Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Deep snow tires for a Deisel

I bought my first diesel pick-up last year, a RAM 3500 4x4. The OEM tires are OK on pavement and light snow, but proved bad in deep snow and mud of any depth and consistency. So I put on a set of Goodyear DuraTracs (never had before, but they seem well thought of for the application.) Better in the deep stuff. but still not great. I was thinking the cause is because of the heavy front end of the diesel, but I don't know since I don't have anything to compare it to. The truck with these on seemed to struggle and would move from side to side while it was trying to dig through deep snow. Not a good feeling on narrow mtn roads. On snow packed highway they would get loose in conditions my old 3/4 GMC gasser would stay locked up, but to be fair the GMC had auto 4. Also the old GMC would handle the deep snow better, but that was with Kelly Safari TSR's.

So my question, for the type vehicle I have is there a tire you have found that works well in the conditions described?

I run Bridgestone W965 Blizzaks on my 2006 Chevy 2500HD, Diesel truck in the winter time. They stop real well on packed snow and ice and get great traction. Not tried them in a real deep snow, but I can imagine they would do about as good as any snow and ice tire out there.

After I discovered that all season tires where useless on my 2500HD in the winter, I bought the Blizzaks and mounted them on an extra set of wheels that I bought from a guy. I run Michelin tires in the summer and switch out around October or so each year.

I have found out that these heavy Diesel 4X4 trucks are so much heavier than the Tacoma's, Colorado's and 1/2 ton trucks, they don't go as good in the mud and snow in my opinion.

I used Blizzaks on a car we had. Awesome snow tire. We do put a mud tire (Firestone Destination MT) we had siped on our 1/2 ton suburban. That has work great in all conditions, but again they are on a 1/2 ton suburban gasser not a 1 ton diesel.

Just looked at the W965. My problem with those type tires is we live 2 miles from the highway and get deep snow and I wonder how they would dig through the snow. The reason I went with a MT on the 'burb. But again they might be great. How are they wearing and handling?

Wearing good for a soft rubber tire, had them 3 or 4 years still great tread. They won't handle like a sports tire in the curves for sure, but they do well in the rain and snow. The rubber is soft and grippy and you can feel it in the curves. Sorry, I have not had a chance in deep snow to try them out but they are a very good tire for ice and packed snow. When I got them I was able to back up my driveway in 4 wheel drive way, (its steep) on packed snow and ice, never a slip.

Yeah to do a test with the Blizzaks we had on the car I got up to 25 MPH and hit the break going down hill. They stopped the car when I hit the breaks on sheer ice on the steep hill. They lasted 3 winters (I took them off in the summer) and the I gave them to a nephew after we sold the car, but don't know if he used them.

Reading the thread title, my first thought was the Duratrac but it sounds like that's a no-go. I'm running the Cooper STMaxx on my '06 Dodge 2500 deisel and thought they did great last winter though never got into any real deep snow. They have 3 sidewall plies and have a good reputation for wearing well and holding up off the highway. I have 18k on mine and am happy with them so far...

Thanks JGray

As much as I liked my diesel 2500, they definately are not the best vehicle in the snow. I had a toyota truck (predecessor of the tacoma) and put 100k on it up here, roughly 1/2 in winter driving conditions. I ran a/t tires year round and never had problems in the winter and could drive mostly in 2wd. When I got the ram 2500, the factory tires were terrible in the winter and I think I got stuck three times that first winter. After a terrifying incident on ice I got studded winter tires and they were much better, but I still had to use 4wd fairly frequently.

Definitely go with a dedicated winter tire with a full size diesel truck. You need all the help you can get.

Nokian Hakkapeliitta, I run a studded set on my Tacoma, was thinking about getting a set for my diesel, maybe next year. Great tire for the Tacoma though.

I put a set of Nitto Exo Grapplers on my '11 F250/6.7L PSD in Jan. They're fantastic in both deep snow as well as hard-packed snow/ice. I have them on a 2nd set of rims and took them off in May. I'll put them back on in Oct or so. I put about 5K mi on them last winter. They're superior to BFG KO 1 & 2, Nitto Trail Grapplers, and Dura-Tracs for winter performance in particular as I've had them all on either my current truck or my previous '06 F-250 diesel.

Tests have shown that all seasons are nothing more than glorified highway tires. For one thing, to get decent life out of them, they have to make them from the same hard rubber that highways use. Winter tires need soft rubber to have traction.
There are millions of cars out there in the snow that have less than perfect traction because of all seasons. The best thing is to do what you did...buy an extra set of wheels and have good quality snow tires on them. I have a set of studded snows for our van. It's a different world on snowy roads with those. While studs don't help in soft snow, you still do a lot of highway driving in the winter and they really pay off for that.

Thanks for all the replies. The DuraTracs I have are studded so I have to take them off June 1. The shop that studded them did a bad job however. Some of the studs are buried so deep they are useless. I did see a tire that has big lugs with lots of siping not just the one through the tread so many come with. That might be interesting. I'll have to look into those Nittos.

Look how useful those new studs will be when the tires wear down to them.

Ha. There is that.

I also like the Coopers. I tried the Dura Track on my 2500 Ram Diesel, and they have too soft a side wall. Even at max pressure, with a heavy load,you can feel the side wall roll on curves. Without a load ,I could not see them doing any better than any other snow tire.The Coopers are not as expensive and a better tire IMHO.

I suspect your claiming the truck goes from side to side is the posi-traction/limited slip. An empty bed pickup is about useless in snow if you don't have 4wd. If I put 1500 pounds or so in mine,it will push about any amount of snow until it high centers

Several years ago we made a Christmas trip from Idaho to SW Oregon. On the way back we got caught in a major storm and ended up driving 400 miles on ice and snow. We had my 3/4 diesel pickup but I'd put 4 bales of hay in the back before we left to smooth out the bumps. That was only about 400lb but it still made a big difference on the slick stuff.

saddlesore and Rock Chuck

I think that may be the problem. The front is so heavy as compared to my old gas pick-up and the back is having trouble pushing the front through the snow. May have to add additional weight this year to balance it out some.

Yep,I had a 1970 Dodge 3/4 T, 2wd. On really bad days, I would stop at the gravel yard and have them put a ton of gravel in the back.That truck would go anywhere then.

Not sure about snow but I just put a set of BFG Mud Terrain KM 3s on the ole 2000 Dodge diesel and I'm very impressed with this tire, very quiet, good in rain, excellent in mud and rocks and they ride very good for what they are. I would imagine they will do well in deep snow as well.

for the most part the diesel trucks suck in mud and snow, just too much weight up front, like these guys are saying, throw about 5-800 pounds in the bed and it's a different animal.