I have a RWD Dodge Ram which I will be driving in the coming winter snow storms. Got any tips?

I'd MUCH rather be driving my 4x4 Escape but it's TI till I get my tax refund.

I also have my wife's FWD Cavalier but it's smaller than I like to drive in normal weather, let alone the poor winter weather.

Does it have a limited slip rear end?  If so, get a set of good snow tires and keep a set of tire chains in the truck for when it gets really nasty.  Keep some weight in the bed to add traction to the rear wheels.  People drove rear wheel drive cars and trucks in the snow for a looong time before 4WD and AWD became must have items on vehicles.

I don't think it does. It wasn't stock on the 2wd; on the 4wd trucks it was a special-order item.

How much snow does NM get? You should have no problems just make sure you have some weight in the back.

Snow tires but it sounds like cost might be a factor.

Try as hard as you can to put a few hundred pounds just forward/over the rear wheels (not behind the rear wheel) and this should help aid traction.
Whatever you add, make sure it is secure and wound slide during accel/braking.

Drive cautiously, and feather the gas if you begin to spin from a stop to get moving; try to always keep moving and don't stop in the bad spots, and realize that on any hill you may lose complete control.  I have seen many cars attempt hills, only just to four wheel slide into a parked car.

As others have said, weight over the rear axle is a key thing. I grew up in michigan and my dad drove nothing but ford F-100 2wd trucks as long as I can remember; driving probably 60 miles each way to work in a steel mill in detroit. He built a wooden frame out of 2x6's that sat between the wheel wells in the bed. In the winter, we'd set that in place and in it, we put 5-gallon buckets filled with cement. They rode in there all winter long and made a huge difference in how well the truck got around on the highway and on the farm both. Buckets & concrete were cheap & worked very well.

I've always liked buckets or bags of sand.  If you're ever trying to get up an icy hill, or pull out of a frozen over parking lot, you can sacrifice some of your ballast for traction.  Sand on ice and snow will work wonders.

OP

We didn't get that much snow last year. But if your worried put sandbags on the bed over the rear axle (5-8). I did this even with my 4x4 Dodge Dakota when I lived in WI.

All good advice.  I second snow tires on the rear at a minimum.  A set of chains will come in handy should you get a good snow/ice storm..

If you don't have the limited slip figure out how good a parking brake you have, or just feather the main brake pedal to slow down the spinning wheel and help out the wheel with traction.



I don't make the baby parking brakes do this, they are tiny and die too easily, but I grew up on vehicles with rear drum brakes and the rear drums were the parking brake.



So using the parking brake to slow down the spinning tire and get some power to the wheel sitting still would work ok and I was not applying the front brakes at all doing this.  You can remove the spring on the parking brake release as well, then you have to manually return the lever of course but if you leave the little handle pulled out you can now step on the parking brake pedal as needed and it won't click and engage full time on you.  This is for foot operated parking brakes, if you have one applied by hand you can figure that one out yourself.



If your vehicle has traction control and all sorts of stuff you might upset it doing these things.



I upset smart vehicles all the time.  I find it puts a smile on my face as long as everything eventually resets.



I grew up with vehicles out of the 70s so no abs and the big drum brakes in the back took a lot of abuse before you over heated the shoes.  If things were in good shape.

I had a 2wd Diesel and it SUCKED in the snow.  Lots of engine weight up front + lots of low end torque meant that just about any application of the throttle meant the back tires were spinning.

I was able to help improve it a few ways:

1)  Put 1000# of "suitcase" tractor weights in the bed, with a carfully engineered restraint systme consisting of multiple heavy duty tie down strapps to keep them in place in case of a collision.

2)  Good tires helped, but could still be overcome with lack of traction.

3)  Drove my wife's minivan as much as possible.


It was lots of fun when I wanted to get the back to come aroudn though!

Back in the 70s and 80's dad had two sheets of steel in the bed of his 2 wheel drive 1/2t pick-up with overloads.

I think they weighed close to 400-600 pounds together.

Also had his tires sipped.

Drove all over MT with them.



Pick-up had a 460 and a auto transmission.

