Blizzaks rock the house, but on a truck, Pirelli makes a studless winter tire, the Scorpion Ice and Snow
Best Tires for winter conditions (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter crackerjack
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My mud terrains suck big time in ice. next time around i will get all terrains for sure. the mud terrains do work awesome in deeper snow though. i was on some back roads up to a lake the other day with about a foot of powder and my truck was just powering through it fine. we had another truck with 35" all terrains and he was having big problems with the snow and had to turn back.
My trxus have a lot of siping on them, i havent driven them on icey roads yet but in light snow and wet roads they have never lacked for grip. I think the sipes and the width counteract the void space a little bit.
David*BJ70
Looking forward to reach the end of the world
Here a opinion from the Automobile Protection Association in canada about winter tire :
http://www.apa.ca/template.asp?DocID=97#suv
http://www.apa.ca/template.asp?DocID=97#suv
I run 31 10.5" Bridgestones and they do fine. I think no matter what tire in winter, you will slip unless in 4wd. I think the ass end is just too light. In 4wd I can floor it and not slip until about 35mph. So they do fine.
David, que pense tu des Blizzak?
Here up north in the Laurentians they're deemed to have the best grip, but they also wear the fastest (two winters tops).
I used studded Nokian Hakkapelliittas for my old BJ60, great the first year, good the second, acceptable the third, poor the fourth, but they last and last... One problem I found, though: they tend to get out of round after a couple of years and are difficult to balance after that. But we have one good excuse: we probably have the worst road conditions in North America here...
Chris, presently investigating new tires for his soon to be home HDJ81...
On the 60, the studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta's are the best tires I've ever run in winter. I think I'm starting winter #5 on this set. The roads in my neighborhood can get to be sidehill skating rink and I've never had to resort to chains, except for recovering other vehicles from the ditch.
vlinker, what were those? I've run Hakkas LT 10s, IIRC, and now SUVs, allways studded. In both cases, one in a set of four went out of round after one or two winters. Been told it could be a defective belt by one garage owner. The out-of round is not very serious, but it is visible when you have the wheel on the balancing machine.
To sum it up, I'm not sure I will stay with Nokian after this set is done. We have very, very bad roads here in Quebec where I live. They're basically asphalt covered horse carriage trails (that's not from me but from our municipal road maintenance old timer here!). From time to time they have to dig out stumps and boulders that come out of them like pimples on a teenager's face. (sorry for being so gross
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vlinker, what were those? I've run Hakkas LT 10s, IIRC, and now SUVs, allways studded. In both cases, one in a set of four went out of round after one or two winters. Been told it could be a defective belt by one garage owner. The out-of round is not very serious, but it is visible when you have the wheel on the balancing machine.
To sum it up, I'm not sure I will stay with Nokian after this set is done. We have very, very bad roads here in Quebec where I live. They're basically asphalt covered horse carriage trails (that's not from me but from our municipal road maintenance old timer here!). From time to time they have to dig out stumps and boulders that come out of them like pimples on a teenager's face. (sorry for being so gross
These are the Hakka 10's.....235/75R15. I have another set with a couple winters on them to use when these wear out.
Thanks for the info - I will check my Hakka SUVs (which were better riding than the old Hakka 10s and better on ice when studded as they have more than 115 studs per wheel in 235/75R15 size!) in the next few days for out-of-roundness prior to installing them on my new truck.
Over the years I have tried many different winter tires on our vehicles, and I have found that the end results is dependent not only on the tire, but also the type of drive (front, rear or 4W), tire size and vehicle. One tire can be exceptional on one vehicle and terrible on another. Getting the right tire for your vehicle, road conditions, climate and driving style is definitely what I'd call a black art...
Had a mounted set of Hakkes for the 5000 Quattro I sold to a guy in Morrison, CO who had rolled a 4WD Caravan off his road a week before. He called me raving how amazing the car/tire combination was on snowy mountain roads.
More winter tire musings...
To be honest, the Hakkas are very good indeed on the LC and on the BJ60 would allow the use of 2WD longer than most tires I've tried, but in truth our small cars with front wheel drive had much better traction with most winter tires than the LC in rear wheel drive mode and at the time I even considered if I simply couldn't make the LC front wheel drive first. Of course with the newer models such as the HDJ81 this won't be an issue...
What I liked about the Hakkas was that they wear very long, but unfortunately out of both sets of 4 I've bought one tire ended up being out of round after only one or two years, enough to give balancers headaches and cause unpleasant vibrations at highway speeds.
So those are the reasons I'm considering other tires now, after seeing how well the Yokohama Guardex and the Bridgestone Duelers performed on our old front wheel drive cars.
