i do the same and it definitely helps.

the snow can add up to a lot of lbs. in the end, and it is fairly evenly distributed
over the bed. add that to a full tank of gas (21 gal in the xcab) and you can imagine extra weight may not be necessary.

 

^ good strategy if you park outside. if you garage it, then your floor might get a little soupy :)

 

garage? what is this you speak of??

 

I always used to have 2-3 sandbags over the rear axle always worked great for me, since I have an open bed on the new truck still I have just been shoveling snow in the bed when its really bad out, actually work I think I have close to 200 pounds back there in snow from yesterday and I was driving through it with ease.

avoid against the rear tailgate there is definitely a difference with momentum, I had my bags blocked off by a 2x6 and the rear one came out of the notch and the bags slide to the back gate and i definitely noticed a difference with the rear end wanting to keep on sliding more around turns.

 

Regardless of what anyone uses for weight , try to make sure it is anchored in the bed.
Responding to an MVA one snowy night , we found a pickup's nose firmly stuffed onto a tree . A couple unsplit chunks of hard maple firewood decided to make a grand entrance through the rear window and introduce themselves to the back of the unfortunate driver's noggin.
This can also happen with sand bags , or especially concrete blocks.
I , myself use blocks and run a 1/2 inch rope through them to the tiedowns in the rear corners.

 

i use my homemade car ramps

made from angle iron they weigh about 80lbs a piece
then i just put a tie down strap over them to keep them secure

they make a very noticable difference

 

Yep, and hated them all. O.k, they were not that bad, just a lot of the same stuff over and over. As for Civil being geared towards bridges, a common misconception. The are a lot of "bridge dreamers", but the ones that actually do it are far and few between. Structural engineers, mechanical engineers, and civil engineers all work together to design bridges...oh and you can't forget the fancy pants architects....LOL
Our field is HUGE and very wide spread. You can cover (depending on your discipline) roads (back roads to major highways), buildings (residential, commercial, industrial, government), dams, and bridges.

But enough thread hijacking.................LOL
Back on topic!!