Rear end slides on wet corners

[PaulZ]

99 Ranger 4wd. Slides out on wet corners. Besides tossing weight back there, anything else? Tires great condition, all season.

 

[djfllmn]

take it easy on the skinny pedal. these trucks have a super super light rear end, heck with my 4 cylinder i can break it loose on wet roads if i really wanted to

 

[Curious Hound]

Driving technique is a huge factor.

"Tires great condition, all season" is vague and doesn't consider all the factors in tire grip.

Quality, tread design, rubber compound and age all play into that. Not all all-season tires are the same. Older tires will be harder and less grippy because rubber gets harder as it ages.

Also, pressure. What pressure do you have in your tires? This is often a big factor. There should be a sticker on the driver door jamb telling you what pressure to use. And that is for the truck with a load in it. So, reducing the pressure a few psi below that in an empty truck can be very beneficial to traction by putting more tread on the road. Raising pressure reduces the "contact patch" or the amount of tire tread in contact with the road. Bigger contact patch = more traction. It also increases flotation in loose soils and sand.

Many people erroneously inflate their tires to the "max pressure" listed on the sidewall of the tire. That is for the maximum load the tire is designed to carry and is almost always more than needed for the vehicle, especially an empty pickup truck.

Also, tire size. Are you running the recommended tire size? That is also listed on the door jamb sticker. Narrower tires and smaller diameter tires will have a smaller contact patch. Wider tires and larger diameter have a bigger contact patch.

 

[bobbywalter]

is it a recent purchase?


might want to make sure it is not mini spooled / spooled or welded rear diff

or a recent rear diff oil change with no modifier....that will bind a stock ls a bit. but that wont last very long and will wear out in short order.

 

[scotts90ranger]

can vouch for the welded diff thing, I drove my '00 Explorer yesterday that has a welded rear diff and it was raining, it really wanted to be sideways sometimes...

aside from that, 100 pounds over the rear axle would go a long way.

 

[Lefty]

I do agree with everyone else, but here I go again, pitching the same old idea: leaf spring clamps. They stiffen the spring pack and help the sway bar to keep the rear end level to the road thus allowing the rear tires to get a little better grip. They also help keep the whole truck from pitching forward and down during panic stops, thus shortening your stopping distance by a few feet.. I've got two on each side, six inches out in front of the axle and six inches in back. Finally, they minimize axle wrap under hard acceleration. You can put on more if you like.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

There’s a lot of different factors that affect the tires spinning on wet pavement and the rear sliding out. The biggest is simply that it’s a pickup and they are notoriously light in the rear empty. Unless it’s loaded, it’s always going to be some degree of prone to those factors, so you keep it in the back of your mind and drive accordingly.

Stiffer springs, better shocks, pack clamps, traction bars, all of that helps with traction, but not everyone wants all of that either so you have to decide what works best for you.

As has been mentioned, just because the tires have good tread doesn’t mean they get good grip on the road. Some tires are a lot better than others when it comes to traction and that also varies depending on the part of the country you’re in.

I run nothing less than an aggressive AT style tire on most of my rigs because that’s what works for me around here. Well, mostly works, I’ve found that the Hankook Dynapro AT and the Nexen Roadain AT sucked for wet or snow traction around here and neither were good in mud/dirt. The Nexen made it about 10k miles and the Hankooks made it (unfortunately) about 40k. I’ve been running Mastercraft Courser CT/CXT and MXT on my rigs lately and my 92 came with new Kenda Klever MTs. All of those have worked well for me, good grip in all conditions.

Limited slip and lockers/spools help you not do the one-wheel-peel, but they also have a potential to kick you sideways in slippery conditions. Easing on and off gas and brakes helps reduce that and I’ve found often if you’re paying attention, as soon as you start to feel it want to kick out, get off the gas, it will often correct itself.

When it comes to tire pressure, the old method to determine what gave you the best footprint and subsequently the best tire wear and grip, was to draw a line across the tread with chalk and drive it a short distance. See where the chalk came off. Increase or decrease pressure until you’re wiping off more than 80% of the chalk line. Bear in mind, that changes with tire type and size plus load. So if you buy a different tire, you need to adjust again. If you set the pressure empty because you drive it like that most of the time and you add 500# to the bed, you need to increase pressure for the load.

 

[bobbywalter]

I do agree with everyone else, but here I go again, pitching the same old idea: leaf spring clamps. They stiffen the spring pack and help the sway bar to keep the rear end level to the road thus allowing the rear tires to get a little better grip. They also help keep the whole truck from pitching forward and down during panic stops, thus shortening your stopping distance by a few feet.. I've got two on each side, six inches out in front of the axle and six inches in back. Finally, they minimize axle wrap under hard acceleration. You can put on more if you like.

this is the worst thing you can do to a truck that gets worked....especially a 4x4 that gets wheeled hard....multi clamping.

this can pop load which is slip bind and reposition shackle location left to right and WILL break your springs at the center bolt on a truck that gets worked.

for a 2wd hotrod that does not get beat to death it is a easy way to improve roll center and wheel hop. traction bars or chains even which are the same cost work better.

 

[PaulZ]

Great advice all, thanks! Mine has some of the things mentioned, limited slip, sway bars etc. but first thing I did in the dark last night was check the DOT date on the tires. Even though they have half or better tread, no visible cracking, they are dated 2009! So new treads are next.

 

[bobbywalter]

Great advice all, thanks! Mine has some of the things mentioned, limited slip, sway bars etc. but first thing I did in the dark last night was check the DOT date on the tires. Even though they have half or better tread, no visible cracking, they are dated 2009! So new treads are next.

yeah....tire compound is trash.

 

[Lefty]

this is the worst thing you can do to a truck that gets worked....especially a 4x4 that gets wheeled hard....multi clamping.

this can pop load which is slip bind and reposition shackle location left to right and WILL break your springs at the center bolt on a truck that gets worked.

for a 2wd hotrod that does not get beat to death it is a easy way to improve roll center and wheel hop. traction bars or chains even which are the same cost work better.

You are right, but I load mine down all the time, even go off road, but I don't over load it. You are also right about traction bars. Thanks for mentioning this concrn.