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

Having my 1000lb RZR in the back sure makes it ride nicer.

as does a 3x3 or 4x4 square bale....

Deep snow? Any tire rated for the truck of the stock size. With good Chains on them. The front has limited clearance so you must prefit the chains and use extra binders. Rear has plenty of room. I run Skid steer type chains on rear and very tight fitting V-bar on front. But the front can use other types of chain. S-type with built in adjuster, Heavy cable, Even the Skid steer type in an emergency.

The stock size for my pickup is 265 70 17. I use 245 75 17. They're the same height and load rating but a couple inches narrower. That gives a lot of extra room for chains.

I have a 14 crew cab long bed duramax. I run studded lt245/75/17 10 ply cooper discover m&s. They are straight up snow tires. I plow with my truck also. These tires are awesome. 2 years ago we got hit with a 32" storm. I pushed and drove through it with no problems. I do use a western mvp v- plow. Here in Se Pa we get a lot of ice and they do well in that also. They drive and wear nice also.

My sentiments almost exactly. I have a 2500 RAM diesel now and been driving a diesel since 2007. First let me say the diesels chew up tires like a new puppy and leather boots. I get maybe, maybe 20,000 miles out of a set of tires, and I've tried Michelin, Good Year, Firestone, Cooper, and Arctic Claw. The firestone highway tires that came with the truck sucked. Like couldn't even get me out of wet grass. The Good Years were all mud type tires, DuraTrax/MT/R and the AT3 (more all terrain). They were OK, but damn if I could get even 12,000 miles out of them. The DuraTrac was studded. They all were bad in the snow and the DuraTracs just a little less bad, but the truck I had them on didn't have limited slip and in 2 wheel drive, would spin the drive wheel with the lightest touch of the gas on a snowy road - even with studs. Michelin was stock tire and just as bad as the firestone. Been using Cooper for about six years now and really like them. Still don't get more than 15-20K out of them though. On my second set of STT pro's and they are awesome in the summer. I'm on nasty construction sites, hard gravel, rock 4x4 roads, mud, and obviously pavement. They are louder than I'd like on the pavement, but their summer performance off road is so admirable, I deal with it. Add snow to the mix though and they are like Firestones on wet grass. Forget it. Last year I bought a dedicated winter tire and put them on some used wheels from Craigslist. Literally day and night difference in snow. The Arctic Claws are better than the the studded GoodYears by 100x. I seriously couldn't believe what a difference a dedicated winter tire made. Deep or light snow, doesn't matter. Slush, all good. Seriously impressed. Super quiet on the road too.

Sounds like you have a problem with the truck. I have an '08 Ram diesel. It had new dealer installed BFG Rugged Trail A/T's when I bought in in '12. They lasted 50k and I now have them on my horse trailer. They should be good for maybe 10k on it.

I wish it was the truck. Been that way for every diesel I've owned and every tire brand I've tried. It's up and down mountains here to get to town with switch backs at 50mph. Do about 3000+ miles of towing an 8000lb trailer each summer as well. Probably 1000+ miles of gravel roads each summer and fall too. Maybe those are the issues? Not sure. Tires are rotated and balanced regularly. I don't drive it hard either, just cannot get tires to last with the diesel.

nitto exo grapplers are made for diesel trucks and their extra weight.

Blizzaks are hard to beat if you are talking about a dedicated snow/ice tire

Cooper,s ran a plow truck in Anchorage with them, Got stuck one time plowing uphill, had to crawl out the truck window,
could not open the door. Pretty impressive snow tire!

I saw those tires at the tire shop and was thinking they looked like a good snow tire, but didn't otherwise know anything about them. How do they hold up?

I had those on a car. Great snow tire, but soft. Do they old up well on a diesel?

Doesn't really matter as long as the chains fit!!!!!!

But narrow tires work better that fat tires in the snow.

Get the tallest skinniest tire size.

First let me say this, I usually put my Blizzaks on around November and run them til late April or May. I originally bought those tires on 01/13/2010, so they are over 8 years old. I don't drive my 2500HD many miles, but if I had to guess the Blizzaks have from 22,000 to 25,000 miles on them now, tread is still real good.


Yelp they are a soft rubber tire that's why they get good traction, they are kind of squirrely in the curves, but there again I don't expect them to handle like a high performance tire I want them to get me where I'M going in the snow. I have towed a camper more than 245 miles one way with no issues since they are load rated for it. My truck is mainly used for hunting trips and general transportation in the winter when the Blizzaks are on it. I don't know how they would hold up if a man had them on a work truck towing hard everyday.

I loved Blizzaks on the car. After I got them I attempt to stop on ice going down a steep hill. A gravel road, but this day was covered in ice. I got up to 25 and slammed on the breaks. I stopped in short order on the hill. Barely slid. I have gone with bigger lugged tire for the old pick-up (no longer have) and Suburban because we quite often have to dig through drifts to get to the highway.

The Blizzaks were run from Nov-May and last 3 years.

My old pick-up had narrow tires on in the winter. Did great. Chains fit great on them, but they were rarely needed.

I run narrower than stock tires on my Dodge Diesel. They have the same diameter and weight rating. They handle great. With stock size, I can only use the smallest chain size. With the narrow ones, I can put on tractor type chains if I need to as the tires leave an extra inch of space on either side. Some modern vehicles can't run chains on the front at all. Narrower tires might allow for it.

The coopers hold up really well. I only run them in the winter. They are way to soft to run in the heat of the summer. I've had this last set for 4 years and they still look new.

I had Coopers on a 3/4 ton Chevy for several years ((I don't remember which ones.) Great on snow and ice, but only lasted 2 years each time.