Upgrading to narrower tires on TRD

Yes and no. Snow often comes with ice. If you were only driving on ice, you'd want super wide tires with as many small edges as possible. Those same tires would suck in deeper snow.

So most winter tires compromise by being narrow enough to penetrate the snow, some big blocks to chew through the snow, but tons of cuts/sipes in those blocks to create edges for ice grip.

I've owned some "mud/snow" tires without any sipes that worked fine in snow then slid all over once you hit ice. Now I always look for snow tires that are cut and siped as much as possible.

 

http://www.expeditionswest.com/research/white_papers/tire_selection_rev1.html

 

No your wrong! Or perhaps your right! And ... they don't call me Doctor at work for nothin'

 

AWESOME link, thanks

 

No prob.

 

Good stuff right there!

 

I agree that sipes are the best thing for snow, rain or ice. M/T tires are a handicap in these (most) conditions

 

You have never seen snow a day in your life.

 

Yeah, like Watertown ever gets any snow



(<-- spent 4 years in Potsdam )

 

Winter driving is all about contact pressure. Narrow tires work better in most conditions. This is also the reason that we add weight in the bed as well. 10.5" (~265mm) is the max width that I recommend.

As was mentioned already though, compound and tread pattern make far more of a difference than just tire width. Dedicated, quality winter tires are critical, and any form of all-terrain doesn't count (even if they have the snowflake emblem). All a tire has to do to earn the symbol is perform 10% better then 'average.' Whoop-di-do. Do some research and don't be afraid to spend the money.

 

This sounds like a job for Mythbusters...

 

haha. Right on. I love those guys


Let's see how fast he is

 

Really deep, light, fluffy snow tends to behave more like sand and you usually want a wide high flotation tire. ie. Icelandic style (although theirs is also to help to not fall through the ice.

Heavy, wetter snow behaves more like mud and an aggressive high void tire usually works best (mud terrain). Tire width depends on the depth. If you can reach the bottom, then narrow works well. If really deep then something too narrow will just get you stuck faster.

Hard packed snow/ice behaves like, well, hard packed snow and ice. Here you want the typical narrow, soft compound, highly sipped and/or studded winter tire. All terrain/all season tires turn into hockey pucks below 7 degrees celcius because, regardless of tread pattern, the compound is too hard for winter use.

 

Pretty quick apparently.

 

My Winter tires are 245/75 16's, about an inch narrower than my '3 season' TRD Sport 265/65 17's. Perfect setup for winter. Also note its a couple hundred $$ cheaper for tires and rims than a 265/70 16 or 265/65 17 setup.

 

imo its more in the tread /tire design.... obviously to go from 9.5 to 12.5 OFFROAD you almost laways get more traction ,onroad &ice its not the same ,skinnier can be better and its been known for decades!
My reg cab has 245/75 my previous silverado did too , and it weighed 7000lb!
You cant solve traction by simplemindedly "go wider go wider!" ,its a thought process of what you actually do and matching the type of tire to it.

 

While reading thru this thread I kept thinking of that article, thanks for posting it for me to save.

There are some very ignorant posts in this thread and I now understand why I see all the mall crawlers running around with ultra wide tires.