If you’re new to trucks, you’re probably familiar with how different they are from regular cars. You’re in a larger vehicle, your point of view is shifted, and most importantly — your new truck behaves differently. 

None of this is really an issue in dry conditions. However, when you add snow and ice to this equation, things change. Let’s talk about handling a pickup truck, especially a rear-wheel-drive one, in snow. 

Understanding the Problem 

The way a vehicle handles depends on several factors. Weight distribution is one of them. Some cars, such as the Mazda Miata or the Subaru Impreza are known for being well-balanced, which makes them very predictable. However, with pickup trucks, the onus is on utility rather than weight distribution. While this makes them a perfect work vehicle, you’re getting somewhat compromised handling. 

Almost all trucks are front-heavy. You have the engine, transmission, upholstery, and everything else sitting above or near the front axle. In comparison, your rear axle is only carrying the weight of the truck bed, which isn’t that heavy, to begin with. 

In rear-wheel-drive trucks, this creates traction problems as there is often not enough weight to press down the rear wheels against the road surface. And while modern nanny systems help, it’s still easy to lose the back end on a slippery surface, if you’re not careful. 

With this in mind, let’s talk about what you can do to counter this inherent imbalance of rear-wheel-drive trucks. 

Make Sure That Your Truck Is Ready For Winter

Before we get to the part about driving the truck, we have to make sure that it’s ready for winter conditions. This means making sure that you can see outside in harsh weather, and be seen by others. 

Give your windshield wipers a quick look. Are they brittle? Are they smearing water across the windshield? If so, they need to be replaced. If your wipers can’t move snow, your ability to see the road will suffer greatly. Any water left on the windshield will quickly turn into ice if you’re driving down the highway at freezing temperatures. Check our selection of windshield wipers for a quality replacement. 

Similarly, check your headlights, tail lights, and your fog lights. All of these need to be in perfect working order. Without functioning headlights, you won’t be able to see the road in heavy snowfall. 

On the other hand, broken tail lights mean that others won’t be able to see you from behind. That can be dangerous for more reasons than the obvious one. If you need new headlights or lighting components, check our catalog for quality options. 

Input Control 

Driving in winter conditions is all about managing your input. This applies to steering, braking, and accelerating. The key is to give yourself more time for all these operations. In snow, your actions have an amplified reaction. 

The rate at which you turn your steering wheel in the summer has to be cut in half to get the same response from your vehicle during the winter. Braking is a whole different beast as well. It will take longer for your truck to stop on snow/ice, considerably longer. 

If you give yourself enough time in advance to react, you will find that your truck behaves differently but is still very much predictable. 

Slow Down

Inertia is a very real thing when driving on slippery surfaces. You need to take it into consideration, especially when you’re driving on the freeway. If we start with the fact that it takes you longer to stop, that means that your usual freeway speeds might just be too fast for winter conditions. 

Reduce the speed to a point where you’re confident that you can pull off an emergency stop. On the same note, keep a longer distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you. They might need the extra room as well. 

Throttle Control 

Throttle control is everything with rear-wheel-drive pickup trucks. Traction control helps a lot when it comes to maintaining grip, but it can only do so much. With less weight over the drive wheels, it’s extremely easy to break traction with a truck during winter. All it takes is a sharp throttle input for your truck to start spinning in place. 

Because of that, you need to be gentle with how you accelerate. Low RPMs are your friend in the snow. Apply small amounts of throttle until the truck starts moving. Maintain that level of throttle and try to feel what the truck is doing. You can usually feel it when it’s about to break traction. As long as you’re accelerating gradually, you should be fine. 

This sounds much easier than it actually is. Especially if you’re new to driving a truck. Your instinct will probably tell you to be aggressive with the throttle if you’re at a light or a stop sign. It will take some getting used to, for sure. 

The Oldest Trick in the Book

Long before ABS or ESP were a thing, people used to load up all kinds of things in the truck bed to put some weight on the rear axle. That trick still works. If you ever feel like the conditions out there are getting out of hand, but you still need to get somewhere, load up the truck with anything heavy, and you’ll have a better chance against the elements.

Predicting Traffic Behavior 

While this doesn’t necessarily have to do with how your truck handles, being able to predict traffic behavior can save you a lot of trouble in the winter. Most drivers are predictable to some extent. In normal conditions, you’re picking up clues from the surrounding traffic at a comfortable rate. In the winter, you need to crank up the sensitivity of your internal sensors. 

For example, instead of watching only the car in front of you, keep an eye on the one in front of that one. Try to condition yourself to recognize if a person is going to turn into your lane by being aware of their throttle control, are they off the gas? Are they positioning the car for a lane change? There are plenty of these often small clues that can tell you what another driver is about to do. 

Winter Tires 

Last but not least, get yourself a set of winter tires. The ugly truth about driving in winter conditions is that you can be the best driver in the world and still have a difficult time driving if your vehicle is not ready to handle winter conditions. 

It’s a common misconception that winter tires differ from summer or all-season ones in tread only. In reality, it’s the nature of the rubber compound that makes all the difference in the world. Summer tires and many all-season tires harden up when the temperature drops below 32 °F. This causes the tire to lose its ability to grip the road surface. 

Winter tires are much softer and can take much lower temperatures before they too become stiff. Investing in a set of these can be a real game changer for your winter driving. 

Stay Alert, Stay Safe 

At the end of the day, if there’s one thing you should take away from this article, it’s to be alert. If you’re alert, you’re much safer. Try to feel what your truck is doing, and how it behaves in different conditions and practice. Take the truck out to an empty parking lot and explore the limits of traction. Of course, only do this if it’s safe. You’ll get a hang of your truck in no time.