How's your 3500 in the snow

[Briar Hopper]

Brian, my truck weighs 7802 lbs, on the grain truck scale over at Southern States ag supply. Run with the bed empty, most of the time, except for some light odds & ends at front of bed.

I can't understand why I haven't had more trouble with it in snow, from all the complaining about duallies that I read in here, and hear in person from others. I lived in Rochester, New York for 4 years, so I do know what snow is, and how to drive on it. We only get THAT kind of snow in Kentucky about 2 or 3 times a year. I'll try it out in the Indiana snow again this year on one of my numerous pilgrimages to Muncie.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Ah, maybe we won't get no snow this winter. Other than 1/2" sat night, been real warm for me.



Some links to the chains Mr. C spoke of but no prices that I could find.



http://www.lacledechain.com/traction.html



http://www.bordertoborder.com/adventures/moosonee/contest.html

 

[MCummings]

Originally posted by Shovelhead

Ever try power-sliding a 20' long dually?

With my 3500 5-speed PE COMP on 5/5 and DD1's,, any corner done at ~20MPH, WOT and 3rd gear gets sideways in a hurry.

My friends say it loks to cool to see a big long dually going sideways and smokin' some tires around a corner.



MerrickNJr

 

[Dave MacArthur]

Link for chains:



http://www.tirechains.com/

 

[Happy Camper]

After a few thousand miles I replaced the GYear tires with Toyo's which made a big difference. I can look out to the side of the road now without being out there also.

 

[azcummins]

Power sliding? Yes please...

Power sliding in snow is great fun, especially when you have huge parking lots to do it in like here @ CSU. I get my 3500 to spin all the way around. Plus it leaves huge ruts in the snow for all the rice rockets to get stuck in!



According to our campus police though, it is careless driving to do it and wreckless driving if you hit something.



When did having fun become a crime?

 

[CRamsey]

I took my dually Elk hunting this year and was totally impressed with the operation in the wet and snow. I chained up the front and it did more than I expected, never even concidered chaining up the rear although I had dually chains on board. I have been an avid 4 wheel for 30 plus years and figured the dually would not fare well. I have the stock highway tires on. Weight in the rear is a good thing... The only part I was not impressed with was throttle operatiion, when operating in low range it is damn near impossable to hold the throttle steady..... There must be a fix for this.....

 

[RobG]

I've had my truck in slippery/snowy weather 3-4 times, and it's done well, though I haven't been in anything deep like some of you.



All of these times it was on I-80 going through the Sierra Nevadas between Reno and Sacramento, except for one night in Reno, where there was a fair amount of snow and ice on the road.



With the truck in 4-Hi, it did just fine. I set my DD UPM box to Power Mode 1/Sublevel 1 and was very gentle on the throttle and I didn't have any traction problems. I'm guessing the lag of my HX-40 is a GOOD thing sometimes.



My tires are General LMT-400's (225/70-19. 5) which do NOT have an M+S stamp on the side, though Ford claims they're all season in their truck brochure (they're the OEM tires for the F450/F550, which is where these tires came from via Rickson Truck). I was surprised that they did as well as they did, because the tires aren't all that great in the rain.



I'm going to see about getting them siped the next time I'm in Reno, since there's a Les Schwab there.



I have two sets of chains for the truck (both singles), both from tirechain.com. One set fits fine, but the other set is too big, so I'll probably sell them to a SRW truck owner and get a set of dually chains for the second set. I think my too-big-set will fit 33" tires just fine. Heck, they'll fit mine if I remove one crosslink (but I'm lazy).



Rob