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Weights in trunk. Better traction in snow?

13K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  devi0us 
#1 ·
With the the upper East coast getting two snow storms already and another coming tomorrow, I got to thinking if adding things for weight was necessary. Aside from snow tires and driving smart, do you guys think of a bit of weight in the rear foot wells or trunk for better traction in the snow?

Trucks need it because they are RWD but since we're FWD, a majority of the weight is already in the front. Too much weight in the rear can cause fish tailing/over steer as well. The only benefit I can think of is just adding to traction in general for braking.

I generally keep my trunk empty all year round if possible. Your thoughts?
 
#2 ·
Adding weight in the back increases traction for RWD vehicle, doing so in a FWD vehicle won't achieve that effect, plus it will decrease your mileage, and as you stated, changes the front/rear handling bias of the car near the adhesion limit of your tires.

BTW, the weight won't help braking performance as most braking is done by the front brakes, plus you've now added more weight to the car which the brakes will now work harder to slow the car down. In fact everything else being equal, a heavier car will take longer distance to stop on a given traction coefficient surface, strictly laws of physics as Sir Isaac Newton discovered hundreds of years ago.

Appropriate winter tires will work a whole heck of a lot better in improving overall performance in the snow.
 
#6 ·
while extra weight in the trunk will decrease performance overall, sometimes you may need that extra weight to keep the rear of your car more firmly planted....

the last year that i ran snows in the front, and all-seasons in the back.... what a mistake that was.... i may as well have been driving a mustang the way the car took corners....

to compensate, i put 2 sandbags in the trunk, one over each wheelwell.... this helped to improve the handling of my car to the point where i felt safe again....

after that year tho, no matter the cost, snow tires on all 4 wheels.... no exceptions....

the choice is yours....
 
#10 ·
Couldn't the extra weight in the trunk go either way?

1) The extra weight essentially gives you added traction on the rear tires, which keeps the rear planted.

2) The extra weight acts as a pendulum, so taking sharp corners at high speeds will swing the rear out 911-style.

3) It's a Honda Accord, so it'll understeer through day and night. I think this is what'll happen.

In short, weights in the trunk won't do you much good on our cars, if any.
 
#11 ·
In deep snow, you want the rear end of a FWD car to be as LIGHT as possible. Extra weight in the trunk is BAD. More weight on the rear wheels means it will increase the rear wheel's resistance to being pulled through the snow. They'll behave like an anchor. That means the front wheels will need MORE traction to move the car from a dead stop. If the front tires struggle to gain any traction in the deep snow, the extra work involved to pull the heavy rear end through the snow may cause the front tires to simply spin. The end result is you may get stuck or not make it up that hill. (Of course, weight on the front end of a FWD car would help in snow.) If your car fish tails, slow down.
 
#12 ·
There are mixed reviews on this suggestion, but if you were in deep snow, mud, or sand, you could drop your tire pressure a bit to a safe point. By doing so, you would increase the surface friction between the tire and the ground, making it easier to move instead of spinning your tires in place. But then again, you should get snow tires in the first place.
 
#13 ·
By decreasing the tire pressure, you would increase the size of the tire's contact patch and therefore distribute the tire's weight over a larger surface area. That will DECREASE the pressure per square inch. In sand that is good because it means the tires won't dig as deeply into the sand making it harder to get stuck. However in snow, a fatter tire is bad. You want an skinny tire because it creates more pressure per square inch and therefore gets a better bite. A fatter tire will float on the surface and lose traction. A skinny tire will dig in and get more traction.
 
#15 ·
Simple answer = no
Weight in the trunk of a rear wheel drive car/truck helps by increasing the load over the driven wheels. Putting weight over the rears in a FWD car has the opposite effect - it would be like a RWD car/truck strapping more weight to the hood of their cars, making traction worse. Furthermore, weight in the rear on a FWD car decreases the weight on the tires trying to move the car forward, making it more likely that you will slip on acceleration (and turning).
Traction from braking won't be improved either as the bulk of your braking comes from the fronts. Weighing down the rear will make it worse.
Buy a good set of snow tires if you really have trouble (my little brother puts blizzaks on his CRV every winter for just this reason). Chains are illegal here, so I know nothing about them and can't give an opinion.
My car is fine with the all season tires I have on her now (General Altimax HP). The OEM tires were crap, but I still managed to get around when I had to.
 
#16 ·
I've driven most of my life in snowy Erie PA (read: up to 14 feet of snow some winters). Weight in the back of my Hondas never helped. Minus 1 snow tires are the best thing you can do . . . besides moving to North Carolina :D
 
#19 ·
@Antarctica: That's huge post man! :thmsup:
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ikethegreat View Post
tl;dr?
Huh?
Allow me to translate.

Ikegthegreat is a Ravens fan. It's not SUPPOSED to make any sense . . . .:wave:

There's lot's of good number crunching and explanations of physical principles here. Gets me all hot.

All of the discussion about polar moments of inertia and F=ma means readers of this forum need only one other fact to have learned the equivalent of first semester freshman physics:

You can't push a rope.

Now, IMHO, here's what's going on.

First, adding more weight to the rears will not appreciably reduce the amount of weight going to the fronts. It WILL bias the F/R DISTRIBUTION more to the rear, but the rears should have more weight on them - within reason. It would take a lot of weight loaded behind the rear axle (read - big honkin' trailer) to raise the front end appreciably. A few tubes of sand aren't going to do that.

The point here is that the critical interface that stops the car is the level of friction at the rear contact patches between the tires and the road surface or whatever's covering it. In other words, traction. More weight over the rear axle will increase lbs/sq inch and thus improve the chances of increasing friction, just as it's harder to slide two pieces of plywood along each other when you're pressing them together, or when they're at the bottom of a stack of twenty pieces of wood. There are more lbs/sq inch pressing the sheets together.

In some cases, this added weight will improve friction enough to make a difference. But, IMHO, not as much as winter tires, especially (-1) size winter tires which improve winter traction not only by virtue of their tread and compound design but also because of their smaller contact patch - the opposite of what we seek on dry roads. Or as much as the friction-reducing effects of the snow or ice.

All of the phenomena described in this thread are going on and to some extent competing. The question is which one(s) dominate.
 
#21 ·
Thanks for all the replies. It seems every has a valid point to some extent. As for me, I'll be going empty trunk as usual. It's snow a lot out there too. :thumbsdow
 
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