Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Winter truck tires

The Maxxis Bighorn work well...

Just remember you can go as fast as you want in snow and ice....just don't expect to turn or stop.

Better than an all season or mud tire, but really it’s a POS tire compared to a nokian Hakka or a hankook Ipike in snow and ice.

Reading this thread it’s pretty obvious that lots of folks are happy with the tires they tried. But really it’s only because they haven’t run a good tire.

Agreed.

As an example, you constantly hear how great blizzaks are. I put them on a couple vehicles this last winter and had I not run the nokians for years, I probably would've been pleased. But having the nokians as a gauge, I am not a huge fan.

I agree with the Firestone Winterforce snow tires, if you are talking dedicated snow tire for a truck. Good price and performance.

When I lived in NH all of the LEOs ran Goodyear F-32 All-Winter Radials.

I run a set of Blizzaks on the Lincoln Aviator that we keep in Breckenridge, CO, from October thru April and a set of Michelin LTX for the other five months. I've owned a few sets of Blizzaks and like them fine, but I've never owned a set of either of the tires that you like so well,.

There isn't enough snow/ice in Nebraska to justify the cost of running a set of soft rubber compound snow tires, as the concrete roads are so abrasive that they wear out in just a couple of seasons.

The inexpensive Coopers have worked fine on the Canyon, even for busting through the occasional 3' drift, but as noted previously, it doesn't usually snow that much here.

I put a 60,000 mile rated set on my F150. They have the winter snow flake and good deep tread. These >-------> Hankook Dynapro AT2 RF11 all_ Terrain Radial Tire

The OP is asking about the best winter tires a guy can get.

Winter snowflake AT’s?

Wow.

There are a lot of snow tires that work well on a 4wd truck. If I am going to pull a 26' trailer in snow or ice I want a set of chains on them when going over the pass. Studs if allowed everywhere during the time you will be there would be my second choice.

We have a Winner! Most folks don't put on enough miles on crappy roads to have even a clue what works and what doesn't. As a result, they don't get to try enough different tires to give an educated opinion or offer any value to the discussion. Even fewer will spend the $$ to have dedicated seasonal tires if they're on their own dime.

Honestly if you really want to know what's "best" a good idea would be to solicit information from folks who manage a fleet or drive fleet vehicles for a good fleet owner/provider/manager. People with a sales or service route through country that gets lots of crappy weather. Because they're not on their own dime, for the most part their only concern is getting the best tires for the job with pretty much 0% concern for what brand the tires are, only that they work well.

The Hankook Ipike work well. I've had trouble getting my dealer to find them in stock when I wanted them though.

Problem with the hankook ipike is they can’t get them factory studded (at least that’s what the dealers tell me). The first set I had were really good, snow traction was amazing and the studs worked well for a while but I started losing studs because the shop installed them too long.

I went in to get a set of Nokian hakka’s and the tire shop talked me into cooper MS. They had perfectly installed studs, and the shop told me they were comparible with Nokian with similar soft rubber compound. the tires were meh on snow but the studs worked well for ice and studs still looked great after four seasons. Tires had a lot of tread left which makes sense because they are not a soft rubber after all. These are really an all terrain year round tire that is pinned for studs, nothing special at all.

next I tried hankook ipike again and they installed studs way too short, with zero protrusion above the tread. Turns out there are lots of different stud suppliers and the lengths are pretty variable for the same listed length. I made them take them back and swapped with factory studded Nokian hakkapelitta 9’s which have been exceptional in every way, except price.

I prefer studded winter tires due to the advantage they offer at/around 32 degrees which is what I see often, black ice when you aren’t aware the road is slippery. For colder climates or if the communists ban studded tires I would run studless winter tires like Blizzaks. I would avoid the common studded traction tires like the cooper that use a regular all season rubber compound.

Well SeanD,
Your opinion is interesting. Can you tell us all, how many months a year does snow land and stay in wonderful, beautiful Tigard Or. (I used to live in Tigard. A few blocks from Tigard High School. So I'm very aware of the 1-2 inches a year that your community gets. For you to give qualified advice on snow tires is a real belly jiggle.
For those that actually spend 6 months a year in real winter. Snow sticks here around the end of September and stays on the ground until April.
Hankooks i-pikes are ok at best, blizzaks are fine but not the best.
Cooper discovery M&S tires are the best money can buy.
By the way Alaska State Troopers use Cooper's M&S tires. And I live in Tok Alaska (Google the weather for Tok). Might reach -20 degrees Fahrenheit tonight. That's below zero.
Get Cooper's if you want the best winter snow tires.

Well I certainly don’t run winter tires for driving around town.

You are funny though. coopers are better than nokians, you are obviously FOS

Nice,
You kiss your mother with that mouth. You have a good day.

Well, I took my Ram 2500 diesel in to rotate the Cooper ST Maxx's one last time and they told me it was time to replace them. At 37-38k, I probably could get to 40k but it's about time to start driving in snow and they're pretty thin. I went with the Nitto Exo's and they do drive nice on the pavement - notably quieter than the ST Maxx. I'll hopefully get them in the snow soon...

I don't tow a lot in the snow, but these 2 do great on my show plow trucks. I only run them OCT to late April as April has a lot of mud. They seem to last for 3-4 seasons

https://www.treadwright.com/collections/filter/products/lt-mt-claw-265-75-r16-10ply These are on my 350 and 250.

https://www.tirerecappers.com/tires/farm-construction-tires/lt26575r16-retread-extreme-mt-copy/ These are on my wife's Jeep

These are good for snow but not for a lot of highway travel
https://www.tirerecappers.com/tires/mud-terrain-tires/lt23585r16-retread-extra-grip-mt/. These are on my old 250 that doesn't go more than 15 miles from the house


These are the worst:
https://www.treadwright.com/collections/filter/products/warden-265-70-17. These used to be what was on my wife's Jeep

https://www.tirerecappers.com/tires/all-terrain-tires/lt28570r17-retread-back-woods-a-t/

That last selection (worst) looks a lot like BFG T/A KOs. Had a new 4x4 truck back in '02 that came with them. Was never impressed with them on ice, in snow or mud.

One of those tires reminded me of what I used to run for snow tires on 2WD trucks years ago, the old Firestone Town and Country tires. That tread pattern worked pretty well, but they didn't wear worth a damn. So they were on a set of rims and went on in November, came off in late March.

Once had a set with similar tread design on my old C10 Chevy work truck, that were even better. Mohawk L70/15 bias ply tires. Never had that truck stuck in mud or snow, got in and out of some pretty nasty situations with it. They actually wore better than the Firestones.

Curious to get your take regarding stability when you hook up something heavy as well as snow traction.

Time to me to switch back to the studded coopers and I'm sort of dreading it. The Exo Grapplers do surprisingly well on snow/ice in my experience. When the coopers wear out I'll probably get a second set of exos and have them studded.

General Grabber AT2's or ATX. Read the reviews, you wont find a bad one. They excel on snow and icy roads. Its the only tires I buy anymore. I'm getting ready to put them on my 6th vehicle. 60,000 mile warranty and cheaper priced than almost all the big name tires. I run mine in the oilfield over the crappiest rocky roads you've ever seen and they hold up great. Also pull my camper around alot, they work great for towing, but they excel on snow packed icy roads. I very seldon have to use 4x4 with these tires on. For example I can usually drive 10mph faster in two wheel drive when i know others are crawling down the road in 4x4, it blows my mind how good they stick to the road. Read the reviews, price them, BUY THEM, and thank me later.