Winter Tires.

I think it's a question of use - If I spent more of my winter time on bush roads than pavement I wouldn't hesitate to go with the LT versions, Toyo CT, Blizzak LT, even the Duratracs - these are made to chew snow and still do alright on pavement. I've never had a problem with the DM-V1 or V2 getting into or out of the snow spots I go, but sounds like you've already reached their limits offroad.

I do though spend a lot of time on winter highways, compact iced streets, blowing drifted roads, and everything in between - the Blizzaks have performed flawlessly through 12 seasons of Tacoma driving..

 

Honestly, I spend 98% of my winter driving on roads and highways. Just happened to take a trip to the desert last spring.

 

To do it over again, that is what I would do. Siped Duratracs or something similar. Much better than my Slow Claws in the deep stuff on a logging road aired down. Woulda, shoulda...

 

Standard load winters are much softer, they don’t last as long but grip ice much better.

I run sl winters and e summers.

If I did more remote off-roading I’d do studded Duratracs, but they don’t compare to a good soft winter for city driving or highway.

 

Studded duratracs for me

 

I saw that Tire Rack didn't list them, but I'm still seeing them on Bridgestone's site?

https://www.bridgestonetire.com/tire/blizzak-dm-v2/P265-75R16/

If they stop making them in that size I'll be bummed out. When I wear out my Nokians I was thinking of going back to my OEM 3G OR wheels with a 75 series P-rated tire and those were the top of my list since Nokian doesn't make that size in P-rated. Maybe it's a case of they list them but they're not available anywhere.

 

Just checking in on my Geolandars.

In the last couple days with temps around 0dF my local intersections are getting a bit exciting. I have only run these tires in 2-3 inches of new unplowed snow. They did fine in what I think of as shallow new snow. I am now pretty much running the truck in 4WD on side and feeder streets, 2WD on freeways, no added weight in the bed.

Given that most of you cannot legally run studded tires, I find the Geolander whatever whatever I am running work pretty good down to zero degrees F and 2-3 inches of unplowed snow. They are not fabulous on black ice/ hard packed snow. I don't know yet how deep a snow they can run in. So far the tires haven't flat spotted parked overnight in my driveway, down to -5dF or so for overnight lows. I suspect they will do OK in 4-6 inches of fresh unplowed snow, and I think they will do fine pulling my new (400#) boat up muddy river banks next spring.

In 2-3 inches of fresh unplowed snow the Geolandar does not "ball up" or "snowball" as well as my Hakkas do, but the Geolandar is not a white knuckle event either.

My dad does notice tire noise from these when I am on the phone with him from inside my truck, rolling versus stopped, compared to the factory Dunlops that were a summer only tire for me.

If you live far enough south that you don't necessarily need two sets of rims and two sets of tires, these might be worth a look as a year round tire. The Geolandar on my 4WD Tacoma is not quite as good as Blizzaks under my wife's AWD RAV4 are in winter, but the Geolandar is not hopeless for experienced drivers in these conditions. The Geolandar should do OK on muddy river bank boat launches, but perhaps a bit noisy if you do a lot of miles on dry pavement.

On my wife's RAV4 we run Blizzaks year round because her commute is very short, about 2 miles one way. She simply doesn't put enough miles on the car to justify a second set of rims and a second set of tires.

I am going to keep running the Geolandar a bit longer going in to winter 22/23, but I still fully expect to mount my Nokian Hakkas on my other set of rims sooner or later this winter in the north half of Alaska.

FWIW about 80% of Nokian's factory capacity was in Russia during January 2022. In March 22 the Finnish government stated publicly there would be no bailouts for Finn companies doing business in Russia, and in summer 22 Nokian announced they were closing their factories in Russia. Where Nokian factories will be built in the future has not yet been published on helsinkitimes.fi . I suspect that whatever tires Nokian makes that sell the best will be made in Finland for now, and I will NOT be the first in my town to try or sample the next Hakkas if they commit to a factory in China. Besides Latvia and Estonia or Ukraine I do hope Nokian will consider Argentina before they commit to Peking. I would buy Nokian tires made in Poland or Denmark or Germany without a second thought. Japanese made Nokian Hakkas would probably give me an epic woody, but I do take my winter tires more seriously than the average bear.

So far my impression is this is a pretty good tire for folks who see 'some' mud in the warm months, don't do a lot of freeway miles, rarely see more than 2-3 inches of snow at a time, and rarely see overnight lows below -5 dF. FWIW my new boat is a Grumman Sport Boat, boat motor and trailer is 400-500# total.

I do think this tire is worthy of investigation by one or two of the major publishers that can apply some instruments to a vehicle and come up actual numeric data regarding braking and turning on ice and snow. I do not claim to be an expert winter driver, but I do have a lot of winter driving experience in several vehicles.

 

Didn’t know that about Nokian. That’ll be some project to move everything. If you find out where they end up, let us know. Hakkas are next in line to replace my Blizzaks…

 

I’m looking for stock size 245/75R16 ATs with a snowflake rating to replace the Firestones.

Winter tires in the bay area are not common, so I would have to order these.

What is everybody using?

These would see snow and ice in Colorado, Utah, and Tahoe

 

https://www.toyotires.com/product/open-country-at3/

If you are going to be out here in the winter, then get dedicated winter tires, https://www.toyotires.com/product/open-country-at3/

 

Firestone Winterforce 2 UV…
Cheaper than most with great performance. I’ve run them on all my cars and trucks for over a decade in winters.

