Best non snow tires for snow/ice

IF money is a concern, I have with previous cars gotten snow tires swapped on first year, then buy a dedicated second set of wheels second year.

FWIW firestone winterforce have been great for me in the past and are usually the cheapest or close to cheapest name brand snow tire available.

 

Firestone Destination AT. I'm running 265/75/16.

 

Dang, checking under everyone's hood to make sure you dont lose the 10 sec 1/4 mile huh?

 

For me, taking into account the cost of dismounting and mounting/balancing tires, it is better to have a separate set of rims for the winters. It costs about $80 to do a set of 4.

What I did was to have the truck delivered with Blizzak DMV2 tires on the stock rims, I got a credit for the stock tires. Then I bought a set of the popular 4Runner 17" rims with the biggest KO2s that would not rub, to run in the summer.

I actually have five wheels per season, 5 DMV2s with one on a crappy steel rim from Costco under the bed, and 4 KO2s plus the stock spare. If you can get the garage to store the wheels for you it is well worth it, because they are pretty heavy and a set of 5 is hard to fit in the short bed (if you have a short bed like me.)

 

I'm running the Cooper AT3 4S's in Fairbanks, AK and I think they'd be great for the types of winters and lake-effect snow you'll get in upstate NY.

 

I ran the Stock TRD Off-road tires for a Vermont winter with absolutely no problems, including running through the worst stretch of Interstate I-89 daily. See if you like the stock tires before buying a set right out the gate.

-Note, after the first winter I switched to General Grabber Arctics (mainly because the Adventures were too worn for winter), and I love them in the snow, even after one season on them.

 

Studded tires and steel wheels.

 

100% agree. I have Defender's for the Spring/Summer, and when I ran them in the snow, I slid WAY more than I liked. So I got a set of BFG KO2's to run in the late Fall/Winter. Handled it MUCH better than the Defenders did.

 

I got to play around with the stock tires yesterday in crusty wet snow with about a half inch of packed sleet under it. I had a hard time getting them to lose traction and I tried pretty hard in the walmart parking lot that was packed pretty hard. I have 33psi in them and 140 lbs in the bed. I'm happy with them so far but will probably get ko2 pizza cutters in the spring just for the ground clearance.

 

I had really good results with Duratracs last year. They shed packed snow/slush really well. My old truck had KO2s and they turned into slicks too easily.

 

Just drove over the mountain passes from Washington back to Montana on my new duratracs, they did really well.

 

Geolander G015

 

Happy with my General Grabber AT2's. Good in all conditions so far.

 

After see everyone’s comments and doing a bit more research it sounds like the Duratrac’s my be the way to go. Seems like everyone says these do very well in snow/ice and off-road. How do they preform on wet pavement and pavement in general?

Also, compared to stock OR tires, are they louder while highway driving? Rougher ride? Would 265/75/16’s mess with the speedo?

 

The reason i stayed away from duratracs was price and the fact that the sipes arent too deep. After 20-30k miles from most reports you lose a lot of the snow effectiveness.

 

Tires of the KO2 and Duratrac variety are essentially all season tires because of the rubber compound. They have a light amount of siping. A tire like a DMV2 is a true winter tire.

If you live in Rochester or anywhere around there, you want a real winter tire, believe me.

 

So you think id be better off with something like a Falken wildpeak at3w?

 

Ran Duratracs for 1 snow storm here in the mountains of Colorado this fall and swapped them out for Blizzaks right away. Duatracs weren't for me, I thought the BFG KO2s on my 4Runner were a better AT tire for the snow and ice.

 

I actually live in the Rochester area. I work in the city and live about 25 mins. west of Rochester. So I guess the general consensus is that there is just no comparison what so ever to an A/T (i.e Duratrac) verse a true snow tire (i.e Blizzak DM-V2) when it comes to snow/ice performance??

What size snow tire are a lot of people running? Stock OR size, 265/70r16??