Your perfect snow build?

Must...... Buy....... Them!..........

 

Spend 300 dollars on a tercel 4wd. End of story.

 

Now we're making sense.

 

Dude...I live in new england. My buddy was running 35\ 12.50 and he was getting stuck all time. If a tire can't get traction on ice it doesn't matter how big the conact patch is, because it's not gripping. In new england, the best traction you'll get is from dedicated snow tires. If your dealing with AT's\MT's, wide and fat will not work as well as a taller, skinnier tire. No one's sayin drive on bicycle tires, but i'm not going wider than ten inches unless I have a really heavy vehichle that will push those tires down and not float.

 

x2

made it to the north pole...should stand up to whatever you throw at it

 

The Blizzaks have worked really well for me the past 2 seasons. Wish they came in 255/85/16 though haha

 

Right smack in the middle of New England

I haven't been stuck yet with skinny tires. I'm also not breaking trails in 5' of powder but I've put that as a disclaimer every time I've posted. If you can reach something solid through the snow, tall and skinny all day long. If not, you need fat tires.

Actually, once you start to slide, friction is greatly reduced.

The equation for friction does not include surface area, that should tell you something. Wider surface area means less weight/area which means it wants to float which leads to hydroplaning and all that fun stuff. On ice with 2 rubber tires (barring studless winter tires), the surface area won't make enough of a difference to say so. On ice with studded tires, the skinny tires will perform much better assuming same load, same tire, same conditions.

 

That's the problem, isn't it: Winter isn't one condition, it's a bunch of conditions that change unpredictably. For a road going vehicle, there's no solution to the width debate. I want it on ice, I don't want it in deep stuff. So I pick a compromise. The truth is that for most of us, tread design and compound matter far more than width in a winter tire.

 

yet this guys are using wide tires and have no problems getting to north pole

I have yet to see anybody come to snow run or any other off road activity with skinny tires . Did you..?
According to you and the guy above those Arctic guys don't know what they doing. I say you and the skinny tire advocates are full of s...t
simple I want to see proof people using skinny tires and doing better .... Videos, pics... ? anything...
otherwise this goes into "Ancient Alien Astronaut theorists believe...."

 

I started moving away from wide tires for offroad use at least 15 years ago just based on practical experience. Deep mud, sand and snow are all specialized situations not suitable for ANY wheeled vehicle. The vehicles built for those surfaces are highly specialized and narrowly focused. In most cases they cannot even be driven on the street. They also spend a lot of time stuck! These edited video clips are bullshit. They always cut the camera just as the vehicle flounders. Those guys are not just out cruising around. In one of the videos you can hear a guy muttering "we aren't doing worth a shit". That's about how it goes. Moderately wide street driven tires are literally the worst of both worlds. They are not wide enough to provide adequate flotation on a 5,000 pound truck and they lose the advantages of a narrow tire in the process. 99% percent of us are not out buried to our door handles in anything. We get stuck in a foot or less of something slick and soft. These conditions are very manageble if we focus on what works and not what looks cool........but we never will

 

You keep comparing to the Arctic truck... That truck is an extreme custom build and only serves 1 purpose. That truck cost a small fortune to build (it would make the LT guys say WTF) and is really only good for extended arctic expedition where you have massive amounts of snow and ice and nothing even comes close to resembling a trail.

You seemed to have forgotten your own example of the ice race cars and you were just given proof coming from someone who builds expedition rigs. What most people consider a wide tire such as a 285, really isn't that wide. It's not wide enough to 'float' the vehicle like that Arctic Truck that you keep referencing. That arctic truck has 15" wide rims and even wider tires, they're custom made. Nothing you see on any of your snow runs come close. I hate to say it because of the crapstorm that will probably follow but lots of people run wide tires simply because they look mean. When you air down a tire, the pressure in the tire is roughly what the ground sees. 15 psi is 15 psi, having a wider tire doesn't make the truck any lighter. If you want to keep your head in the sand, be my guest but you've been given plenty of examples to disprove your 'tall and skinny is BS' statement.

 

Really you think wider tires are just for looks ?
and No, nobody had presented a single shred of evidence that skinny is better. Again where are the video's please. I am not going to believe some guy that writes that on internet. I want to see videos proving that... Is that too much to ask?

 

Not just for looks, but I think that plays a lot into it. I'm sure plenty of people could come up with a huge list of reasons why they have wide tires but me thinks the wide tires don't have as many benefits as is being led on. People always associate wide tires with off roading but why?

Here's a decent little clip. Tires look nice and skinny to me
http://youtu.be/euBZly4I54w

Snow Rally cars:




Again, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish... Either way, you're kidding yourself if you think 285's are wide enough to truely float your truck on snow...

 

skinny/ Studded tires = does not count. Nor chains count. We not comparing quality of studs we comparign skinny vs wide
Again skinny tires doing better then wide tires please. With so many offroad trips on youtube you should be able to back your claim.

However, I am willing to put money here. I will look for tires like those Subarus have we remove studs from them and your are welcome to come to snow run to prove that wide tries are just for looks... Heck I even add max psi to those tires to be even more skinny. What you say about it?

I found 225/75/16 that will fit on my 4runner rims those are as skinny we can get on your truck (6 inch)

 

All I know, is my Tacoma with 265/75r16 and completely stick suspension, was incredible in snow. Soft or hard, I could plow up to my headlights. Aired down to 12 psi.

 

The laws of physics are not evidence?

I think everyone is somewhat agreeing here.

For deep snow. I.e. 2 feet plus that isn't powder, you want wider tires. However you want them to be very wide. That's great if you wheel all the time. That said many of us, I think including the op, drive to where we wheel and daily drive our truck. Those same wide tires in the road in 4 inchs of slushy snow are terrible. In a foot of snow in the road they will not be that good. On road you dot want to float.

Also in the case of a 4 banger those wide tires will have to plow a lot of snow. Mpg will drop like a lead balloon. That same principle that allows them to float created a lot of resistance to forward motion.

 

Those videos prove the point I've been trying to make all along. If there's something solid to dig down, the skinny tires are a better choice. If you can't dig to something solid (ie, it's too deep or there's a soft bottom below the snow) then you need something wide enough to truely float the vehicle. Standard sized truck tires are a middle ground so you get the benefits and faults of both. Farm equipment demonstrates this pretty well actually. Most tractors come with very tall, very skinny tires and work on the premise that you will sink down to solid ground, get traction and off you go. It's only when you get into the very specialized vehicles that come with super wide tires that are made to float and they are several times wider (not like going from 265 to 285).

 

Hell yeah! Now we're talking

 

Now we are talking.. That would work awesome here in Alberta..