Best AT for midwest winter use??

you might also look into the Cooper Discoverer S/T. Not the STT or the MAXX just the S/T. I have these on my Jeep Wrangler and love them. They laughed at snow and I drive through plenty of it in northeast Ohio, on and off-road. With these tires I rarely need to even engage 4wd in snowy road conditions. They are technically an AT tire but err on the side of a mud tire- they're a little more aggressive than the avg AT tire. I have over 20,000 miles on them and they still look brand new so it seems they'll wear really well and last a long time. They aren't silent, but aren't annoyingly loud. I like the hum and enjoy these tires year round. And I love the way they look. Hard to say what sort of hit my mpg took with these because when I put them on I also went from the stock 29' tire to a 33' and lifted it all at the same time so there are a lot of factors at play. I was still getting 18-19mpg on the highway. I think the loss of mpg due to the tread and width was cancelled out by the larger tire size on the highway. city mpg is a different story all together...

I'm about to get new tires for my truck to replace the stock Rugged Trails and the S/T's are at the top of my list but i'm considering others because my truck is more used for extended highway towing so I'm hoping to maximize mpg if at all possible with another tire that can also handle the half a year of snow we get.

FWIW this image is from a trip where my friend and I went wheeling in the snow/ mud. I had the Jeep with S/T's and he had his Tacoma with BFG AT KO2s....the jeep with S/T's outperformed his Tacoma hands down in the snow AND mud.

 

for an A/T im a big fan of General AT2's they may not look as bad ass as other tires but they're awesome on dry road and great in the snow,,i would definitely buy those tires again,,and they're easy on the wallet..

 

I looked at those but didn't see many reviews. I'm glad they work good because they were one of the ones I was considering before the post. But alas I have the duratracs now, which so far I have loved. But I haven't had any snow yet, which I'm a little disappointed with. haha So far with my driving pattern (80% city or so) and going to the C rated Duratracs and up one size (265/75r17) I think I have lost about 1-2 MPG I was regularly getting between 18-18.5 mpg with the stockers, now I'm about 16 mpg. But thats also with some extended idling due to weather and now with winter fuel coming around about the same time I put the tires on so I'm not really sure it's the tires at fault.

 

Yeah I was considering Duratracs myself for the truck. I'd be interested in hearing more about how you feel about them in terms of MPG. I need new tires too and it seems I have somewhat similar criteria in what I need from a tire as you. I've really been researching tires for the past couple days and the more I think of it though, the more I think I should stray away from offroad oriented tires unfortunately. I mean, the reason I bought the truck is because for my business I needed increased towing and hauling ability over many highway miles that the Jeep simply did not offer. I tow a trailer all through the Midwest from the North/Mid Atlantic to Iowa and down to southern Florida multiple times a year and this year I may be seeing some Western trips (CO, UT, ID.) So MPG is important to me needless to say.

That said the truck has really become a lifestyle vehicle for my family and me as well. It gets used for getting to hiking/ camping/ canoeing destinations fairly regularly when the weather is good, and we may be buying a small farm next year. So road slicks are definitely out, but I won't be using the truck for rock crawling or mudslinging either. I just need a good reliable high mileage tire that will maximize MPG while still being able to handle light trails and no small amount of snow. Top of my list nowww is the Cooper Discoverer ATW, partly due to how much I loved the ST's but I've also read great reviews about them too as per my application. Second on the list are the Toyo Open Country AT II. I've heard good things about the Grabber AT2s, my sister just got a set so I'll see how they go for her but I'm not certain they're the tire for me. I still have some research to do on the new Falkens and the Nitto G2's. They seem to be in that ballpark but would have to hit a home run to beat out the Coopers or Toyos from what I've gathered.

Anybody with experience comparing these light AT tires?

 

What sort of snow were you driving through? It seems I've only been reading good things about this tire in the snow, and I'm highly considering them unless the jury proves otherwise.

 

Yknow there seems to be a lot of variance when it comes to almost any tire out there, but particularly softer grippier tires. Driving habits aside, it'd be interesting to note if those who burn through tires and complain about it also live in hot climates, and vice versa. Ive read plenty of people from say Arizona and Southern California that say they burn through Duratracs, toyos, bfgs, etc and especially the stock rugged trails. and plenty from the north who claim high mileage. For instance, I for one don't have much to complain about with the Rugged Trails, I'm at about 50,000 miles mixed driving so they didn't die that terribly quick, but they did suck pretty bad in the snow. This is probably why a company like Cooper doesn't even distribute some of their softer tires in the south, to avoid disappointment and bad reviews.

