Is your Dually good in the snow?

[fastfredracing]

I have a 1990 Chevrolet one ton extended cab 4x4 dually. It is a hell of a work truck. It pulls anything that I have ever asked it to , but it sucks in the snow. It never gets stuck, but it is worse than my 911 in that the tail is always trying to pass me. It is actually pretty controllable, but unless I am in 4x4, I am always sliding around .
I just drove my buddies Dodge dually to today, and it was the same way .
You would think that the extra tires, and all of the extra weight would make for better traction, but I guess not.

[porsche4life]

I have always heard that about duallys... Something about the gap between the tires... Our dodge doesn't do it too bad but it has a service body and man lift on it... weighs like 12k or more...

[kaisen]

Four 235mm rear tires are like two 470mm rear tires! That's all of it

[air-cool-me]

Low contact pressure in the back..

best cars in the snow usually have narrow tires and high contact pressure.

or you could get spikes!

[willtel]

what if you pulled off a wheel and tire on each side?

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by willtel

what if you pulled off a wheel and tire on each side?

Then you'd have great traction, but still not as good as a SRW PU as the tracks won't line up.

[masraum]

Yeah, if there's some way to run a dually with a single rear tire on each side, that would improve things.

[kaisen]

Originally Posted by masraum

Yeah, if there's some way to run a dually with a single rear tire on each side, that would improve things.

Just pull off the outer dual. Won't hurt anything (if empty unladen), but it will look funny.

[ODDJOB UNO]

i have a 98 K-3500 454BB. bought it with 93 k on it cherry shape from an elderly guy. i have a cab high f/g camper shell, (2) spare tires. (1) under bed stock location, (1) on a spinner in bed. reason i go to baja,messiko. BFG all terrains on alum rims. all suspension gone thru(no goofy ass lift), headers , grannatelli MAS, K&N, flowmasters(pair-dual exhaust),bilsteins,12000# winch front or rear mt.

never ever had a problem in the snow. its a towing FOOL! anywhere anyplace. i have busted above the bumper snow and plowed right on thru hunting WITH A DUAL AXLE 20 ft trailer behind us!

im sure the added tire,and the shell and all the crap we carry elk hunting so we dont have to be rescued(ultimate insult) when the snow really flys,helps in the weight dept.

i will be getting a 38 ft boat in the future and that was why i bought it orginally. previous owner towed a 5th wheel with it. about the only upgrade im gonna do is this summer, im gonna dump a HUGHS RV 4L80E built to the hilt from HELL tranny in it so it can handle the 38ft boat,going to lake powell.

slap 10 sand bags in the back and go like hell.

[VINMAN]

Mines great in deep snow. But on anything remotely packed, it blows. Rear end kicks right out. Especially when the turbo kicks in. I have pretty aggressive tires on it too, but it still sucks. I usually keep the bed loaded up with firewood, sandbags or concrete block in the winter. The extra weight is a big help.

[Heel n Toe]

Let a lot of the air out of the rear tires... 12-15 lbs. or so is all you need.

And like Vinny said, extra weight is good... put it ahead of the rear axle, though.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Pick-em-up trucks in general are rotten in snow unless you've got a lot of weight in the back. As has been described above, this is exaggerated with duallys because of the greater contact patch area. When I had my 3/4 ton, I threw 10 bags of portland cement in the back along with a 300-ish pound camper shell. I also kept the fuel tank full at all times. That helped a lot. With just an open bed, it was downright scary - even in "4x4" mode. Something to think about when you see all those idjuts blasting around in their F150s with plow blades on the front (making them even more front-heavy). Those things scare the hell out of me knowing how unstable they are.

[The Gaijin]

Maybe some narrow 215-85-16s would help. Dedicated winter tires with studs would help too.

But that lot of $$ for an old truck..

[cashflyer]

No.
As mentioned, no traction.

[ODDJOB UNO]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

No.
As mentioned, no traction.

note to self...............add more weight in bed of truck than this guy!

[ODDJOB UNO]

pic

[ODDJOB UNO]

[BRPORSCHE]

I wouldn't exactly call that camping, but man that is a truck!

[ODDJOB UNO]

99's came with rear discs. other than that no real changes except for allisons and various dies-kill offerings.

old guy putered around with a 5th wheel with wifey. concours condition and kept it always garaged.

we had a head gasket leaking so after a few beers decided to pull heads and ZOOM-A-FY them(all new intake/exhaust valves ported polished while in there) and re-install. put belts hoses new radiator and went thru entire suspension and added poly bushings. new bilsteins and cranked up torsions a skooshe. one header tube leaked so we pulled headers added zoomy gaskets and zoomy header bolts. no leaky now.

have beat the living hell outta this in baja and has never whimpered. for hunting we haul the quads in the trailer. weather nice sleep outside weather poo poo sleep inside trailer.


plus in baja if we bring bikes or quads we can lock stuff up and not worry when we turn our backs chasing corona girls of our dreams.


the BEST ROAD TRIP TRUCK i have ever owned. (2) people and the world is yer oyster. well just about. kind of wide fer jeep trails.


the KEY SECRET to these: a HUGHS BUILT TO THE HILT FROM HELL 4L80E RV tranny and thats next! tow just about anything ya want.

p.s. those are the OLD FUNKY wheels guy had on it. we have since upgraded. cant find pic right now.

[teenerted1]

4wd is there for a reason dont risk not using it.
you think driving an unweighted truck with way to big a contact patch is bad in the snow...
try a stiffly sprung cj5 on big tires in 2wd with a v8 in the snow.
that thing sucked big time....but drop in into 4low and i couldnt get it loose in snow even trying.

never had a problem with my longbed toyota either in the snow. it had 4wd and i used it.
if snow is on the ground put in 4hi. if it gets stuck put it in 4low.

worse is trying to get an empty vwbus on an icy mtn freeway started again after some bonehead in a big dually just spun out in front of you. sure the engine is over the wheels but ice is bad mojo.