 

General Grabber Arctic LT tire review:
Bought these last winter for a 400+ mile trip (one way) with snow from door to door. These tires were studded and mounted on my stock wheels. They vibrate around 50mph and I assumed it was a poor balancing job of the shop, but I dealt with it for a thousand miles before swapping back to street tires. Vibration was gone with the street tires. Mounted the snow tires this winter on a new set of wheels at a different tire shop and the same vibration is there. Even with studs, I'd give these tires a 3/5 for snow/ice acceleration and stopping. I sometimes have to put it in 4wd to get rolling at intersections and forget quickly merging on the highway from a stop. That said, I'm not terribly impressed with the traction with the stock tires if it rains!
For reference, I live in North Idaho, and we've had snow for the last 7 weeks, and I'm driving a 2020 TRD offroad, with 50 pounds of sand and a fiberglass canopy. I've dropped the PSI a couple pounds, but I might try a few more to see how it does. At this point, I'm considering punting the tires and going with a studless winter tire.

 

Is the vibration from ice on the backside of a rim throwing off your balance? I have had similar with different tires and it was ice/frozen mud on the back side of the rim.

 

Studded tires sometimes have studs pop out or wear in for an imbalance, we see lots come back after a month for a rebalance, and rarely have studless complaints. No big deal

The LT tire is rough though, very hard tread, so the tire relies on weight and the studs to stop the truck.

Tacomas struggle in the winter due to how light they are, and no lsd in the rear, so the step out on acceleration is fairly normal.

I just drive in 4WD when its crap out.

Good review, hopefully people consider it.

 

The tires felt like they were out of balance when I left the shop on dry pavement with the brand-new tires. I drove them around on snow-free roads for roughly a thousand miles and they still vibrated. I kind of forgot about it until I put them on the new wheels last month and it's still there. No funny wear, and all the studs are looking great.
Maybe I should've considered a lighter tire now that you mention it.
I will say that the truck does great in 4wheel drive, with or without studs honestly, but I was aiming to avoid running in 4wd all the time.

 

This is expected to be my last post regarding the Geolanders I have been running since posts 324/325 in this winter tire thread.

Short version for you coffee addicts: these are an adequate winter tire if you bring your brain with you. They are nowhere near as good as my Nokian Hakkapeliitta, and not quite as good as the blizzaks under my wife's Rav4.

I have lived in Fairbanks since 2008 and spend about 6 months out of every year driving in winter conditions. I don't think I am an expert winter driver, but I do have to confess I have a lot of recent experience. I do enough winter driving to have a spare set of rims with Nokian Hakkas mounted and ready to go. The set of four Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015 I own are intended as summer tires that replaced the factory Dunlops on my stock rims. I was looking for the Geolandar to be better than stock for pulling my boat up muddy/ sandy riverbanks - which I will test with my new boat summer 2023- but the geolandars I have has the mountain snowflake symbol and I am still on them the night before solstice.

I have been wondering since October if today is the day I will switch over to my winter tires, so far no trouble. I have zero objective data. My truck is not instrumented in any way. I cannot tell you how many lateral Gs this tire can pull, or how fast I can accelerate, or how quickly I can stop. I am just driving the fool things, so far, so good. I will say I do not have little old ladies piled up on my rear bumper leaning on their horns and flipping me birds. As usual, there are a few yay-hoos that blow by me on the freeway with just enough traction to get to the scene of their upcoming accidents.

So far this winter I have no sand bags or other weight in the bed of my 2015 access cab. The snow we do have has been shallow enough that I am switching back and forth between 2WD and 4WD three or four times on my one way commute to work. In new snow up to 4" deep, the Geolandar is fine. I have not gotten an opportunity to drive them in deeper new snow, but up over 6-8 inches new snow I expect the Hakkas will be far superior. On packed snow and visible ice The Geolandar is almost as good as, but definitely not equal to blizzaks.

I have so far this winter had my rear bumper far enough out in the street to inconvenience oncoming traffic once. We had four inches of snow the night before, the plows had been by once, I was pulling out of a McDonalds in 2WD (onto four inches of once plowed snow with hard packed snow underneath that) when I should have been in 4WD after extricating the truck from my parking space...

The good news is these haven't taken an overnight set, chilled themselves into flat spots, all the way down to -39 degrees F. When your tires get cold enough to flat spot or take a set, as you roll away in the morning you will hear and feel a rumba-rumba-rumba or tumpa-thumpa-thumpa coming off the tires and through the suspension into your low back. My geolandars aren't doing that.

If you rarely see fresh snow more than 4" deep, don't do a lot of highway miles, rarely see temps below -40dF, and in the summer and have to deal with some relatively mild off road stuff like recovering your boat, this _might_ be a reasonable year round tire option. If you are planning on two sets of rims the blizzak or similar nonstudded is a noticeably better winter tire.

I am so far favorably impressed with this tire ( about 2/3 the price of Nokian Hakka) and look forward to getting my boat out this spring. If there are multiple players in this class (A/T with mountain snowflake) some instrumented testing by one of the bigs is a good idea. For the money this is an impressive tire.

 

I know it's June now and talking about Winter tires sounds funny, but just wondering if anyone has had any experience with the Michelin CrossClimate tire? I'm just looking down the road to when my Geolander's are worn out and need replacement. I've been swapping out winter/summer tires on our family cars for decades and it sure would be nice to have a tire that you would not have to change out each season.

 

My family has several sets of CrossClimate 2s on a couple different vehicles- they’re probably about as good as you can get for an all season. They are noticeably not as good as a winter set when the snow and slush come but if you’re gonna do a one-and-done, they’re your best bet.

 

How are they when it comes to stopping on ice? I hate that "out of control" feeling when you're coming up to a stop, abs is going off, hoping you don't rear end the car ahead of you.

 

About the same as anything else - at that point you need studs and then it depends on your local laws. Even my Hakkas and Blizzaks aren’t great on ice.