We have snow here, and the stock Wranglers that came with my FX4 are pretty decent.

The only BF's I like are the T/A KOs. The muds are good too.

The Long Trails should take a long hike to the land fill.

 

Yep, the BFG's suck on snow. I'll say they are probably the worst tires on ice I have ever had.

I had siped Michelin LTX's on the Dodge I traded in and its like night and day.

Oversteer city (with the BFG's), for sure.

I'll run these BFG dogs until next fall, but then they are going on the used tire rack....

 

Ok, heres my take on how vehicles handle the snow and ice. I lived in North Pole AK for 4 years so I've got a little experience.

How your vehicle handles has quite a bit to do with its length to width ratio. An F150 with an 8 foot bed will handle better on the ice then the supercrew 5.5 ft bed because it is longer. Then four years I spend in AK were with a 1999 Ranger extended cab 2wd. I never had a problem with it. On the other hand if I wanted to take my life in my own hands I would take a HMMWV which is nearly as wide as it is long. The humer was just not long enough for the snow (mud on the other hand is a different story ) My buddy had a short bed, regular cab dodge ram and it was in the same boat as the hummer.

In my opinion the best thing you can do if you have much snow and ice to buy some highly siped snow tires and have them studded! Adding weight in the bed works great also, I try to load up 1/3 of the rated payload for traction. Bags of water softener salt works great!

 

No kidding! All pickup trucs suck in the snow unless weighed down. You live in Michigan and you didn't know this? SMACK!

 

I have the limited slip and the Goodyears and think they are fine in the snow (Lariat).

 

I recently read a report by some winter driving "experts" that recomended that you do not weigh down the box of the truck with sand bags or other weight. they said that yes, it will help you gain traction when you take off, but after that the additional weight will make you more prone to losing traction as well as increasing your stopping distance. I guess thats the tradeoff. just thought id mention it.

 

That's not neccesarily true, anyone that has a CDL knows that a vehicle stops better with more weight b/c it all about the friction. At least that's true for fire trucks, dump trucks......etc.

 

sure it's true,

if you can't get rollin there's no need to worry about stoppin

 

I love watching the empty trailers lock 'em all up on an easy stop due to an empty load...

 

Hey now... I can take off at a light fine, but it's when I change lanes and go over the slop and it gets a little squirrley. My 98 Expy. was awesome in the snow and my 03 Explorer was the best snow vehicle I have ever driven (Michelin's: which I believe are the best tires out there)!!!

 

I agree about the michelins, I've always had those on my vehicles an so has my dad. Sooner or later I'll get rid of my cheap General tires...

 

faman66,

How are the stock (255) Generals in the snow? My '05 should arrive in two weeks and I've never run Generals in Rochester snow.

As for the weighted vs. unweighted battle, remember one of the basic laws of Physics:

"A body in motion tends to remain in motion. A body at rest tends to remain at rest." That means the heavier (more mass) something has, the harder it's going to be to stop. Yes, available traction enters into the equation, but the above law always comes into play.

For those of us that have seen housewives (applying makeup) fly by on an icy expressway in their newly purchased SUV's, the law gets re-written as follows:

"An SUV in (excessive) motion tends to remain in motion. The same SUV in a ditch will tend to remain there - because I don't pull fools out."

 

physics of motion involve more than 1 law. The law of energy transfer and friction also come into play. Friction is what keeps your tires from spinning. If added weight increases friction between tire and pavement, the more likely they will grab.

So it's nice for "experts" to quote 1 law of physics in the world of "all things being equal" however all things are not equal and all facotrs need to be taken into account.

I for 1 stop sooner with weight in the back because I have less slippage in my rear tires.

 

J-150,

OK, you can call me "grasshopper" now. I totally agree with you on the multiple laws of physics thing. In my (extensive) experience in snow, there's a ton of factors that come into play. For instance, adding weight to a truck to improve traction - when that truck has a set of fat tires on it - does little to solve the traction problem. Nice to know that there are some true experts out there. Nice post!

 

I switched to the BFG All Terrain and could not be happier, I drove 12 hours through the snow last Wednesday and had a little problem until I put it in Four Wheel Drive, that is why we buy 4x4 is to use them in the winter snow and the mud.