I run my 2WD silverado in the winter here in Maine with no issues. We get a lot of snow here. I manage to get to work every day, snow or not. I don't even run snow tires on it. WEIGHT in the bed makes all the difference. I put about 400 pounds of sand in sandbags back there. As a bonus I have sand readily available should I get into a situation where traction is needed.

Chains, yes!

Most pickup beds today will have a system made into the metal for some wood braces to help hold some of this weight.  I have seen people just go with something to hold water that can handle expanding as the water freezes, or it breaks the container but is still mostly frozen so ok until it thaws.



I found a pile a old concrete "bags" like what is mentioned above where the bags got wet and were long gone but the concrete was in the shape of the bag.  I hauled em where I wanted em and busted em up with a sledgehammer, wear safety glasses, and I used them to fill in some soft spots and pot holes in the driveway/turnaround and what not.  So depending on how you do things they can be used later.



Since winter can be a time of spinning round and round, not just the tires but sometimes the whole vehicle, I do rather like being able to secure things decently.



One fella I know moves the in bed tool box that goes across the bed rails of the truck from the front of the bed to back by the tailgate for winter.  I use my bed for lots of stuff all year round and I ran some stuff through the bedrails to mount it so it is not easy to move like just using a couple clamps.



To some extent I could see using some concrete blocks as well with some straps running through the blocks perhaps, depends on design of the bed and my truck is a shortbed 95 model so way different than some of the newer stuff.



My old pontiac, 76 catalina land yacht, with a 455 rebuilt for torque would spin a tire with ease in the winter.  But with a trunk full of tools it would go if I was easy on the throttle and one thing about a lunchbox locker is both wheels in the back spin mean your vehicle will slide downhill if at an angle.  And lots of on ramps and stop signs and what not are at angles.  Take the lunch box locker out and while one tire spins all day long, that other tire not spinning keeps the vehicle more stable a lot of the time.



Apply brakes as I mentioned in my first post and you might go forwards or sideways, depends on simple physics.

that fwd car will zip around better than a light in the rear end rwd truck..

      Just keep in mind that whatever you put in the bed of a truck becomes a missile in an accident if it is not secured.

Don't put "salt" in the back of your truck, or car trunk.

Post #3 is off the mark on salt.  Gravel or sand inside an old inner tube with the ends tied closed works pretty well for extra weight.

I learned to drive in one of the worst winters in NH history using my father's RWD Chevy that had bald ass tires.  Never got stuck, never slid.

Honestly, now I'm more concerned about yuppies in their 4WD SUVs driving like dicks in the snow.

I put some really nice snow tires on my Mustang.  I can actually get around pretty good in snow now, it really surprised me cause the Stang, even with a manual and traction control, was an absolute nightmare in anything more than a heavy frost.

That said, some good tires, weight in the bed, and take your time, and you'll get around ok.  That That said, I'd probably actually take the FWD car given the choice.

Overall, I prefer 4WD.  We're looking into trading my wife's Saturn in on something like an Escape or Rav4, just to have something we know can get around regardless of the weather.  Although, her Saturn is quite the snow machine.

Having grown up and lived in the North for 35 years, I found that fat tires are good for mud, narrower tires for snow.
  You don't want to "float" on the top of the snow.

I've owned 2 RWD trucks with LSD in SWPA since 1993.  I run Firestone Winterforce snow tires in rear of the truck.  Trucks already had the extra weight of a fiberglass cap, I would usually have a 50lb bag or 2 of salt in the back as well.  Juast don't stop in the middle of a snow covered hill.

weight weight and weight in the bed makes a world of difference. pick up trucks are light in the rear so traction sucks for that reason. I have a 2012 tundra double cab 4x4 with 285/70/17 bfg allterain tires. In the snow in 2 wheel drive with nothing in the bed it is hard to pull out and my traction control goes crazy and that is barely touching the gas. with a few 100lbs in the bed it is a heck of a lot better and I could get around no problem in 2 wheel drive then. but 4 wheel drive I can floor it and the over 400hp and 430trq I have (not stock for those who will argue) can barely get all 4 to spin much in the snow. the tire width I have isn't huge but isn't small either, so the tires do float a little sometimes.