Moving to Colorado from SE with new 2020 4x4

Suggestions for tires in Salida, CO area? I am moving this month and have stock tires on my new 4x4 SR5 DCLB. Live in Georgia so no reason to ever have winter tires. Salida itself doesn’t get a ton of snow but plan to be in the mountains all over the state during the winter. Need suggestions for the best sizes, type, etc of tires . And thoughts on what other gear is good to have for that area in the winter to makes things safer/more enjoyable with the truck.

 

I have Goodyear Ultraterrain on my Taco, they are excellent for winter driving in Colorado. I drove from Montrose to Penrose on Highway 50 in a blizzard with no problem.

 

another Goodyear Ultra Terrain vote here......

they look badd azz to

 

I lived in GA, move to CO for a couple years, then back to GA now. I never had any other tire other than just a mud terrain and they did well in all circumstances. I live up in the foot hills and with 4wd, I never felt I needed a "winter tire".

 

Hope your truck has good front end protection, from road rock and sand chipping and pitting.
Just returned home to FL from a 6 month job in CO at the end Oct. My 17 Tacoma has a cracked windshield and the front end looks like crap.
My wife's 2018 4Runner had to have the windshield replaced as soon as we returned due to multiple cracks. Her front of the 4Runner Limited looks like an insurance claim. My son bought his 19 TRDOR on Oct 19th in Denver and on the way home Oct 30th he took a nice crack to his windshield before we crossed into Oklahoma. His truck looks almost as bad as mine but only has 2200 miles on it.
That salt and sand they put on the roads is a bigger concern than owning a nice set of KO2's or Cooper ST Maxx or any snow rated tires.

My stock Goodyear Kevlar worked well enough through the early storms of Oct. 2019 would not them if I was a full time resident during winter/ snow months.

Know it wasn't a lot of help but hope it helps.

 

I moved to CO (from near Austin / TX to Windsor - north of Denver) last summer. Got a set of new steelies off of Craigslist at a great price ($120 if remember correctly) and got a new set of Cooper Discoverer M+S 111S tires in size 245/75R16 (I prefer narrow for the snow) for $340. This combo costs just a little more than half of what the aforementioned KO2s (tires alone) would set you back.
I feel that the cheapo winter tires greatly outperform the factory Goodyear Wrangler Kevlars in the snow - particularly at lower temperatures (below 20).

 

I live in Salida, since '99. We get a lot of snow in town and way more in the county. Within Salida city limits, I have seen an average of 48" of snowfall for the winter. Some more, some less. The Continental Divide, Monarch Pass 25 minutes to the west, receives over 300" of snow for the winter. to the north, Buena Vista gets more snow. More northern Leadville gets even more snow. Southpark, just north-northeast gets to be -40*, blowing 50mph, and will blizzard sooner than you can expect.

IMO the stock tires on my TRDOR were horrible in the snow. I am strongly biased towards dedicated winter tires since driving on them during winter while living in NH and Flagstaff since 1990.

It is highly advisable to use 4 dedicated winter tires. Do yourself, your family, your friends, and others on the roads and have four from late October through mid April. No real need for studs. 3Peak M+S don't really cut it. Mud terrains will put you in the ditch.

I prefer Toyo Observe GSi5 winter tires and have had great results with the Observe winter tires since my first set in '02. Crushed walnut shells FTW! My summer tires on the Tacoma are 265-75-16 Toyo Open Country ATIIs. Toyo is a well-respected brand here.
Any dedicated winter tire will be superior to your stock tires. Hankook iPike RW-11 are not that expensive. I have them on my wife's TJ Wrangler and we never used 4WD in the snow.

Gear for Colorado Rocky Mountain on/off-road driving at all times would be recovery gear, shackles (I prefer soft), warm clothes, gloves, blankets, water, food, sunscreen, good sunglasses, shovel, Verizon or ATT cell phone, emergency kit, know about the Colorado Traction Laws for winter driving, use cotrip.org religiously.