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Do anything for FWD? Does it help with traction?
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Putting weight in the bed helps FWD traction?
- Thread starter Equipenquin
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It shouldn't make much difference one way or the other. The weight of the engine being over the drive axle helps with traction. If you put a lot of weight in the bed, it could hurt you traction. But overall, it should handle like a FWD crossover or FWD sedan.
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Yes and no, it depends what scenario you look at (and assuming you mean for inclement weather). Let us say you throw 250 lbs in the bed. Due to the weight transfer across the axles, the front tires will actually see less weight, to the tune of 5-10 lbs per tire. So taking off from a standstill could be slightly worse, as your driven wheels have less force normal and thus less grip on the road.
When coming to a stop, I think your front tires will see more grip due to the higher vehicle weight as the body pitches and transfer weight forward. However, the tires will have to work harder to stop due to the overall higher weight. For ~250 lbs it is probably a wash.
Where I think you would see a benefit is in turning. The rear tires will each see an extra ~130 lbs and thus have more grip. That extra grip could keep you from oversteering if you take a turn too fast. Unexpected oversteer in snow can easily put you into a ditch, or swap ends on the road. Probably not super likely, however, as in a FWD unibody vehicle you'll usually start understeering if you take a turn too fast on snow. Oversteer is more likely to happen if you're turning and a rear tire hits a slippery patch.
All that analysis aside, if you plan on driving in snow/ice a few months every year your best bet by far is a set of good winter tires.
When coming to a stop, I think your front tires will see more grip due to the higher vehicle weight as the body pitches and transfer weight forward. However, the tires will have to work harder to stop due to the overall higher weight. For ~250 lbs it is probably a wash.
Where I think you would see a benefit is in turning. The rear tires will each see an extra ~130 lbs and thus have more grip. That extra grip could keep you from oversteering if you take a turn too fast. Unexpected oversteer in snow can easily put you into a ditch, or swap ends on the road. Probably not super likely, however, as in a FWD unibody vehicle you'll usually start understeering if you take a turn too fast on snow. Oversteer is more likely to happen if you're turning and a rear tire hits a slippery patch.
All that analysis aside, if you plan on driving in snow/ice a few months every year your best bet by far is a set of good winter tires.
Probably not the traction you are thinking of but the Maverick has Ford's recently developed force vectoring springs in the back which can be tuned where under heavier load can perform better.
See this PDF page 15-17 for an overview of load impact on handling.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1klkXWLLd5mcTra2TqLi6E-LEMpSkkfDG
See this PDF page 15-17 for an overview of load impact on handling.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1klkXWLLd5mcTra2TqLi6E-LEMpSkkfDG
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Interesting read. Thanks for posting.
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