I have owned an International 3/4-T 4X4 4. 10 w/standard trans (gas); a Chev 1-T crew-cab dual-rear-wheel auto-trans 4. 10 4X2 (gas), and my current '03 3500 QC LB 3. 73 single-rear-wheel auto trans 4X2. I've driven all of them in snow & ice, and I've towed with all of them; and I haven't noticed any particular difference in stability between the Chev crew-cab 1-T DRW and my Dodge QC LB 1-T SRW.
On Sunday, Nov. 26, 2006 I was caught in an early snow and freezing rain storm in Mt. Vernon, NW Washington, on a trip from so. California to Washington. I was towing my 16' dbl-axle enclosed cargo trailer, with a weight of 6,640 lbs. I had 1,000 lbs of personal effects in the bed of the truck, and had a trailer-tongue weight of 1,200 lbs (I know all this because I weighed the truck in Stockton, CA on my way north). I had two brand-new studded-snow (on rims) tires inside the trailer, and found a Costco tire dept that was open and willing to swap them onto the rear of the truck.
From that point on, the truck could not be stopped! I drove through Anacortes, WA which had about 1' of snow on the roads and about 1/2" of packed snow which had turned to ice. Even the 4X4s (with no weight in the rear, of course) were spinning their wheels to get going. I had NO problems. When I arrived on San Juan Island (our vacation home) I found 10" of snow and packed ice on the roads. I noticed six to ten abandoned cars in ditches; nothing else except 4X4s and cars/trucks that had chained-up and either were front-wheel drive or had put weight in the rear were moving. The only front-wheel drives moving without chains were Hondas. Again, I had NO problems. When I reached a slight incline where I had been stopped and stymied by ice and snow in February of '05, (and in fact had slid sloooowly back down the hill with all four wheels locked until when after about 150 yds I finally came to a stop, still on the roadway) the truck just kept on going!
I spent the next four days driving back-and-forth (without the trailer) from our house to the little town, on ice-covered roads where the snow had been packed down solid and had frozen; for the first two days very few vehicles were moving. I had no problems! In fact, after a couple of experiments, I was able to park in town on ice, with the nose of the truck lower than the back, and still back out (very slowly) without difficulty.
If you're driving on the highway in snow/ice and want the maximum amount of traction in the rear, you'll get more from an SRW than you will from a DRW -- twice the weight on 1/2 the tire surface area -- or more accurately, without being linquistically clever, the same amount of weight on 1/2 the tire surface area.
I know that a 4X2 diesel (with a LOT of weight in the front end) won't go EVERYWHERE with snow tires and/or chains and 1,000 to 2,000 lbs in the rear end, but it will go A LOT MORE places than expected.
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
