4X4 Dually in the snow

Just wanted to know how a dually 4X4 handles in the snow. Should I buy chains or does the truck handle the white stuff OK? I have pretty aggressive tread and not a highway type of tire.

 

I find the dually handles snow okay. I have travelled a lot of winters to the ski hill at Fernie and had no problems. I had a heavy wet snow trip from Seattle to Fernie a few years ago and I was impressed with the truck. I run a good Michelin tire which is a big factor in snow and ice. Also four wheel drive comes in handy at times. You should not need chains unless you are getting into deep snow. I have towed with the dually in snow and slush, compact & ice and liked it there as well.

 

I have all season tires and studs for the rear of my dually... highway tires on the front... we get around all winter using the trucks for business here in Spokane but do carry chains as we show a DOT # and when the chain up sign is up on the highways we have to chain... . we attempt to plan our out of town trips to those times where we won't see the chain signs... . so I guess I could say is we do fine until we're forced to chain based on the law...

Hope this helps... .

 

I'd strongly suggest that you have your tires siped for use on ice and snow. I'd also recommend getting them studded if running a set strictly for winter.

I'm not 100% sure what brand or tread style you use, but I will say that MT's suck in those conditions. Another thing is that a dually has twice the surface area touching the road with only half the weight pressing down for traction.

Be easy on the go peddle and keep her out of the ditch AKA 'pucker brush'!!

 

Are studded tires legal in Vancouver B. C. ? Some states in the US say the use of studs is illegal to use on the interstate system and state highways. They wear out the highway and cause road damage according to these states, MN, WS and IL, some states allow only rubber studs such as MI.
Jim W.

 

Studded tires are legal but I'm not excited about buying four extra tires and having them changed or buying 4 extra wheels. Maybe I should just take that money and go to Mexico until the snow is gone LOL

 

Cerb,
I run BOG-O ATs on my 3500 SRW and have siped them all the time. I have 40K on the current tires. I've done this on all my trucks and it makes a big differnce in slick roads. I've never run a dully so can't say about them.
DClark

 

I've personally siped several different types of tires: my Nitto Dura Grapplers, several highway rib style 19. 5s, recapped 22. 5, 24. 5 and even 425/65/22. 5 tires. I have never had anything but a positive experience doing so. That being said, since my siping tool is manually operated, I only cut down 1/4 inch. Maybe the automated ones go deeper?
I also talked to a guy in my industry that gets all his tires siped before they go on his trucks. His trucks run close to $300K and has over 15 of them. Somewhere around 60,000 GVWR. He also notices a huge difference.
Siping works best on tires that have large blocks of solid rubber, like MTs. I wouldn't bother siping a tire like a TransForce or a Michelin LTX, which is already heavily siped.
Throw some extra weight in the bed of a dually and you will have no problem in winter on the road.

 

I run siped M-55 Toyos on my truck up here in Alaska. My Siped Toyos generally run 20K miles longer than the unsiped ones did. I did both on the same truck. The Dually is light in the rear as already stated. 1K of weight in the bed (I use 8 foot logs) makes a world of difference. My truck scales right at 10K in the winter. I put 10-15K of miles on snow and ice covered roads each year.

 

I been running Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT2 (265/70R17 121/118 Q LT265, Load E) on all six wheels for the past six years. They are sipped, studded and have great snow traction due to the rubber compound. Studs help a lot in the transistion zone driving from rain to black ice to snow. In 4WD, with nothing in the back, it readily handled 9" of sierra cement when Cal-trans would lose control of Hwy 4 during a storm. When the 4,200 lbs truck camper was in the back for winter road trips to ski areas I was never at a loss for traction, even in 2WD mode. The softer rubber compound doesn't have a real long tread lifetime, but I would rather have the traction and buy tires more often, than drift sideways with the camper on and then suddenly have the tires hook up.

I have v-bar chains for all four corners (cross bar reinforced, heavy duty, with cam lock tensioners). The rear chains are now dual/triple chains. Originally I just had single chains. However in very deep, wet snow > 16", found in unplowed Sno-parks after a weekend storm, if you only have a single chain on the outer dual, the inner dual would compact the snow and float both tires and then just spin. Easier to stay in a ski area parking lot that is plowed more often. Up in Montana now and in south eastern BC haven't need the chains.

Truck handles the slush well as it is heavy, but still better to throttle it back some.

 

In the snow, 2x4 mode, without any weight in the bed not so great.

In 4x4 much better.

weight in the back, as stated before, much better in 2x4 mode.

Also as stated before, 2x's the surface area same amount of weight, the 4 tires will NOT dig down through as readily as 2 tires.

The tires need to get down to pavement or hardpack in order to get traction.

Tall and skinny gets it done in the snow, wide doesn't get it.

Want so free and easy weight?

Blow, shovel or load snow in the bed. Weighs more than you think it does AND NOTHING comes out easier! It just melts.

Been doing this for years.

 

If you're running empty, taking off the outer tires looks funny, but makes all the difference in the world.

 

Here in NM the moisture content of the snow isn't great, I could fill the bed full and wouldn't weigh much, so I buy "sacrificial" 80 lb bags of Quickcrete at Home Depot. They harden up by the time I don't need them anymore, then I unload them at the recycling center. Have also thought of chaining up the front, there is a lot of weight from lthe 12v there and would make sense in a deep snow break out. Otherwise no problems with the Dooley here.

 

The initial investment of an extra set of "winter" tires hurts, but if you are keeping the truck for several years, then you won't need to buy tires for a while since each set will get less miles per year. I run Goodyear Duratracs that are studded and have used them for two winters so far, about 25,000km's and they still look new. This way I can run a better/quieter/longer lasting summer tire. Yes, it cost a few hundred twice a year to pop them off and put them on, but at least they get balanced and rotated at them same time once a year. The cost of buying a second set of rims would take about four years to recoup your rim cost over just popping them back and forth, and I would have to do the work myself rather than just dropping off the truck for half a day.
Also adding weight as others have said IMOP is a must. I have a piece of 2" Steel plate, 4'x4' that weighs 1550# with the frame to bolt it in the box/frame of the truck. One thing that should be taken seriously is to have what ever weight items you use end up being secured to the box. A strap over a stack of sand bags or whatever you use is a must. Can you imagine a frozen 50# sand bag coming through your rear window? Or ending up in someone else's path? I've witnessed this event at the scene of an accident.

 

SWD 3/4 ton with Michelin AT2 tires in MT snow and carry chains, but have NEVER used them. DRIVE RESPONSIBLY !! a few bags of sand/Gravel cant hurt in the back and would come in handy if I did get stuck. And don't forget the shovel that's never been used either!!!