Looking for the best winter truck tire a guy can get. Will be hunting Idaho and driving back and fourth over White Pass Wa. Gotta grab on snow and ice! Will need to haul a 26’ trailer at some point. 3/4 Chevy. Thanks for any advice!
Lot of variation in what winter tire can mean. Snow with higher water content acts different than snow with lower water content. Vehicle weight .. contact pressure .. changes the picture as well. Tires that specialize in one kind of winter driving may suck the worst in other kinds of winter driving.
The best all-around setup is a gnarly mud tire that is studded. The mud lugs work very well in wet snow. Tires with tighter tread will clog with ice and become very slick. However, in drier snow or packed snow / ice the big lugs aren't so great .. which is where the studs come in. If you can't run studs, then having a gnarly mud tire siped comes pretty close to being as all-around effective.
When I was driving jeeps I mostly went with Interco TSL radials that were siped. I also ran SSRs which were factory kerfed which worked almost as well .. nominally the same width, but actually wider, so I didn't quite have the contact pressure or traction.
After moving to lighter trucks (Frontier, Tacoma) I switched to Toyo Open Country MTs. They may be a bit much tire for my trucks' weight but they work very well. My first choice today assuming you match load range to your truck.
Tom