OK, so I bought my first pickup 2 weeks ago. I've had a front wheel drive car and/or van for over 15 years. The car was getting on in years and my mom's car killed over, so I decided to give her mine and buy me something new. I decided I was tired of borrowing pickups from friends and tired of using the minivan as a pickup when I couldn't borrow one.

Its a 2002 Dodge Dakota clubcab with the V8 engine. 2wd, since I don't go offroad, don't need the cost, and don't need to lose any more mpg to the weight. Surprisingly the V8 and V6 supposedly get similar gas mileage with the v6 getting slightly better. My first week driving the truck felt good accelerating that V8 every chance I got, but had to fill up the tank a lot sooner than I expected, so now the speed need is out of my system and I'm going to try to drive a little smarter to increase the mpg.

Winters getting close in the Pacific Northwest. I'm east of the cascades so snow/ice is a bigger issue than rain here. I need to get some sand to weigh down the back, but how much do I need? I'm a pretty safe driver on ice, but I'm new to the truck thing and don't want to do anything stupid my first snowstorm out. (Tires are brand new All-weathers btw)

Also I've been thinking about installing a no slip powertrax to the differential. Has anybody had any experience with one? Opinions I've read on Dodge Dakota forums seem to be pretty positive about it. Also the install seems relatively easy, even for a computer geek like me. Luckily I have a certified mechanic brother-in-law as a backup, but he lives 400 miles away.