What are the best snowtires for the mountains?

If two sets of wheels, studded Nokians have been about the best for me.

For do it all—I have loved KO/KO2’s. My area gets 500” of snowfall a year. Never had a problem.

 

Km2 are unstoppable in waist deep snow, need more traction use some chains.

 

I liked my St Maxxs, they were studded, did really well.

I may spend a lot of time but I’ve only got 4 winters of driving under my belt

 

I run blizzaks and they are incredible in the snow, slush, and ice.

 

^^^This

 

I've lived here in North Idaho my entire life, except for four years in Montana while in the Air Force. My Dad has tought me to always have a winter specific type tire mounted on dedicated wheels for quick, reliable season change overs.
We used to buy studded tires for winter, but since my Dad first purchased Blizzaks for his 08 Ram 3500... we have never gone back.
We, as a family, have driven over 2 million miles across all seasons, all road conditions, and multiple local mountain passes. Traveling to ski areas, our mountain cabin property, and visiting family both East and west of us requires travel over Snoqualmie or Fourth Of July and then Lookout Pass.
I've only owned one vehicle WITHOUT dedicated winter tires/ wheels, and that was my 04 Nissan Pathfinder. This had Toyo OPAT II tires, and these were siped. This setup was mostly acceptable through some conditions, but I would have much preferred winter tires.
If you can afford it, a dedicated winter tire/ wheel/TPMS package will make a huge difference in safety and your confidence driving in all winter conditions. A bonus I think needs to be talked about is resale value... the package I'm suggesting has always added value to every vehicle we've sold, and in several cases caused that vehicle to stand out in advertising.
I really love the Blizzaks, but the Michellin XIce is great, as well as the Nokians (who better to build winter tires than the very experienced Finnish?).
I will never buy another studded tire as they are loud and wear or break out too much, but the Haakapelita with the "retracting " stud might be worthy of looking at.
Another benefit? Sure. The miles you put on your winter tires keeps that same mileage OFF your very expensive summer mud/ off road/ all- season tires. Boom.

 

Good points here for the OP - most modern studs are retracting and do well on dry, but they do make noise. Probably the best advice here, as well as from mine, is that you should have a dedicated set of snow tires you take off after each winter.

 

The lugs on that Michelin X-Ice comes with a lot of siping on it already, looks like it should perform well on snow covered ice. Siping a tire is a good way around having an otherwise inadequate tire for snow, and I ended up doing that to my KO’s and got better traction with them as well. But they are not nearly as good as dedicated snow tires!

 

I hate when these threads come up and people people feel the need to puff up their chest about how their all terrain tires are good enough because they just happen to know how to drive in snow.

Look guys, Snow tires are better than all terrains. Its not a debate. Every scientific test shows that snow tires stop sooner, retain traction longer in corners, do better on ice, do better in very cold weather, and are far more predictable as to when they will break traction.

If someone is asking for snowtire info, don't recommend them an AT.


Anyway, Nokians are great, and I've used firestone winterforce and they were good but dry traction left something to desire but very cheap. Also heard the General snowtires are pretty cheap but very very good.

 

On my last truck (2011 f150) I ran the stock Goodyear SR-A for one year and was not very happy with them. The next year it got a set of blizzak DMV1 mounted on steel wheels. Those were incredible. I now have those tires on wheels listed on Craigslist and picked up some lightly used studded hakkapellita 8 and some steelies for the Tacoma. Many years ago I had a mitsubishi eclipse. It had Hakkapeliitta RSI tires. That car was surprisingly good in the snow. I plowed the roads a bit with the low ground clearance after a big snowstorm. All of our cars have dedicated snows on rims and now we have a studded option when the conditions dictate.

 

Totally agree. Some of the A/T's do have the 3 peak snow designation. They wouldn't get it if they didn't pass the standards. But they are not a dedicated winter tire.

 

I also run the Nokian Hakka R2's. These are a dedicated winter tire and need to be changed out seasonally. The traction -- especially in wet snow and ice when you are the most vulnerable -- is impressive. Don't be fooled, they don't present with big off road style tread, but they are the real thing. I also find them to be a good road tire on dry pavement. Nokian also has options you can run year around.

 

Go with the Hakkapeliitta R2,excellent tire. Those Nordski's know snow and make some of the best tires for it on the market.

 

Same here. Live in mountains. Ski lots. Drive through snowy / icy weather. They’re not tank tracks, but they work.