I agree with you 100% Damon that a dedicated winter tire is the ideal way to go. And Nokian is the top of the heap from the ones I've used & sold in the past.
But...that's if you've got the cash to invest in a set of dedicated winter tires...
Personally, I don't have an extra $400-800 to invest in a second set of tires for my vehicles and I know others here are in the same boat.


For a good all-year-round tire, a quality medium compound and well-siped AT is an excellent compromise.

 

Very well said. I would love to switch out my tires, but with a daughter getting married and a son in college, I have to buy one set that will do all things as best as they can. The Firestone may not be the absolute best, but I got a great price for it, it does well when I go off-road to cut down trees for firewood, it is relatively quiet on the highway, and it does a pretty good job handling the Cleveland winters.

Tim C.

 

WOW! Lots of input. Thanks alot to all who responded. As someone said, I cant have it all so I've got to figure out what I want to compromise; looks, price, performance on street, mud, snow. A lot of good points have been made that I overlooked. I'm going to keep researching, I've got a lot RIDING on this decision.

 

I spent a lot of time, deciding just this reading reviews, checking every manufactures offerings ext. I found the General Grabber AT2. Its the only all terrain tire i know of that meets the Winter tire rateing (mountin and Snow flake). I have them on my 2wd longbox and i can go deeper and farther than my buddys F250 4x4 with "true" winter tires. I even get better traction on the light snow then him aswell. To be entirely honest these are the best tires on a truck in winter conditions i have every seen. If your realy hardcore they are even designed for studs. Best of all the are true truck tires with a proper load rateing and you can use them all year with minimal tread loss (1/32 over the last year on the back!!) after about 25000km(16000 miles). Aswell as carrying and pulling proper loads.

 

I'd have to see that to believe it, unless your buddy has "Baldini" true winter tires.


Having said that, the Grabber AT2's do seem to have a decent rating amongst this pack:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey....jsp?type=ORAT

 

the grabber is not going to be better than a winter tire...it is considered one of the better at's for winter...the goodyear wrangler silent armour and the bfg at's also meet the severe weather specs(mountain with snowflake symbol). i had a set of the wranglers on my old 2wd truck and i wasn't dissapointed in the winter which is almost half the year here. i have trailcutter M+S on my f-150 (275/70/17 studded)and still find them too wide,front end pushes too much, for icy roads but good in the deeper stuff. you could probably run these year round as they are not too soft

 

I have to chime in with the Interco Trxus MT, if you are looking for an agressive tire that works during the winter. I ran two different sets on my Jeep, both 33 and 35 and they were magical in the snow and ice and I got roughly +50K out of both sets and they still had thread left. Just keep them rotated and use a dynamic balancing system, airsoft beads or innovated balancing beads and they will last you a long time.

Seeing as you are driving a truck you might want to step up to a D or E rated sidewall from the C-rated I was running on the jeep. To gain a little harder compound and the weight carrying capacity.

 

BLIZZAK FTW

they are on sale at tirerack for 16" tires for around 80 each right now.

i live in upstate ny, (fort drum) -30, waaaay too much snow. the blizzaks are by far THE BEST.

just be advised, they are made up of a special compound. once you get to the first wear indicator, the special compound is gone, and its basically a regular snow tire after that.

make sure you- get all 4 tires. do NOT just run two. whatever tires arent snow tires will have less traction and that end of your vehicle will be more prone to sliding out (rear), or skidding straight when your trying to turn (front)

and also all seasons suck in the snow. mud tires suck in the snow.

but keep in mind its all about how you drive. me personally... ill drive all winter in my jeep on pro comp mud terrains... but you bet your *** im putting snow tires on the f150 for my wife lol. cheap insurance.

 

oh yeah, go to tirerack.com and theres a video comparing all seasons to real snow tires... hell i dont have anything better to do... lemme find it for ya... its so true.

http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index...=26&tab=winter
http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index...=22&tab=winter
http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index...=23&tab=winter

 

The best solution for anyone who has to drive in snow for part of the year is to have two sets of tires, snow tires for the winter months and ATs or MTs for the rest of the year...

 

yeah you will def. have to have another set of tires for the summer if you get blizzaks. the softer compound wears very quickly in the summer.

but its nice having some black steel wheels with snow tires, and the nicer rims with summer tires....out here it snows so bad, once it starts falling around november, theres a 3-4 week wait to drop your car off to get your snow tires mounted. seems like everyone waits until the first snow then calls and makes an appointment lol.

much easier to already have them mounted, then just pop them on.

also, if you have some cheap steel wheels, painted black, you wont have to worry about them getting rusty from road salt... just clean them off and respray them every summer before you store them again.

 

So im reading up on this thread because i'm unsure about wide tires and snow...

I'm hoping to get a 6inch lift but i'll basically be running 12.5 tires....
How unsafe is this? does anyone run these width tires in the winter?

 

Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armour.

AT that is winter rated. So far this winter I am over impressed and extremely happy I put them on. Been in all conditions, ice, snow, slush, deep snow, fluff etc...and never stuck and 4x4 1 time but that would be 4x4 in any truck due to what I was hauling from the base of a hill.

They clean extremely well, quiet and have 0 wear in 5000 miles so far.

 

After getting 25 inches this past weekend and having had pulled 7 people out and running all around town I have to say my new Terra Grapplers sure made it feel like I was driving on dry roads. I didn't have one issue and man did I take my truck in places where it was a lot deeper than 25 inches.

 

I've ran 33x12.50 BFG A/Ts and 33x13.50 D.ck Cepeks and dominated the snow

Going by the numbers everyone will tell you that the narrower tire will cut through the snow better and they're right, but you can overcome a "plowing" or "floating" effect of a wide tire with proper tread pattern/siping

My 13.50s felt no different than with my stock 275s. Had the wide guys on for a big snowstorm here too, got the stockers on now just to keep my fancy wheels nice.