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Ratsun traction, snow weights


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Its all about the tires. Ive got some good studded snow tires in the back(skinnier the better) & mud & snows up front. For general cruising around town & backroads with only a few inches no weight is necessary. If your going to hit some hills & deeper snow then a lil weight could be good.

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DatDave an Pumpkin are right on.

 

Skill and proper tires. All season are useless for snow. Get a pair of snow tires with lots of sipes (pronounced s-eye-ps) on the tread and put them on spare rims so you can remove and switch them quickly.. If you don't know what sipes are find out. Tires have come a long way in the last 20 years. Snow tires are a much softer compound that stays flexible in the cold but wears more on dry pavement. These things are the greatest thing since sliced bread. If you can afford them get all four. Oh yeah the reason to have spare rims is some tire places won't mount just two tires and insist that all four must be installed because one axle will have far superior traction and the car will be imbalanced. If you take the rims in they aren't responsible for what you do with them.

 

Weight? Never use it. That's an extra 100+ pounds of dead weight that you have pushing you from behind when trying to stop in a hurry. A lighter car stops in a shorter distance. It's also an extra 100 pounds of inertia when cornering on a slippery surface. A lighter car corners better than a heavy one. Does weight increase traction? It sure does, in a straight line accelerating... the rest of the time it's a liability.

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I have some skill, have no tires, my deal is I had trouble getting up greeley to intersate last year.

I was hoping that adding alittle weight in the rear would help, did in my ranger...... Then again my ranger was horrible in the snow.

Open diffs dont help

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Adding weight in the rear will help... like Mike said, in a straight line. In every other situation it will make things worse. lol. Throw some weight back there if you can't afford tires.

 

btw what's snow? tongue.gif I don't think it's dropped below 50 degrees during the day here in California so far this winter....

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... No tires for me, cant even afford the ratsun price till friday, and to be honest if I got em then... I wouldnt need em till they where trash anyways, it gets slick maybe 3 days a year here. Usaly theres a subaru beater to cruise around instead... But I cant afford to insure it till friday, hence the weight, maybe ill roll em in glass shards all vandamn style...?...

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I always tried to keep it sorta proportional. In a small car I wouldn't go any heavier than you already have. I never added extra weights in my ZX but I used to drive delivery vans in a northeast Ohio town that was infamous for not plowing in the winter. I found that a bit of weight over the rear axle helped provided: a) it wasn't so heavy it made the rear end impossible to catch once you (inevitably) got past the limit, and B) it was stable. You REALLY don't want that weight to shift while you're trying to correct a slide. 210 lbs of sandbags in a secure tub seemed about ideal for a late 90's Aerostar...

 

I also never used steel shot, I preferred sand or kitty litter because I could rip the bag open and dump it around the drive wheels to aid traction in a pinch.

 

Skill is still the most important ingredient in the mix, but proper prep work never hurts.

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Actuly, a local member has me set up I think :) I love ratsun.

I did some "practice" in the frozen lot that used to be avx/keocyra, the weight helped more with 40# in each rear passenger foot well.

But tomaro, if I survive the other people, im stopping to pick some snowies and then it will warm up.

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Depends, I got around in Kansas City snow for two years in my old Mazdaspeed 6 with summer only tires and no extra weight just fine. :-)

 

Guess I just need to get use to my truck, first snow/ice with it seemed like the brakes locked up a lot easier than with my MS6 or my Cube. I've got Brgoodrich A/T tires. Should have gone out to an empty parking lot and played around to see how the truck handled in snow/ice.

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