Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Winter/snow tire recommendation?

Dura Tracks are a great light truck tire.
They are what I wanted to get for my F350 when I got the Duellers.

Funny you mention duratracs. My employer put those on my work rig, studded. They're the worst damn ice tire I've ever driven in the winter. The durometer of the rubber is too hard, they're chunky, with no siping, and all I hear when driving is the sliding of the studs on ice as I slip and slide my way down the road.

I certainly appreciate the expert opinions of those in the lower 48 for telling us what kind of tires work in the winter... "look for the mountain and snowflake"... damn I never thought of that.

I'm going to try to find an excuse to put some Hakka LT3's on the work rig with the company credit card.

For studs on a 3/4 ton truck, Toyo M55.

I have been wanting to try these, but the price and how hard they are (rough riding) from what I have read have kept me from trying them. Do you find they dig through deep snow well. Typically I have to get through deep snow for 2 miles and than on hard packed snow and or ice where the studs would come in handy.

The key to getting through deep snow is to air down a high-profile tire. I have the 85 profile M55's on my relatively small (compared to a full-size truck) 4x4. If I air them down (~12 to 15psi), they get a very long contact patch that gives the best traction short of MattTrax. The low-profile tires are never going to deliver that kind of traction. If you have 60 profile tires on 20" rims, airing them down won't significantly change the contact patch. I have an 3/4 ton 4WD pickup truck too and it also uses 85 profile tires, but it's an older model that has 16" rims. I don't use it for deep snow though because I have the lighter, shorter wheelbase 4x4 that also has differential locks front and rear. The pickup only has one in the rear. My M55's are not studded because I use them year-round. I find them satisfying in deep snow, but marginal on ice without the studs.

As I said, I have worn out several sets of studded tires driving up here. I don't miss studs for 3 reasons:

1. Throughout the winter we have very few days when studs (or other "ice traction") are actually needed. Yes, we had a couple of days a week or so ago, but they are rare and my Blizzaks worked just fine, even though other cars were ditch-diving all over the place. We need SNOW traction much more often, but you get that with Blizzaks or any good snow tire.

2. During the MANY days throughout the winter that we are driving around on bare pavement, studs actually IMPEDE your stopping ability, because rubber grips the pavement much, much better than steel does. Studs are just wearing out the pavement faster for no reason most of the winter.

Are there a few days when studs are the best way to go? Absolutely, but they are rare and frankly I'd rather just stay off the roads those days anyway because, while I can stop, 1/3 of the people driving can't. Last winter on one of those really bad wet ice days I was the third car leaving Sportsman's Whse crossing Old Seward and nearly got T-boned by an idiot in a pickup going north that could not stop on the ice -- he sailed right through the intersection going 35 mph, all four tires locked up.

Ive suggested to DOTpuff and local cities that the amber should be longer in the winter to allow more time for stopping. Even at reasonable speeds, it takes longer to stop in the winter than in the summer. Dunno why the "engineers" aren't able to figure that out.

Saturday, with a trailer on, I rolled through a light as it was turning red because I knew there was almost no way to stop by the stop line with out the trailer jack knifing.

Mike, we all know that people would just count that extra time into their decision to run the lights. it could be 1 second or 100 and pole would just keep their foot in it and drive right thru.
I'm no fan of "big brother" or new laws, but having red light cameras are about the only thing that would make people slow down. mail them a few tickets and they might start to change their ways.

You guys don't ever cease to amaze me! Thanks for the replies. I learned it's not easy buying a full set of tires this time of year and want to more fully look into some of the recommendations on here.

Thanks, fellas.

I ran a couple sets of Toyo M55's on a Duramax 4x4 SRW CC Long bed. They were a little noisy on the highway and marginal on wet or icy roads. They were good on gravel and tough as nails. They'd be incredible winter tires, if studded.

I ran m55 d rated studded tires on the f150 up the Alcan when we moved up (December). While not my favorite tire now, they kept at least one dsmf alive through some things that probably should have at least hurt. A guy could do worse.

The nokkians made a believer out of me, 4 winters on an f350 and still going strong. My secret is to put them on a week late and take them off at least a week to soon.

And stay away from "light weight studs".

What are light weight studs? I just go in and have the tires studded. I didn't know there was a difference in toughness.

They are basically aluminum studs. I've never actually seen them up here, just heard about them.

Every tire shop up here carries factory studded tires in stock, it's rare to find one that will actually stud tires.

Nokian uses carbide diamond shaped studs in their car and light truck tires, and stainless steel studs in the LT3

Ok Thanks. Never new about aluminum studs.

Johnson tire shop here in Anchorage was advertising "light weight studs" for a number of years. They claimed the weight saving was a benefit. Tried them once and they only lasted one winter, the tires still had lots of tread left but the studs were gone. They were tungsten encased with aluminum not steel.