Unbelievable that someone even mentioned placing weight in the rear of a front driver !
I wonder who got this started ?
Good to have the aggressive snow tires on, better is the locked differential. or traction control.

heres a good one, my uncle drove oldsmobiles for yrs, and every winter he would jack up the car and mount the snow tire on the rear, the last car he owned was a toronado early 80s model, still every winter he mounted the snow tires on the rear. yep we told him, but it didnt seem to register.

Our front wheel drive ford tempo with studded tires all around works as good as any 4x4 I've driven, as long as ground clearance isn't an issue. All that's required is good tires with similar tread all around. No need for extra weight.

Gotta wonder what Aunt_Jemima might use for added weight, Maple Syrup ?

There is,AFAIK, no Aunt Jemina maple syrup..and this is a surprise..
But this still made me laugh at loud..

Hey EW:
I could say something about Aunt Jemima syrup coming from the sap of the Black Walnut tree, but I won't! LOL

And, AFAIK, there is no maple syrup in any commercial pancake syrup brand. If you want maple syrup, you look for maple syrup. Most commercial pancake syrup is a mix of sugars, flavorings, synthetic materials, preservatives and color, but not one bit of maple syrup. I have seen pancake syrup advertising the use of 2 or 3 percent added maple syrup. That's about 2 tablespoons of maple syrup per bottle. Not even worth considering. Only real maple syrup is worthy of using on pancakes. Why use something phony on good food? Eating should be a pleasure!!

Perhaps the best use of this phony maple syrup would be to use a case or two for weight in the trunk of a front wheel drive car???

GG

FWIW, I like the nick and I like the products we all think about with that reference. Maybe I'll be having a few pancakes tomorrow morning...

Anyway, NO, do not put weight in the back of your FWD car. Your drive wheels are in the front, thats what FWD stands for. If you have traction problems, and have trouble going in bad weather, or the car wants to spin around one of the things you can do is put on four winter tires instead of just two on the front. In fact some tire manufacturers actually recommend installing winter tires in sets of four.

BTW, with a RWD car, weight in the back helps but at the increased risk of injury to the occupants of that car. In the event of an accident, a very heavy solid object could blast through the back seat, or (if it's a wagon) over the seats into the front of the car potentially hitting one or more of the occupants.

This thread reminded me that I'm out of syrup! But we buy the REAL stuff up here in Vermont. I have a neighbor that makes syrup and it's backbreaking work! So I realize why it costs about $30 a gallon!
If you want to see how REAL VT maple syrup is made, click the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: REAL Maple syrup

I saw on the label of a store-brand syrup the other day that it contains 15% maple syrup.

Doesn't taste too bad - but real maple syrup it ain't!

ole joyful, who has several Ontario neighbours who make maple syrup

Hi John G. Funny you mentioned weight in the trunk of a
rear wheel drive. As i said, we have manitoba communist
insurance up here ( AutoPac ). If there is a bodily injury
claim from a passenger of a car that had " weight " placed in the trunk for traction and that weight came loose in the collision they ( autoPac ) considers the weight as an
" uncontroled projectile " They can and have denied any claims to the third party for injuries resulting in the
" weight " entering the passenger compartment of the vehical and " charged " the owner of the car with neglingence and contributing to the physical damages of the injured party. Even if the " weight " doesn't come loose you can still be charged. Remember the govenment isn't in the buisness of writing cheques. Not up here anyway. As i read the continuing " JOKES " that the poor
people of this site come upon, and get involved in with 5th
rate mechanics just because they don't want to spend the money, and come to this site for FREE advice that they have no idea what to do with anyway when they get it, just boggles my mind. I've been in this trade 37 years with dealerships and pirvate companies and if any of us are ever caught ripping off women or anyone, for that matter, we are out of a job before the morning coffee break. I can't
understand what the problem is on most of the complaints
some fokes have with their mechanics. Do they not follow the same rules with customers ? Do they not have the same ethics ? I know you are one of the best on this post John,
Ive read your posts, there are others just as good, they
know who they are. Just bugs the S%^T out of me that so called mechanics are ruining the good name of the mechanics
that care about the people. I'm glade the the C.F.C. licences and the OBD 2 codes put most of the " back yard "
mechanics out of buisness. Just venting. No offence to anyone. If you do not care for my post just disregard it.
Hope everyone has a good Christmass and most of your shopping is done.

Hi Kalining. Thank-you for your kind words.

I had a guy sum it all up in one very harsh sentence recently. At the end of the day, after the customer picks up their car. My survival, my business, nothing about me really matters, at least as far as he (and really most people) are concerned.

Sometimes I'll press for some information when I get an unexpected reaction from a customer, such as a situation where work that is diagnosed does not get an approval for a repair, especially when I think everything is going smoothly and I am going to be repairing the car. This was the gem that he gave me when I got him to take some time and talk to me. He said that it's not about me, or what I do, or don't do. Many times it has nothing to do with me at all, once again, it's all down to the customers individual desires, and overall lifestyle that may be driving the decision. In his case, he really could not afford for me to actually do the repair. He wanted it spelled out exactly what was wrong with his car, and then he was going to have it repaired as cheaply as he could manage.

As far as licensing, I wish we had it in some ways, and yet it's OK that we don't. We don't need more government intervention in our lives, and I just don't really see how that would improve things all that much. The government IMO would create so many headaches, I might just lose the desire to be a tech. At the same time, anyone that goes to Sears, buys a set of tools, and has somewhere to work can not only call themselves a mechanic, they can try and run their own business. So once again, I have mixed emotions on this. Everyone should have to chance to live their dream, and if this is what they want to do, then they should have that chance. Now that being said, after decades of people taking this step, without proper training as a tech, or a business man, we have serious problems facing our "industry". As many top techs and shop owners have said, how do we really even have an industry, when we don't have any standards? We have no minimum tooling guidelines, no minimum training, or experience requirements, and you don't need to have a business degree to try and own and operate a shop. This routinely results in the classic "New Guy on the Block" that thinks the secret to success is to be cheaper than everyone else, and to a degree he's right. Throw cheap prices out and people flock to your door. But the pleasure of the cheap prices comes with a burden. The guy trying to do it on the cheap, can't afford tools and schools that he does need to grow. Plus, he needs to be highly productive for a great amount of his day, which is hard to do in itself indefinately. Then part of the price of being cheap is part failure, and other warranty issues from trying to do too much in too little time. Meanwhile, the shops that are sending techs to school, and are investing in all of the tools they need to do the work correctly suffer smaller car counts, because they lose some to the cheap shop, and it makes it harder if not impossible for them to operate profitably.

Now take the forces I've roughly outlined, and put it in to play for decades, and you can see why the number of shops and good techs is declining, even though the number of cars on the road is increasing. Oh and did I mention that cars just don't break like they used too? I can see a day in my future when I'll be closing my shop. There won't be a tech/shop owner to replace me when that happens.....

Hope everyone has a good Christmass and most of your shopping is done.
*************************
Is it still OK to wish others a Merry Christmas? I hope so because I don't want to go to jail for being politically incorrect.
So like the guy on the radio says: Have a happy RamaHannaKwanzMas!