Winter tires

Hello ladies and gents! I recently moved to the New England area a few months ago and am preparing for my first winter living/driving in snow. I have been doing research for snow tires for my 08 Tacoma PreRunner 2x, and from the shops/people I have talked to I can't seem to get a great answer. So far my choices are Mastercraft Courser, Firestone Winterforce, and Bridgestone Blizzak but am open to more suggestions. I am also debating getting four or just for the rear tires (since I don't have 4x4) and also studs on them. I am NOT looking for the cheapest tire out there-I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for. Any other suggestions/advice would be great! Thank you!

 

Where in new england? I would say studs would not be necessary in some parts of new england. Sorry i cant really help you out with the tires, i never run snow tires even when i lived in vermont.

 

You should change your thread title to something like new girl needs winter tire advice, you would get alot more responses lol. Welcome to TW by the way.

 

snow tire advice...
depends on if you wanna run studded tires

if not a good A/T works but since your 2 wheel drive keep a shovel in your bed along with a few sand bags to keep the rear end heavy. Drive slow/carefully, don't pin it to win it.

If you decide to run studded snow tires also put sandbags in the back of your truck.

 

Whatever you get, make it 4 not 2. You don't want a situation where either end has compromised traction. You need steering, brakes, and power.

Most of the winter tires I have run used studs, so the studs did most of the work. If I needed winter tires again I would look at either the Blizzack or the Hakkapeliitta (Nokian) studless. I have run the Nokian before and they are very good.

 

One nice advantage to studless tires is that you can put them on early and take them off late if need be. I swear, the deadline for stud removal ALWAYS came just before the last big storm of the year. Even the sheriff's dept ignored the deadline one year.

I might add that studless tire technology has made huge leaps in the last 10 years. The early attempts gave a lot of people a bad attitude toward them. Take another look............

I generally only got 2 seasons from my studded tires because the studs ripped out. I bought a stud gun and started restudding, but it was a pain. Below a point you couldn't restud at all.

I think the studlees tires made today are better than studs in many circumstances. There are only a few specific instances where real studs have any edge.

 

This is good advice. Where in New England are you? I know you have a 2 wheeler but a good set of all season tires might work for you also, I have ms2's and have gotten by pretty well the past two years, but there where a few times where I put it into 4hi

 

Not a good idea to mix tires. Once on borrowed truck, I went into ugly spinning on the road when driving mixed tires in snow. The non-winter tires slid while the powered wheels pushed me into spinning because those had better traction. Fortunately, I was not driving fast. Not sure if the new traction control systems would manage to compensate for that.

I drove studs for couple winters when I lived closed to arctic circle, and the studs will only help you on ice. The studless will work on ice & snow because of the combination of compound they are made off and the tread. The studded ones work primarily because of studs, and the compound and tread are secondary (and not so good, quite often cheap version) and designed for holding the studs. So when you lose studs or drive in deep snow, you rely on compound & tread which is not that good. If you have good feeling for car behavior, you don't need studs even if you haven't driven on snowy road before. They are for really bad snow drivers

When shopping for winter tires, I check e.g. Tirerack.com surveys:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...p?type=W&VT=LT
The other online shops have usually similar "ranking". This gives you an idea of comparisons between various models. For this winter, I am going with Continentals 4x4 Wintercontact, quite good ranking ... and I ran into sale.

 

first off welcome to new england and tw..id suggest you get the blizzaks. i know a few two wheel drive owners and they swear by them here in massachusetts. and yep id get a set of spare wheels to mount them on so you dont have to keep swapping wheels...snow will come and who knows when is always the real question

 

Definitely invest in 4 tires not just 2. I can't say enough good things about the Nokian Hakkapeliitta 5's that I bought 2 years ago. Fantastic traction! They weren't cheap but as you said, you get what you pay for.

 

Hankook makes some great ones too. Bout the only thing I trust coming out of korea.

 

Except for Koreans of course.

 

One of the best tires you can buy for winter tires, Nokian R SUV. Finnish mountain tyre as they say it. Non studded. They cost $$$ but are the best.

 

I have Michelin X-Ice's on my truck. They are great on ice and packed snow, which I find most road driving is. Nice and quiet as well. For really deep snow I would get something more aggressive.

I too believe in getting 4 tires as opposed to just 2 as it balances out the handling.

Shawn.

 

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/d...o?pc=10824&tmn=DynaPro+ATM+RF10&typ=Truck/SUV

get these tires, they have great traction (snow/rain) and tread wear. i live in upstate New York and used to have them on my 2wd 2008 tundra.

 

A close friend of mine used to believe in buying 2 at a time to lessen the cost shock. When he bought a nicer car than his first clunker he did just that. Well, a couple months later he had 3 spinouts in less than a week. That weekend he bought the other 2. Lesson learned.

 

I can't wait to get my General Grabber At2's in the snow.

After reading many raving reviews on the tire in the wet/snow i bought a set. I have to say I am very impressed with the tire in the heavy rain we have had. They are quiet on road and have no hum.

They have the snowflake rating and are studable.

 

Thank you for all of the help guys! I am definitely planning on putting sandbags in my bed, but how much? About 100lbs? More/less? I will now plan for four tires and am wondering if anyone has any input for Town Fair Tire? They look like they have a pretty nice "included" service package when purchasing tires.

 

You couldn't go wrong with 200-300 lbs. 100 won't make much difference - I'd be surprised if you noticed it.

You can also go for a narrower tire for better traction. If you're running 265/75/16, switch to a 235/85/16.... If you're running 265/70/16, switch to 245/75/16.

Both switches would give you approximately the same height, but about an inch narrower.

I do a LOT of driving on terrible winter roads in Canada (and in remote locations) for work and this setup works well for me.

Good luck. Drive safe.

 

In the past, I have used Blizzaks, Nokians, Firestone Winterforce Studded, General Altimax Arctic (which is a Gilslav Nordfrost made my Continental) on my trucks.
I have also used a snowflake rated AT tire Goodyear Silent Armor.
Personally, I have preferred a dedicated snow tire.

Just put a set of Hankook Ipike RWs (studded) on my Tundra but you do not have to get them studded. I tow however & see a lot of ice since Vermont has started using brine more & more.
The nice thing with the Blizzaks is once the special sticky compound wears down you can then run them year round.
Many people do that here in Vermont.
As the guys said I would buy 4