winter tires when I live where it snows a lot but also plan to go to the desert?

[nomad_games]

How often will you go to So Utah? Just swap them out when you head down.

I don’t run snow tires, even though I do head up to Jackson Hole occasionally during the winter. KO2’s have been excellent. Dura Tracs as well.

But if I lived in NW Wyoming full time, I’d get studded snow tires. Just swap out for wheeling trips.

well, ideally it would start snowing and I could ski every day and then I would prob only go to the desert in April when I get burnt out on the cold and the resorts start shutting down. but...this year, I might end up going 3 or 4 times before that if the snow situation doesn't get better.

 

[bjp]

I live is SW Colorado, where we used to get a lot of snow. I absolutely hated the regular Cooper AT3 in snow. Way more slipping and sliding than other tires I’ve run, no matter what kind of snow it was. The Hankook Dynapro ATM was always pretty good for me, and the Yokohama G015 was pretty good. I’m currently running Nokian Rotiiva all terrains. They have pretty good siping for an AT tire, and Nokian certainly knows how to make tires that handle snow, but I’ve only had them since right after I got my new truck, a few months ago. So far I can only tell you that they handle dirt roads and dry/wet pavement well, and they’re quiet. Really hoping to find out how they are on snow, soon.

 

[Explorerinil]

I’ve had the falken wild peak at3, they are a great tire. I have a set of toyo at3’s on my work vehicle, they are equally great and do excellent in snow but are a tad louder. I have heard excellent things about the Toyo ct, but haven’t tried them, yet. I hear they are excellent in snow.

 

[llamalander]

I've run Michlen X-ice on my truck for winter drives up to the mountains; 300 mile round trip with 50-100 in snow and the rest wet at best.
They would last 3-4 seasons on the truck for 5 months at a time, excellent snow/slush/wet traction for the whole life, really predictable on ice. sometimes hard to find in the right sizes.
Just put on some Nokian Hakkapalleta studless for the winter, i'll see how they go, but the Michlens were sticky and durable on the lowland pavement.

 

[billiebob]

The DTs and KOs are garbage on snow or ice compared to a dedicated winter tire tread,,,, and before I get slagged for saying so I've run all 3, have you gone a season on dedicated winter tires.

I've spent lots of $$$ on the highend brands but honestly even the cheaper winter tires are light years ahead of the all season tires.

I ran these for years, fabulous winter tires.

https://www.kaltire.com/en/tires/ha...=16&prefn4=tire_width&prefv4=245&start=1&sz=9

Not stuck here, I stopped for a picture when I saw the snow rolling ahead of the hood. Backed up 5 feet, let out the clutch and kept going. Winter/Snow traction is all about not spinning tires. Let the snow pack into the fine treads and it sticks like a snowball to the snow on the ground.

Note the knarly tread.

 

[cobro92]

Personally if you want the best of both worlds, I would just buy a second set of wheels for the other set of tires and change/mount them yourself. All you need is a basic jack. With an impact wrench it can be done in like 20 mins.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IdaSHO]

Most AT's that are severe winter rated do great off the shelf on the slick stuff.
But after they wear past the factory siping, they are about as effective on hardpack snow & ice as a mud tire.

As they wear, its easy and incredibly effective to have them re-siped, and is far cheaper & less hassle than having multiple sets of wheels/tires.

 

[skyfree]

I have 65,000 miles on my OEM Duratracs that came with my Chevy Colorado ZR2 and find them to be quite good in the kinds of conditions we get in Tahoe. That means ice, slush, heavy rain, packed snow, and of course VERY deep snow. I mean like 24" on the road deep. We live on a side road that sometimes doesn't get plowed for 3 days after a big dump.

They are super noisy if you don't rotate them regularly (me).

They are great in the desert in rocky terrain. I've never had a puncture caused by a rock. I know the sidewalls are wimpier than BFG KO2's, but I'm just saying I haven't had a problem with them. That 65,000 miles includes thousands of off-road miles.

Now that they are 99% worn, they have lost the magic on snow and ice and need to be replaced. They are down to the wear indicators and the sipes are almost gone, but it was a good run. I've never put that many miles on a set of tires before.

I agree with Billiebob and others that dedicated 3-peak snow tires on a separate set of wheels are a better winter-only option, but Duratracs are a 2nd best solution if you don't want to spend the money and time.

 

[MichaelK10]

have a 19 4runner TRD ORP. Currently have General Grabber ATX. they're absolutely ************** awful in snow. might as well be bald summer tires. have no idea how they got a snowflake rating. we've gotten at most a few inches here and there down in the valley, and if there is literally any snow or ice, they're straight up terrifying. they've been fine for summer/spring use.

