Winter tires?

This is my first truck and vehicle in general, so I've been doing some research on what the heck are winter tires. Then I realized we don't get that much snow here in Vancouver, just a lot of rain. However, I'm hoping to explore some trails every other weekend within the vicinity of Lillooet to the north, Manning Park to the east, and all over Vancouver Island during the winter, which I'm expecting to come across some snow.

I have a stock 2021 TRD Off road running the stock 265/70R16 TRD off road wheels and tires at the moment. Was wondering what tires and wheels you guys recommend for my use case or if you guys want to share what you're running. Also, if there's any recommendations on where to get tires/wheels here in the lower mainland. Thank you!

 

For Van I would say a Gooyear Duratrac or a Falken Wild Peak AT3W as 4 season tires. Good wet traction with those and they give you an all terrain tread

 

Nice I might go with the Falken Wildpeaks, thank you! Now time to find some wheels to go with it...

 

Falken wildpeak, Goodyear Duratrac, Cooper AT3 4S, Toyo AT3, Yokohama g015

Yoko G015 is the most tame and best for city driving and gentle offroading with 4 season capabilities.

You don't need dedicated winters in Van, but I always recommend a good all weather tire in areas like that.

 

I chose the Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S (upsized to 265/70 17) on 2021 4Runner TRD Pro Rims (

$1,125 PTR2035110G4 Toyota Genuine 17" TRD Gloss Gunmetal Gray (TRD PRO 4Runner) PTR20-35110-G4 (4)

PTR2035110G4). Tires alone were installed for just a hair under $1k. The Coopers have some good reviews on a few of the tire shop sites etc. While we haven't much rain in the lower mainland lately, these things have surprised me by how planted the rear end is when we have had some moisture. Was considering adding a set of Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2's on the stock rims (which I still have) but that might be overkill for mainly YVR-ish driving with plans to drive the Coq once every 6 weeks or so this fall and winter.

A few things about the Coopers - they ride quiet, smooth and the road grip is a pleasant surprise. The oddest thing is that even though I went with the 265/70 over the stock 265/65 size, the speedo is actually dead-on accurate (via waze or gxxglemaps).

 

You are welcome. I had a really good experience with the Standard-Load rated Falken. I think you will be pleased. Good luck with your wheel search!

 

Gah was almost set on the Falken Wildpeaks but the other ones also look pretty good as well. I'll do some research on each and see what's for me. Thank you for all the input guys, appreciate it!

For wheels, I was thinking about going with the OEM steel wheel that comes with the spare tire cause they're pretty cheap and I like the look of them. Does this sound like a bad idea? I'll be looking for winter-use tires the same size as the stock wheels, 265/70R16, so I'm assuming it'll fit just fine.

 

Stick with the stock wheels that came with the truck, they look way better, I had the spares for winters and it was super ugly lol.

We are suggesting year round tires that can handle winter use. You don't need dedicated winter tires like a car in Van City.

 

Oh that completely flew over my head for some reason, but reading back yeah it does sound like the consensus is to have year round tires that can handle winter use. It makes total sense cause we're not really a wintery city here. I'll that into consideration, thank you for your help!

 

Yeah, none of the tires mentioned are a true winter tire. I'm not familiar enough with the brand's to even know if they are all weather. You should be fine on the lower mainland, and some adventuring in the snow with with all weather. If you're regularly heading out through the Rogers Pass you might want some winter treads...and tire chains. I'll throw Nokians out there for your consideration. Been loyal to them through several years and sets now on a couple of different vehicles. The Rotiiva AT plus has been a great all around tire, and Hakkaplillitas are one of the very finest winter tires if you decide to go the dedicated snow route.

 

Here in Kamloops I run Blizzaks on a separate set of wheels. We're up to the ski trails 3 times a week though.
Make sure if you get one set for all year that it has the snowflake symbol - that way you won't get turned around on the Coq.

 

I like my Falken Wildpeaks at3's handles Colorado winters

 

I went with BFG KO2s because of the look. They are winter rated and did great in the snow here in the Okanagan. I also do a lot of long trips and they’ve held up well. That being said I did 3 weeks of wheeling in Utah on the stock Goodyear Kevlars that came on the truck, and they performed flawlessly. Any of the tires mentioned here are good choices and will do you well. Welcome to the taco family and enjoy the ride!

 

As BFG KO2 owners. I can say they are awful in snow and terrible on ice. I live in Wisconsin. It's winter 9 months out of the year here. Summer this year was great, it lasted two weeks this time.

 

I run studded duratracs, I live between cache creek and cliinton and they on do decent on the highways up here.

 

I'm running Falken Wildpeak's, standard load, and man they are quiet, great in wet weather, did superbly on LMD snow the last year and compared to KO2's that I had on a previous 4Runner, I'd say the Falken's ride is nicer on the pavement. Price-wise, the Falken may mean you can afford a 5th to replace that spare.

 

This is my setup as well. K02's outside of November-March

 

You could consider General Grabber Arctic LT as well. They're designed for winter, however have lots of grip on dirt and rocky trails and hold up to rough use. I bought a set to try them up here in Prince George to see how they fared as they've also got tons of tread depth for a proper winter tire and I like a little snow wheeling. I'm not sure I even went through a millimeter in tread depth through an entire season.

Unfortunately they've been no good for ice by my standards but you can tell by looking at the tread it was not a tire made for ice - the tread to me says a mixture of AT capabilities (Yoko G015ish) and deep snow.

I will likely go back to the ways of Nokian and purchase a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3s without studs because we often see snow, ice, melt cycles up here but the Generals have been fantastic for the snow aspect, and decent enough on ice - just not as good as some competitors.

 

I have been using a true winter tire on my truck since new, Nokian Hakkapeliitta SUV R2's. They are great in the rain and for the wet snow that we get, they work really well. They work very nice when the wet snow turns into an ice rink at night too. These are mounted on a set of older Tacoma/Tundra wheels that I had painted Charcoal Gray. This works well for my pavement bound truck. It might not for yours.

I have been looking at what tires to use next as I wear out the factory passenger car tires pretending to be truck tires, and I am looking at the Toyo Open Country AT III's. They are a new updated version of their AT II's. They rate well and reviews are very positive. They are snow rated and the price for them is quite a bit nicer than the Goodyear, BF Goodrich and others that I have looked at. Since I have set of ART Replica 237 wheels showing up in a couple weeks I think a set of the Toyo AT III's will find there way onto the new wheels and truck.

Good luck in your search.

 

Thank you for all your help! After sitting on this for a bit, I think I got my mind settled on the Falken Wildpeaks.

I was just debating on how true winter tires would give a peace of mind driving out of the LMD to explore trails and campsites. However, I noticed some of the trails get kind of muddy and rocky and may not necessarily have snow all the time, so I was kind of worried winter tires would wear out or puncture easier.

On the other hand, winter rated A/T tires would be great in situations like this, but if I'm driving through mountainous roads like the Sea to Sky to Pemberton or the Coquihalla during a snowstorm and there's ice, I'm worried of sliding out or slipping.

But it seems like there's a large amount of people running winter rated A/T tires around here, so yeah I'm probably just super overthinking this haha.