Snow tires with 17 TRD pro wheels

Hi all! Just got my 2021 TRD OR, and we get a fair amount of snow. First Tacoma owned, I have heard that they do pretty good in winter, but my wife is concerned with winter. I am thinking of finding 17 inch TRD pro wheels either Tacoma or 4Runner and adding snow tires for better handling. What are you all running for your winter setup? Thank you in advance.

 

Only the 4runner pro wheels come in 17". Tacoma pro are 16".

 

The stock wrangler A/T tires that come on the OR are fine in the snow; much better than the A/S tires that come on the SR5. Any other A/T tire will probably preform well too. If you want ultimate snow performance get a second set of wheels and put a dedicated snow tire on them.

 

The wranglers were fine the first winter I had them, the second winter they were garbage. So I'd only rely on them if they're less than 10k miles or so.

This is anecdotal evidence from 2 trips to big bear a year apart, from a socal native not from a bitter cold climate veteran. So ignore if you know better.

 

I did 4 steelies ($45 plus way too much for TPMS) and Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV. The hakka 17’s are LT and studded so I stuck with 16’s, plus I figure I’ll travel pretty light in winter so not worried about limited payload and towing. This decision certainly limits the oversized brake options and is completely unnecessary in SoCal but the only reason I’d ever go somewhere important with the truck instead of the minivan would be for winter fun. My AT’s are stock and borderline on age and tread.

The Hakkapeliitta’s are great tires. I am contemplating swapping them to the stock wheels for weight savings and doing 17’s for the next AT’s but, shoot, for my 1000 miles of perfect weather driving a year it’s almost totally irrelevant what summer tire I have on.

I went with Vredestein snowflake rated AT’s on the workhorse minivan.

Many advised me against dedicated snows. I fully agree with them in terms of value but disagree on peace of mind. Only bummers are aging them out at 5 years and the environmental impact of two sets of tires with such low mileage.

I might actually just go to year round snows if I put them on the alloys. Not like I’m going to wear them down before they age out.

 

I get a bunch of snow, picked up a set of sr5 wheels cheap and mounted studded snow tires to them. Wouldn’t go through a winter now any other way.

 

Only bummer about the “fancy” aka “styled” steel wheels is TPMS is different due to angle. I believe the spare steelies and alloys use the same TPMS. Not 100% on that though and it’s possible to band them inside the rim I think?

And the styled steel wheels don’t exactly look sexy but that’s subjective.

Pretty easy to find someone selling good condition sets of stock offroad wheels. But then again for winter travel in soft snow, added weight to the wheels has some upside.