The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk more weight in rear

Anyone have a problem with the rear of truck being too light. Twice today I had the rear wheel lock up and skidded with screeching tires to a stop just in time to avoid an accident. I wasnt going more than 40mph. When winter comes I cant see driving this truck unless I have weights in the bed and of course snow tires. Anyone use their truck in winter?

You might want to inspect your rear shoes to see if they're contaminated with gear oil or brake fluid. I drove a 64 for years without ever locking up the rears.
Good luck,
Scott

I drove my 65 suburban everyday from 1969 to 1991 as a work truck and grocery getter etc. Never had braking problems due to light rear end. But i found that on bumpy dirt and gravel roads the rear end would bounce up and down sometimes and lose traction, for years i keep 2 large rocks in the back. Then when i got older and started driving less "squirrely" i just kept my tool boxes at the rear. Now that i'm almost a an old geezer i don't keep any extra weight in the far rear.

As Scott pointed out you have a brake locking up probably due to contamination. It has nothing to do with being too light in the rear.

better to spend a few hours checking out your brakes, then months fixing dents and paying higher insurance costs.

Make sure your front brakes are working, it could be the rears are the only thing stopping! Joe

I'm going to have to agree. Make sure mechanical issues are solved.

Check brakes.
Replace shocks.
Check for worn and tired springs.

Mechanical check goes for front and rear.

Worn springs or shocks in the front will cause your truck to dive even more lifting weight from rear and causing you to loose the essential coeffecient of friction with the road and rear tires.

If you have a disc/drum combo you might want to check for faulty proportion valve.

If none of that helps then you can always wedge two railroad rails between the rear frame rails.

--matt

i had the same problem on a new brake install so ordered a proportioning valve and in the process of installing it they found the rear brakes had not been bled properly.ron

All pickups are light on the rear. That's where the cargo box is. And the longer the wheelbase, the lighter (proportionally) the rear axle is. A long wheelbase pickup needs an agressive tread (M/S tire) at both ends, and at least 500 pounds of cargo to make it tractable in snow, even if everything else is up to snuff. Sandbags work, if they're loaded just forward of the axle. And you can use the sand for extra traction if you do get stuck.

By all means check for contaminated shoes at both ends. The back brakes will skid if the front ones aren't working, and vice versa. If your shoes are fouled, what works best to clean them is Brakleen; comes in a spray can. Don't be shy with it. If you can't get that, ether (cold-starting fluid) works as well, but is even more expensive. Again, use it liberally. It's cheaper than body work, as Mr. Rod said.

One thing no-one has mentioned is tire pressures. Run them lower than you do in summer. In LT235-R15's on a 1/2-ton I'd have no more than 30 psi if I'm packing no more than 500 lbs. In any radial tire, there should be just a touch of belly in the sidewall where the rubber meets the road whenever traction is an issue. And when you do get stuck, lowering your tire pressures even further is the first thing you should do to get moving if you don't have other traction devices such as chains or sand. Once long ago I was parked on a dry sand beach, and when I went to leave, even with some really gentle clutch work, the drive axle just went straight down. So I dropped the tire pressures to less than 10 psi, and easily drove away. Same thing on an ice-rutted highway: 25 - 30 psi will keep your truck rolling along nicely in a slightly boring manner, while other drivers' knuckles glow white. Washboard logging road? Same-same. Of course, when traction conditions improve, pressures go back to spec as soon as possible to save your tires from damage.

Call me an old nutbar if you want, but when my ducks are all in a row (tires, brakes, suspension, load, traction devices) I am the fastest thing on the road. I have no difficulty pushing a foot of virgin snow at 50 - 60 mph with a LWB 2-wheel drive pickup if visibility's not an issue, and if everything's dialled in just so, controlled four-wheel drifts on a curving mountain road can be fun!

All good advice. The brakes are new and self adjusting but I'll definatly check them front and rear. PO put them on so who knows. I'm not familiar with self adjusting brakes-- sounds like they may not always be relied on to be accurate. Thanks!

Brakes only self adjust when you back up and apply them. If you don't do much backing, they could very well be out of adjustment. Try backing down the street hitting the brakes about two or three dozen times, thats how we adjust school bus brakes when were pressed for time. Joe

Pick-up brakes only adjust when you use the parking brake,
Scott