 

I also wonder about this... I also wonder how much of the low mileage complaints to attribute to dry rot from sitting in the sun.
UV exposure causes the rubber to loose it's flex on the outer layers and micro-chunks constantly as a result.

seems to me winter tires and soft rubber seem to dry-rot and micro-chunk faster...

 

you cant go wrong at AT3's. best AT rated tire on the market. great on ice/snow/mud/rain. trust me you wont be disappointed

 

I've been curious about this too. These are very good points actually. I have noticed that my wifes Goodyear RSA tires on her car were showing signs of dry rot only about 2 years after we got her car. We don't garage our vehicles and we have snow tires for winter too so I can't that had anything to do with it.

I also wonder if some areas that use chemicals or different types of salt used in the winter that can affect how the tires will weather/dry out. My dunlops were far from worn out or weatheredw but I knew I needed better tires for winter and other uses I plan on needing from the tire.

My dad has had General AT2's for about 3 years and around 30k miles. They look like they have another year or two in them, it is mostly city driving.

I can't say the Cooper AT3 is a terrible tire, but I wasn't extremely impressed with them. I had them on my F150 I had before the tacoma. They were quiet, good in dry and decent off road in light stuff. In snow they were meh...... Fresh snow they were decent, packed snow not so much, slush was meh, ice was just ice so nothing special and in the rain they were alright, heavy rain they were ok in town but at hiway speeds a little uneasy, normal wet weather they were good. Now I can say I never got stuck but I always make sure to drive within my limits and to the limits of the weather. What I was unimpressed about was handling in the snow. What I mean by that is I thought the truck should have had better steering response than it did and braking wasn't as good as I thought it should have been either. I know it's not a terrible tire, but for me it just isn't enough.

 

I wonder if its because the weight distribution is different on the f150. i have a 08 access cab v6 and in the snow the steering was amazing. i shoveled about 8 scoops of snow into the bed and it was good to go. i always drifted the corners and never once lost control. also i ran the tires at 40psi.

 

That very well could be, I ran 34 psi on 265/70R17 in the F150. I tried it without sand in the bed and with up to about 300lbs over the axle. The front end always wanted to push instead of turn and seemed like the rear wanted to let go pretty easy. I had an open diff so it's not like an lsd was locking up goofy. It seemed like I was using 4wd more than I needed to. I have read many raving reviews on the AT3, apparently I am one of the very few that weren't very impressed with them. My father in law had them on his F250 work truck and he loved them! He just got new tires and went with BFG K02's this time around to try something different. We'll see what he thinks of them when we start to get some weather!

 

Well I'd had enough hemmin and hawin over tires so I jumped on a good deal on the cooper ATW's. They're getting put on as we speak.

 

Let us know your thoughts. I had them on for the last 45k and I didn't think they were that big of a deal. I just switched to a set of Michelin Defender LTXs and what a huge difference in ride. So smooth and quiet now. The little vibes are gone and I find myself driving faster than I should be because they're so smooth and quiet. Also, my Cooper ATWs pulled to the right pretty good and I had some bump steer. Mysteriously gone now. Straight as an arrow.

 

I had it narrowed down between the ATWs and the Defender LTX's actually and went with the ATWs because they were a full $300 cheaper for the set- best prices I found. I'd have preferred the LTXs if the price were lower based on my research. If the ATWs don't amaze me, I'll likely go with the Defenders when they wear out, no big loss. Looking forward to seeing how these do in snowy conditions. Will post my thoughts as I form opinions on them.

Here they are:

 

Awesome!! I'm excited to hear how they do too! Hopefully they perform better than the AT-3's. I am also keeping tabs on the Duratracs I got in my first post. But I havent gotten a chance to drive with them in bad weather yet. I like the color, not too many of those around in that color.

 

I will say that those ATWs brand new have some sweet deep treads. Like 16/32nds if I remember correctly . Good luck and have fun with them.

 

What size A/TW's did you get?

 

Hey sorry I haven't logged on in a while. I got the stock size 265/70R16 because I didn't want to affect my odometer.

 

Well we've had no shortage of winter conditions here in Northeast Ohio this December and these tires have not disappointed me at all. We've had everything from freezing rain, sheets of ice, wintry mixes, and deep snow and slush. The back tires have only lost traction for a split second once or twice, and that was because I was in 2wd. Obviously way better than the Rugged Trails. In 4wd I felt confident on the roads in all those conditions. To compare to the Jeep with the Cooper S/T's, I'd say the Jeep was better in the snow hands down but its not a fair comparison since the jeep has more rugged tires and generally did better in 2wd than the truck in 2wd since the truck is so light in the back as well.

All in all I'd say its what I expected so far from this tire. Its not a snow tire, its a snow oriented all terrain tire. That said they are brand new, we'll see how they continue to perform as they wear.