I live in the Tetons, i.e. cold and very snowy for a long time, followed by mud, followed by a dry summer, followed by more mud, followed by more snow. about half the roads in my town are dirt roads. I ski a lot, so i'm up in the mountains a lot all winter. So i'd probably just grab some Nokian Hakka-whatevers and put the ATX back on in the summer, but I'm planning on driving to southern Utah several times over the winter. I had Blizzaks last season, and they were amazing in the snow, but they burned up super quick when driven on dry pavement. I put them on new in October and by April, they were literally bald. I don't really want to burn up another $1k in snow tires in one season, so...

anyone have experience with the Nokians? do they burn up like the Blizzaks? Is there an A/T tire that's good enough in snow that I could just switch to those and get rid of my Grabbers? I supposed I could buy some cheap wheels for the nokians and swap when I go to the desert.

What size Grabbers are you running? I'm also in WY and manage a small fleet; I've found the Grabber ATXs to be one of the better all terrains in snow and snow pack because of the sipping and softer compound, but also I run a skinny 245 width. I also run the Falken AT3W in 255/80R17, which does pretty well I winter conditions as well. Unfortunately it seems like most of the grippy winter rated tires burn up faster in warmer weather, but I have found the Nokian Hakkapelitta winter tires seem to last better than the Blizzak LTs (which are one of the softest/fastest wearing LT tires I've experienced).

I personally run two sets of tires/rims for optimal seasonal/off-road traction. I've had good experience with the Michelin LTX M/S in winter (on road) conditions, even though they're not snowflake rated. But I don't give too much credence to that rating... Good luck on your tire selection!

 

[IdaSHO]

Yeah. the negative review of the Grabber ATX is not something Id expect.
They have always been regarded as one of the better ATs, especially in P-rated.
They are incredibly common up here in North Idaho on Subarus that run them year round.

 

[Thunderkat1]

I do love my BF Goodrich A/Ts 10 plys - best I found for Minnesota - limited size choices

 

[nomad_games]

Yeah. the negative review of the Grabber ATX is not something Id expect.
They have always been regarded as one of the better ATs, especially in P-rated.
They are incredibly common up here in North Idaho on Subarus that run them year round.

Dunno. They’re fine on dry roads or offroading in dry conditions. I haven’t had them in mud too much but they’ve been fine when I have. But on any snow at all, particularly wet snow, they’re straight up awful. I’ve had quite a few tires, they’re by far the worst I’ve driven on snow.

 

[plh]

I've run Michlen X-ice on my truck for winter drives up to the mountains; 300 mile round trip with 50-100 in snow and the rest wet at best.
They would last 3-4 seasons on the truck for 5 months at a time, excellent snow/slush/wet traction for the whole life, really predictable on ice. sometimes hard to find in the right sizes.
Just put on some Nokian Hakkapalleta studless for the winter, i'll see how they go, but the Michlens were sticky and durable on the lowland pavement.

I had X-ices on a Dodge Caravan that my daughter drove 6 or 7 years ago, agree - great on snow stuff. Hakkas are supposed to be incredible, but I've not owned them.

 

[Bama67]

Dunno. They’re fine on dry roads or offroading in dry conditions. I haven’t had them in mud too much but they’ve been fine when I have. But on any snow at all, particularly wet snow, they’re straight up awful. I’ve had quite a few tires, they’re by far the worst I’ve driven on snow.

That's weird. We have them on some of our work trucks here in snowy north Idaho and they seem to do great, definitely better than the KO2 that are on my company truck.
I run Falken AT3W for my last two sets of tires and they are going to be hard to beat all around.
But I just bought a set of Baja Boss AT and they look amazing but are very heavy.

 

[plumber mike]

Hi Colin. Glad to hear you are living the dream. I hope all is well.

Probably not a popular decision, but I’ve found a “studded” snow tire to have excellent resilience in warmer climates because the rubber isn’t really getting worn out, as it’s really not even touching the road. After 5 years of running Firestone Winterforce studded on one of our trucks, the tires are still like new. And most importantly to me, when road conditions deteriorated, I had really great grip. I’m not driving a sports car so the loss of traction with studs on the road in warmer climate was a non issue.
I didn’t plan this at all. I just wanted maximum traction for the truck that serviced the ski area. Life happened and the tires just got run in all conditions and a few times were run the whole year.

I have also found for studdless that the Michelin X-ice provides almost as good of performance as the Hakka’s, but much easier to find where I was. They DID wear quickly though. Probably 2 seasons of maximum performance before they started to act like a regular tire.

The Falken AT3 has probably been the best non snow snow tire for us in the snow. Really a nice tire. For all around use, these with a good set of chains would probably last the longest.

Good luck and good to see you here.