[legion]

It snowed on Tuesday. We still have a ¼" of snow on the street after plowing so it is easy to break your drive wheels free if you are so inclined.

I was driving my F150 to work this morning, and I did not have the 260 lbs. of sand in the back I normally do when it is snowy out. I was coming up to the 90º turn at the end of my street. Since the truck has a tendency to understeer in snowy conditions, I usually give it a little throttle (the tiniest bit) around this corner to break the rear wheels free and bring the back end around faster. (I'm not going faster than 15 mph during this maneuver.)

When I do have sand in my truck, the handling is very neutral, much like (but obviously no where as good as) my 951.

So this morning I approach the corner, give throttle, and rather than bring the back end around neatly, I grossly oversteer and end up doing a 540º. As there are parked cars on either side of the cul-de-sac that leads into the 90º turn, I give neither throttle nor brake (steering is useless) and just let my truck rotate until it comes to a stop facing the wrong way.

I was really surprised that taking 260 lbs. out of the back of a 6000 lb. truck affected the handling so drastically.

Can any of you vehicle handling junkies explain to me why?