make stuff like this.

 

[Zeromarine]

Get some real winters and your set. I have studded winter tires and it works beauty

 

[Str8Shooter]

Curious to know if you were using 4 wheel drive or not. I would think 4 wheel drive would be more helpful than weight in the back of the bed.

If I were planning a trip to a more remote area that had lots of non flat terrain I'd probably put real nice tires designed specifically for snow and bring a shovel just in case. If I had rear 2WD only I would definitely go to dedicated snow tires even if the terrain were mostly flat. I often hear that snow tires on a rear 2WD can do better than all season tires on 4 wheel drive - not sure how true that is , but it is something to consider.

I'm curious to see how well my Goodyear Wrangler AT tires handle on snow. I think they are similar to the performance of your Pirelli Scorpion AT. I expect that the Goodyear Wrangler AT and my FX4 will do well for me year round because I live in an area where the roads are pretty flat and there really isn't that much snow on the roads. I expect that my truck will do better than my front wheel drive cars with all season tires that do well where I live.

 

[JediNut]

Someone posted this video from 2013 in another thread, but it really points out how important the right tires are in winter...

 

[Str8Shooter]

Interesting video. You actually made me search for a video that shows the difference between RWD truck on winter tires Vs 4x4 all season - I learned something new. I think this video provides additional insight. After seeing this and another one on my tires specifically I now have a pretty good feeling that even on a snow covered hilly terrain I should do well with the OEM tire.

Going back to the OP's request for ideas to adding weight in the bed of the truck. How about filling it with snow. By the time you get back to California it should be melted

 

[Str8Shooter]

This is a fun discussion. I found this video to be very enlighting.

 

[DBL R]

I use tire rack for objective information on tires, plus it allows a quick and easy comparison with color coded charts. According to their data, both stock atr’s and hankook’s are terrible in the ice and snow. My driving showed similar results.

I changed from the stock hankook’s to pirelli scorpion all terrain plus. A p rated tire with the 3 peaks classification.These tires give much more confidence in snow and ice conditions.

 

[OleCuss]

To address several:

Mine is 4x4 with an electric locker. I never put it into 4x4 mode but left it in 2-wheel drive. There's really no doubt that I'd have done better backing into the snow if I'd put it into 4x4 mode but I didn't care all that much but was very impressed that locking up the rear differential seemed to make little difference.

The bigger concern is and was that the rear-end was losing grip at times. Not the front-end, just the rear-end. To me that was a big indication that my rear-end was too light and going 4x4 was going to mean I'd get better motive force but it wouldn't do all that much for keeping the rear-end going in the right direction. Going 4x4 is not necessarily a good fix for that.

If you are on dry pavement and kick your system into 4x4 you can (because of even subtle difference in tire size/inflation) get some wind-up in your drive-train and that can lead to breaking stuff. I avoid using 4x4 if I'm in an area with good grip. Gravel, mud, snow, ice, and almost all dirt I'm quite OK with 4x4. I'm very careful about using the locker for similar reasons and actually wish it were harder to select that electric locker.

In Yosemite they've generally had the roads in The Valley plowed fairly well when I've been there. And even when most of the Sierra Nevadas are below freezing, it isn't necessarily the case in the valleys. So we had areas where we had bare, dry pavement and others where snow-melt had caused some water on the road and then melting. Others where there was a little icy snow. Much depended on shading from trees or not.

Net effect is that in some ares 4x4 would have been fine and in others 2wd was advisable and they alternated rather frequently. I'd have put on chains for much of the driving before I'd have put it in 4x4 mode.

I should make a special mention about the electric locker. In icy conditions on a road, please be careful with a locker. Yes, they can give you extra traction in slippery conditions but they can also cause under-steer.

So my solution is the one which has been known for decades. You put weight in the bed of the truck. Yeah, they talk about putting it over the rear axle, but you can reduce the weight a bit and put it toward the rear and use leverage to give you the equivalent of greater weight toward the front - and using less weight means better fuel mileage.

Oh, and that bunch of videos was nice!

Edit: I should point out that I do know that putting weight near the tailgate will tend to lighten the front-end and that could lead to somewhat worse steering. So I'm still considering trying to put in a bit more weight and putting it over the axle. But 300 pounds just inside the tailgate will lighten the front-end less than would hooking up a trailer with a 300 pound tongue weight with a standard hitch so I'm really not sure that the 300 pounds inside the tailgate will cause a significant decrease in steering under slick conditions.

 

[Carphunter]

I've got Nokian Hak R3's on order for my truck. I bought 200 lb of sandblasting sand (since it's cheap and doesn't have moisture like regular sand) to put in the bed.

 

[BMWtoF150]

To address several:

Mine is 4x4 with an electric locker. I never put it into 4x4 mode but left it in 2-wheel drive. There's really no doubt that I'd have done better backing into the snow if I'd put it into 4x4 mode but I didn't care all that much but was very impressed that locking up the rear differential seemed to make little difference.

The bigger concern is and was that the rear-end was losing grip at times. Not the front-end, just the rear-end. To me that was a big indication that my rear-end was too light and going 4x4 was going to mean I'd get better motive force but it wouldn't do all that much for keeping the rear-end going in the right direction. Going 4x4 is not necessarily a good fix for that.

If you are on dry pavement and kick your system into 4x4 you can (because of even subtle difference in tire size/inflation) get some wind-up in your drive-train and that can lead to breaking stuff. I avoid using 4x4 if I'm in an area with good grip. Gravel, mud, snow, ice, and almost all dirt I'm quite OK with 4x4. I'm very careful about using the locker for similar reasons and actually wish it were harder to select that electric locker.

In Yosemite they've generally had the roads in The Valley plowed fairly well when I've been there. And even when most of the Sierra Nevadas are below freezing, it isn't necessarily the case in the valleys. So we had areas where we had bare, dry pavement and others where snow-melt had caused some water on the road and then melting. Others where there was a little icy snow. Much depended on shading from trees or not.

Net effect is that in some ares 4x4 would have been fine and in others 2wd was advisable and they alternated rather frequently. I'd have put on chains for much of the driving before I'd have put it in 4x4 mode.

I should make a special mention about the electric locker. In icy conditions on a road, please be careful with a locker. Yes, they can give you extra traction in slippery conditions but they can also cause under-steer.

So my solution is the one which has been known for decades. You put weight in the bed of the truck. Yeah, they talk about putting it over the rear axle, but you can reduce the weight a bit and put it toward the rear and use leverage to give you the equivalent of greater weight toward the front - and using less weight means better fuel mileage.

Oh, and that bunch of videos was nice!

Edit: I should point out that I do know that putting weight near the tailgate will tend to lighten the front-end and that could lead to somewhat worse steering. So I'm still considering trying to put in a bit more weight and putting it over the axle. But 300 pounds just inside the tailgate will lighten the front-end less than would hooking up a trailer with a 300 pound tongue weight with a standard hitch so I'm really not sure that the 300 pounds inside the tailgate will cause a significant decrease in steering under slick conditions.

Your King Ranch has 4X4Auto which is fine to use on dry surfaces. It is the same as all wheel drive.

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