Quote:
Originally Posted by soundman98
so my brothers work at dealerships that routinely get traded in trucks during the winter months that have sandbags in them. they usually toss them as part of the cleanup process. so i've had access to obscene amounts of sandbags for free.
my experience is that tires are the biggest difference in traction. one winter, i loaded up 400 pounds worth of sand in the back of a ranger to attempt to improve it's traction. it really didn't change that much. if there were gains, it was offset by the losses and increased braking distance of dragging around 400 pounds of additional weight.
i don't even bother running sandbags anymore, despite the fact that they don't cost me anything to get.
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Pickup trucks are designed to be light on the rear so you can carry loads. They are usually around a 70% front to 30% rear ratio. They need several sandbags in the rear to bring them closer to 50-50 to have traction but still steer properly.
Old FWD cars also carried the majority of their weight in the front at about a 60% to 40% ratio. They benifited from having a little weight in the back to make them 50-50.
The twins are damned near 50-50 already. Adding weight to the back will have very little efect on traction. What it does do is change the weight bias to a point where you lose some steering control. It also throws the balance off enough that if you do start to swing the back end out the extra mass just keeps it going making it much harder to regain control.
Adding weight to an already balanced car actually has a worse affect than leaving it alone.