BALLAST >>> WEIGHT HER DOWN
First, if you are not a live-stock person yourself, find someone that is and ask them for as many feed-sacks as they will spare; if you are feeding a few horses or an old milk-cow, these will accumulate quicker than rats in a corn-crib, and most people will give them for the asking.
Now, using the jig-saw, cut the bottom out of that five-gallon bucket that has the split in it, or a good one if you don't have a bad one.
Equipped with your bunch of feed-sacks, as many piggin'-strings as sacks, the now bottom-less bucket, and preferably a square-cornered shovel, along with a willing assistant of amiable temperament and not prone to going off in a huff, head to the big pile of #8 stone at the local quarry.
Lacking a decent quarry, the nearest sand-pile will serve in a pinch.
Slip the open end of a feed-sack over the bottom end of the bottom-less bucket.
Have your assistant hold the bucket/sack assembly in a position convenient to the shoveling.
Shovel about fifty pounds of #8s through the open-ended bucket and into the feed-sack.
Crushed stone being about twice as dense as sweet-feed, fifty pounds of #8s will be about half full for a standard fifty-pound feed-sack; about a quarter full for a hundred-pound sack.
Once you have got the fifty pounds in the sack, secure the top with one of the piggin'-strings, using a standard "mill"-knot.
Continue filling the sacks until all have around fifty pounds of stone in them.
Five-hundred pounds of ballast is a bare minimum, with at least a ton being ideal; more is better.
Spread the sacks of stone evenly across the rear portion of the truck-bed; the farther back, the better, as being farther aft exerts the most leverage, thereby transferring the most advantage to the drive-axle.
The #8 stone is preferable to common sand, as sand is oft-times salt-laden, soaks up much moisture, holding the dampness against the metal of the truck, thereby promoting oxidation of the metal, besides being just plain old wet and nasty.
The stone, on the other hand, will not hold moisture, and will dry through and through as soon as the rain/snow stops.
The #8 stone will also provide more traction advantage, should you have cause to dump a sack or two in front of the wheels.
Being kept at fifty-pounds the sack, it is a small matter to off-load the stone ballast, should the need to haul something equally heavy arise, and then, reload it once the hauling task is accomplished.
Stacked on a pallet and covered over with a tarpaulin, or under the shed, the sacks of stone will serve their purpose for many winters yet to come.