The heavier vehicle is better in winter, argument is often made by cradle Canadians, including the one I am married to. Around here though, its as much to do with not being blown off the highway by the strong winds as any illusion of better grip.

The problem with that argument is that heavier vehicles tend to be slab sided. It's no fun being in an Element or a minivan in crosswinds.

Agreed, although in Mrs AX's case she is comparing her Kia Soul which is slabsided and light, with the previous vehicle, a Dodge Neon which is not slab sided and is perceived to be heavier. I say percieved, because a little googling tells me that the GVW of the Neon is 1171kg vs. 1285kg for the Soul. So, any wind issues are really to do witht he slab sidedness rather than weight.

Heavier vehicle may (arguably) mean more downward push to get traction when starting, although realy its the rotation of the tires that needs to find some grab, so thats as much to do with the tire choice as anything. It also means more inertia to overcome too, so you need more friction to get going anyway Im guessing.


More weight definitely means more forward momentum at any given speed when trying to change direction, and more momentum to have to overcome to stop it again, and that aint good if you have to steer or stop for any given level of tire performance.


No one ever got killed failing to pull ahead at the traffic lights, although it may be inconvenient to need a push if you get stuck. On the other hand plenty have come a cropper failing to stop at them....

Weight distribution is also important. A front-engined front-wheel-drive vehicle (such as minivans and most cars) will have more traction on its driving wheels than a front-engined rear-wheel-drive vehicle such as pickups and sports cars. This is why the suggestion of putting blocks (or anything with a little weight ) in the pickup bed helps.

I had a friend at Uni who owned a 1.8 Morris Marina where a bag of cement or similar in the boot was highly recommended at all times. I recall we didn't have one when he finally understeered it into a brick wall.

I guess I could easily recreate the experience by buying a F-150 or similarly stupid vehicle.

It does sort of beg the question, that if you need to put sand or cement in the back of the car/truck to make it work, maybe it hasn't been invented properly.

Not so much in the case of a truck, that might be designed to work best when loaded and a truck properly used would tend to be loaded half of the time. Why you'd want a truck if you had no load to haul is another thing.

This has baffled me for many, many years.

.......maybe that goes some way towards explaining what them big metal truck-nuts are for - counterbalance?

Exactly why we sold the F150 in Feb after only buying it (used) the previous November. We bought it as soon as we arrived because the previous owners of our property said we'd need it, but we ended up basically using it for the school run, shopping and commuting...which we then found out was all they'd ever done with theirs... At least we got back exactly what we'd paid for it

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...1&postcount=15

True for he good old Capri as well

Trucks are only handy when you may be called upon to haul stuff, the only essential vehicles on an acreage are quads, tractors and a skid steer.

I'm not going anywhere in these condiotions as DBD said its more dangerous to drive when you can't see a thing than it is when you see pink elephants.

....don't think they come as standard - they're an optional extra.

Peer pressure. An ubergreen friend has just moved to a rural area. On their shopping list now is a truck. Admittedly they kayak, ski, surf and need to carry an array of wet outdoor gear at times but they've managed for years without a truck. The most pressing reason is to stop the new neighbours sharpening their pitchforks.