Tired of reading about tires: Advice, thoughts

It's that time for me to replace my rubber. This is my first time buying rubber for a truck. I stayed up waaayyy to late reading about tires, reviews, etc.

Current rubber that came with truck: BFG TA KO2 285.70.17

I did a lot of reading and really was eyeballing the Falken Wildpeak M/T01's. After going to the tire shop, the guy had said those tires would be horrible for daily driving in the winter due to lack of siping.

He is recommending at 285/75/17:
Toyo OC AT/2
Falken WildPeak AT3 (not XT)

at 295/70/17:
Cooper S/T MAXX

I went in thinking 305 or 315's M/T and it seems like all my ideas (per this tire sales manager) are bad. from the MT to the size. Yes, I do drive more in city BUT it's not that much as I work from home. So thus my dillemna with first truck tire purchase, Sizes and M/T vs A/T.

Right now I am leaning towards Copers as I have heard nothing but great things about them. My buddy runs st pro's and loves those but he's running a pig of a landcruiser. I appreciate any thoughts, insights and opinions.

 

Get what puts a smile on your face. MT vs AT, Cooper vs. BFG, Ford vs. Chevy, you name it, you will never find a consensus. Bite the bullet. Order what you want. Enjoy them.

My 2 cents on the poor winter thoughts on one tire verse another, you live in Denver, you get winter about once a month for a half a day maybe.

 

True that!
That's kinda what I was thinking too but I tend to be one of those cats that gets information overflow and can't make up my mind. As i said, first "real" truck, so was curious what thoughts were.

 

Find a broad category, make a decision, let that narrow your choices. Load range C, D, or E (probably won't matter to you given you're looking at MTs in the first place). MTs tend to suck in snow and ice from what I understand, as well as being heavier and poorer mileage but better in a lot of offroad situations (broad generalization here). ATs are the compromise between offroad and street, and tires in that class run the full range between the two. Edit: removed chain law stuff, see below. Then look at size(s) - is what you want available in a size you want. I couldn't get the size I wanted in the tire I wanted - it was either go MT or pick a different size. Same with the load range - I have 16s and less than E only comes in 17s. Some people who are hard set on C only would either find another tire or have to buy wheels too.

There are a shit-ton of tire opinion posts on here, and more opinions than there are assholes. All three of the ones you mention have come up with Cooper as the most popular.

 

if that's what you want you should be able to find a shop to sipe them.

Even the "bad" tires will do fine with 4wd and cautious driving.

I have a set of 295/70R17 Nitto Trail Grapplers which are awesome offroad but suck in slippery conditions. I have a set of 31" KM2s which also suck in slippery conditions. I am never really concerned with either because I adjust my driving style to the weather and have never been stuck in the snow.

 

You mean tires dont make you a better driver??? Crazy talk

 

I actually rarely use 4wd during winter unless there is a lot of accumulation.

Seems like most people get in trouble because they assume AWD/4WD and or decent tires are a pass to continue driving aggressively in poor weather.

 

Bad info... sorry. You're mixing up Traction Law and Passenger Vehicle Chain Law data, in a misleading way. Here's the details from CODOT: https://www.codot.gov/travel/winter-driving/assets/FactSheetTractionandPassengerVehicleChainLaw.pdf

This, this and this! Nailed it.

 

This is hilarious.

Does anyone know of shops that still sipes?

 

Last time I checked around certain Discount Tire and Les Schwab locations could do it.

 

Oops. And I've posted that before too: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/colorado-b-s-thread.131441/page-3958#post-11175334
Not sure I've ever even seen a 16 - usually if it's bad enough they're going to say everyone has chains, they just go straight to nope closed.

Reading it again though... it really doesn't make sense. So traction you need snow tires, or winter rated, or A/4WD? So apparently A/4WD is a magical cure-all, and I as long as I have at least 1/8 tread on my performance sport summer tires, because I've got A/4WD I'm fine!

 

I always forget about les schwab. Checked a few discounts near me and they don't offer it anymore. Thanks.

 

Sounds about right and typically most 4x owners think the same way as well, especially considering the speeds I have seen some of these people drive in inclement weather because the "i have awd". Anyways. I appreciate the insights and the advice.

 

I bought a set of general at2 live in the cascades worked great in snow and ice excellence grip on wet streets. Lots of Jagged rocks on road no flats in three years. Great in sand and dirt. Mud likes to stick in tread but never got stuck.

 

If you can do it, get a set of four Winter tires in the stock size, run them from now till middle of April, and be a safer human on the roads for yourself and everybody else.

If you can't get a set of Winter tires, at Least get 3 Peak Mountian Snowflake rated tires https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=125

 

I've ran a lot of tires on various vehicles. BFGs, Generals, Nittos, Goodyears on competitive rock crawling jeeps, street jeep, and 14 tacoma. Michelins, Hankooks, Pirellis, Dunlops on track BMWs and street cars.

My two tires of chose are BFG ATs for the truck and Michelins SS for street cars. I did like the life and off road ability of the Nittos, but I did not like them on the street or in wet conditions. I'll be looking at getting BFG ATs for the new Tacoma once the stockers run out.

One thing I have learned about tires is you get what you pay for IMO.

 

Apparently Discount no longer sipes tires.

The rep said "if you're at the point where you belive you need more siping tire technology has evolved to where you can find a new set with more"...well yeah, but I don't want to pay for a new set lol

 

I haven't had tires siped in well over ten years. Didn't realize it had fallen out of favor.

Here's a solution I ran across for this situation:

 

I watched the same video but decided for my sanity I would get them done. Just got back from les schwaub, I can tell they grip better on dry pavement so I expect to have much better snow and ice performance.