Pre and post Covid I walk to work, so the LC is mainly a weekend warrior.
Over the next few months it will primarily spend time out in the Cascades, so winter capability is a plus. I ran winter tires on my previous vehicle but would love to avoid having a second set of tires due to living in the city.
During summer it will mostly ferry us to backpacking trails off of Forest Service roads.
In the next 4 months, the girlfriend, dog, and I are doing a road trip to some west coat National Parks over New Years. We're then driving to the East Coast from Seattle in late March / April. This will mostly be highway (obviously) but some extra confidence if we hit snow would be great.
Edit: gotta love city parking
. Luckily it’s only for a couple more months.
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Since there aren’t many responses regarding your tire question, I’ll take a stab at it. I will start by saying Search function is your friend, there are literally hundreds of tire threads on this site, in the 200 section and also in the “Tire & Wheel Tech” section of MUD, not to mention the 100 series section etc. There are comments worth reading earllier in this thread as well. That being said, a few thoughts:
P vs LT: it sounds to me like mostly highway and service road use with on road snow a concern. You haven’t mentioned adding bumpers or other heavy modifications to your truck. As such, It sounds to me like a P rated tire would work for you, which will preserve factory ride and MPG. If you’re facing sharp rocks off road on a regular basis, an LT tire may be worth the ride and mpg sacrifice; otherwise I would stick with P rated tires. In an 18” rim, this means 285/60/18, or 275/65/18. Many more choices in the latter size.
SNOW: I live in Florida so I’m not who should be giving you advice on snow driving. But the Michelin Defender LTX M/S has tested well in on & off road snow conditions. There are lots of opinions on snow performance of various All Terrain tires as well, again Search is your friend. Many aggressive AT tires handle fresh snow off road well, but struggle with packed snow on asphalt. The Tire Rack website has objective on road tests of AT tires in wet and snow, interesting results that are worth watching.
OFF ROAD: tons of opinions here. The AT tires I see most mentioned range from mild, such as Continental Terraincontact, Yokohama Geolander AT, Michelin AT2, to more aggressive like Falken Wildpeak, Cooper AT3, Nitto Ridge Grappler, BF Goodrich KO2, etc. The Goodyear Duratrac would fit here, although there are very mixed reviews on this site about the Duratrac’s here - some people love them, many do not. Some of the more aggressive AT tires are only available in LT ratings, with heavier unsprung weight and higher required air pressures.
HIGHWAY: It’s probably obvious that aggressive ATtires may be noisier on the highway, The deeper voids also mean they have longer stopping distances and poorer performance on wet asphalt. The milder AT tires like those mentioned above, OR the Michelin Defenders, will have better performance on road.
LOOKS: lots of people buy AT tires because they look cool on the truck. I suppose that’s OK as long as what they’re buying is functional for their uses. I posted a link earlier in this thread about hard core off-road guys using street oriented MichelinDefenders off road with great success, but plenty of people don’t want them because they are bland looking. I think the Defenders would fit your uses because they’re reviewed well in the snow and can handle what you’re using them for, but you may want a more rugged looking tire.
I hope this helps. Lots to search here on this site. Your truck looks great in silver, that’s the color I wanted but ended up with white.
