Had an odd ocurrance with the new truck the other day. The family and I were going about 35 - 40 down a paved road while it was raining ( not real hard) and went from normal pavement to one of the areas they had ground out the pavement. The kind that the big grinder goes over and leaves little ridges and gouges everywhere and as soon as we hit that it felt like we were on wet ice. It was like the back end just decided it didn't want to go straight any more. I finally caught it after 3 or 4 good fishtails. Ok course the kids thought it was cool. Myself, mom , and the car next to us didn't think it was so cool. I have hit those before in other trucks and can feel a little difference but not like this.
The road was not flooded or anything like that and I didn't notice any standing water at all. The one thing I thought it could be was the road was cut down a couple of inches but the concrete part of the curb ( that used to be level with the road) wasn't cut down, so I guess I could have hit it and stated the whole thing but I really don't think I did. Any ideas? The truck is a 03 1 ton QC 4x4 HO 6 speed dually.

 

One thing to remember is that with a dually, each tire's contact patch is only carrying 1/4 of the total rear end weight, instead of 1/2 like a 2500.

Can make for some spooky handling in slick weather until you get used to it.

 

Good Day!
Here's my theory:
-The machine(s) that prepare the roadway ended (or maybe started) their work on that particular patch of roadway. As they were sitting there idling, they dripped oil on the road.
-When it rained on top of the oil, the road became a hazard.
-You hit the road and slipped on the oil/water mixture.

 

What Shovel said. If you really wanna pucker try that same road, same rain on a motorcycle. How much air you have in the rear tires??

 

I think I'll pass on trying the motorcycle on that same patch of road, used to ride motorcycles a lot but got disgusted by all the other inconsiderate drives plus the 3 kids won't fit. I'm going off memory (not the best) but I think I had about 50lbs in rear tires and about 60 lbs in the front tires. I thought about the oil on the road they may put something on the road while they are cutting it with the grinder that leaves something slick. We also hadn't had any rain here for almost 2 months before this rain and that does leave a lot of gunk on the roads and they do get slick when it rains which I'm sure was part of it. I see the point about actually having less weight on each tire and coming home a few hours latter it was pouring and the highway was really wet and I did slow down some because it seemed like it hydroplaned more than i am used to in a SRW truck. This is our first dually pick up and there is no doubt it takes some getting used to. Shovelhead or anyone else fill me in on some of the odd handling habits of the dually compared to SRW truck and maybe next time I'll be a little more prepared next time. Thanks

 

The main thing to remember is (other than these trucks are wiiiiiide ), is perform all actions, ie. steering inputs, throttle up or down, & braking, slower than you were used to doing it before when the weather is wet.

I can drive down the highway at 40 mph, hit the throttle and break all 4 rear ties loose when the road is damp. ;D

Lots o fun when you get used to it.