Seattle / King County Area - Tire Advice?

Hello all-

Hoping for some localized advice on tires for the greater Seattle / King County area. I just recently purchased a 19 TRDOR DCLB. I'd eventually like to have 2 sets of wheels/tires that I swap out throughout the year, 1 with more of a summer/highway tire and 1 with winter/snow tires.

For snow tires, I have my eyes on a set of Nokian Hakka R3's. I want to get a 3PMS rated tire, and pretty much everywhere I search online, these get great reviews as a snow tire, so I feel pretty confident in them. I ski out at Crystal in the winter and want something that will handle 410 well when it's covered in the usual mix of snow/slush ice. My only area on uncertainty with these is how they do in the rain when I'm back in the lowlands. Any first hand experience with these in rain?

For summer/highway tires, I'm a little more uncertain and looking for suggestions/advice. I don't do a ton of off roading as an activity, however in the summer I drive a fair amount of forest service roads and similar to get to hiking/climbing destinations on the weekends. Ideally I'd like to find something that does well on pavement but can hold up to "decent" condition dirt roads. My truck is very much a daily driver and pavement performance is important to me (primarily MPG). Considering my use, any recommendations?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Hey! I live northeast of redmond. Plenty of snow out by us.

As a former rally cross guy, props for finding Nokian Hakka's. Best winter tire there is. I ran them in Minnesota for my winter set.

In WA, I would recommend against a dedicated winter setup on a truck. I'm sure some will bash me and disagree. Believe me, I'm all about safety first, but unless you live in the pass, it's not worth it. The temps in the city and most of the time in the Mts, don't warrant the soft compound. It's really about the temperature rating of the tire more than the tread. I would urge you to buy a really nice set of A/T tires and safe yourself some money. I've had zero issues in my 5 years of living here and going to the mountains almost every weekend. I've run Goodyear Wranglers, awesome tire, and run Nitto Ridgegrapplers now.

 

First off, thanks for the response and the info!

My line of thinking on getting a "winter" setup is primarily so I have a 3PMSF tire so I can get through chain checks without having to chain up in bad conditions. It doesn't necessarily need to be a Hakka, but I want to have that logo so I'm legal under the traction tire requirement (https://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=204-24-040). I realize DOT isn't always checking for this thoroughly, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home and have a boss who let's me taking a few "sick" (read: powder) days throughout the winter, so I want to be able to make runs to the resort on even the worst of days. I also hate chains with a passion (heh).

 

dude WA just has a chain or no chain requirements. Sometimes chains are required even for 4wd, but typically not, typically it's chains OR 4wd. A cop isn't going to know WTF 3PMSF is nor want to argue with you in a blizzard.

 

I appreciate the concern, and I agree that most cops probably aren't going to nitpick this, but as I mentioned in my previous post:

 

Pretty sure 410 you have to carry chains, 4wd or not. Also if you speed up there and get pulled over they will often ask to see them

 

Sorry, I should have clarified in my post above - I always carry chains and will with my truck, but I'd prefer to avoid having to put them on...

 

Ah gotcha. With a Tacoma, you can run most A/T’s and be totally fine, maybe just don’t do 60mph lol I’ve never ever used chains even late season cruising on forest roads when they’re solid ice

I would agree with the above poster, no need for two sets of tires. I had toyo AtII’s all last winter and went up in the snow most weekends and don’t think I ever got stuck, even turning around when I was up to the doors. These trucks just go

 

I also run nitto ridge grapplers and they've been great so far. They handle very well in the rain, great off road, very quiet and had no issues in the snow during our last snowstorm. I have about 13k on them now and they look really good still. You can also get them in c-range so they ride a lot softer than other e-range tires in the 285 size.

 

I was pretty impressed with the Duratrac Wranglers, crawled around the steeper streets of Queen Anne during/after that snowstorm without too much effort. Took them out to Crystal many times this year, and drove out Feb 12 (big pow day) very early and was really impressed with them