Also, the reason I'm still looking and investigating at this point is that there is not much choice for high grip on ice and snow for tires in the size I want for the Landcruiser. It's either the knobbly super wide mud terrains that are completely useless on the ice and hard packed snow we have here as a road surface between December and end of April, or featureless, heavy tire trucks with no flexibility, a hard surface and NO SIPES that most folks end up having to weigh down with hundreds of pounds of sand to make them bite enough to use in 2WD mode.
Where are the great grippy tires in the sizes and compound formulations offered for "passenger cars" that we really need for our vehicles? Why are there so few narrow and tall tires? I'll take a truck size passenger tread and compound tire any day over what they are still selling around here in LT sizes.
To be honest, the Hakkas are very good indeed on the LC and on the BJ60 would allow the use of 2WD longer than most tires I've tried, but in truth our small cars with front wheel drive had much better traction with most winter tires than the LC in rear wheel drive mode and at the time I even considered if I simply couldn't make the LC front wheel drive first. Of course with the newer models such as the HDJ81 this won't be an issue...
What I liked about the Hakkas was that they wear very long, but unfortunately out of both sets of 4 I've bought one tire ended up being out of round after only one or two years, enough to give balancers headaches and cause unpleasant vibrations at highway speeds.
So those are the reasons I'm considering other tires now, after seeing how well the Yokohama Guardex and the Bridgestone Duelers performed on our old front wheel drive cars.
Also, the reason I'm still looking and investigating at this point is that there is not much choice for high grip on ice and snow for tires in the size I want for the Landcruiser. It's either the knobbly super wide mud terrains that are completely useless on the ice and hard packed snow we have here as a road surface between December and end of April, or featureless, heavy tire trucks with no flexibility, a hard surface and NO SIPES that most folks end up having to weigh down with hundreds of pounds of sand to make them bite enough to use in 2WD mode.
Where are the great grippy tires in the sizes and compound formulations offered for "passenger cars" that we really need for our vehicles? Why are there so few narrow and tall tires? I'll take a truck size passenger tread and compound tire any day over what they are still selling around here in LT sizes.
Does anyone have experience with the Dunlop Radial Rover R/T? It seems like possibly the ideal 4-season, all terrain tire for those of us who live in areas that get a fair amount of snow, but not usually a lot of ice.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Radial+Rover+R/T
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Radial+Rover+R/T
Blizzaks - no question. For extreme snow and ice there are no better. They do wear fast on dry pavement but if the pavement isn't dry for half the year - then they are well worth it. I run them on my FJ60 and my F-150. I get about 20,000 miles on a set - that's about two winters. You may not need such a tire if you don't get all that much snow. I wouldn't unless I lived where I do. After all we had over 400" of snow last winter - I drive in snow about 3 to 4 days a week from Nov - April. This year - I put my snow tires on in mid September - And I needed them!
BTW - I run 31"x10.5 on the FJ60
John
This year - I put my snow tires on in mid September - And I needed them!BTW - I run 31"x10.5 on the FJ60
John
BFG AT/KO's & Commercial Traction TA's
When they were new, I ran BFG AT/KO's year round on my FJ62 stock rims. They worked great for the dry roads in the valley and good for snow and ice floor in the mountains. Once they wore down a bit, I mounted studded BFG Commercial Traction TA's and they worked quite well in deep snow and the studs were great for an ice floor.
When they were new, I ran BFG AT/KO's year round on my FJ62 stock rims. They worked great for the dry roads in the valley and good for snow and ice floor in the mountains. Once they wore down a bit, I mounted studded BFG Commercial Traction TA's and they worked quite well in deep snow and the studs were great for an ice floor.
Have to side with the two sets of tires group.
A good siped & studded tire when the snow hits. When it goes away put back on whatever u like. Both sets will last much longer than trying to run ATs all year. I tryed the one set of tires theory for years. Buy new in fall, ATs so so in snow,next fall they were too good to throw away but worn enough to be useless in snow.
One set for winter & one set for the rest of the year,only way to fly!
A good siped & studded tire when the snow hits. When it goes away put back on whatever u like. Both sets will last much longer than trying to run ATs all year. I tryed the one set of tires theory for years. Buy new in fall, ATs so so in snow,next fall they were too good to throw away but worn enough to be useless in snow.
One set for winter & one set for the rest of the year,only way to fly!
I have 33 12.5 wildcoulntry mud tires and they are terrible on ice and sufficient on snow. Good friend has 285/65s Cooper winter all terain SST or something that looked sipped to me. They handle great in snow and ice and have 6 ply sidewalls.
Cooper SST Input
The Cooper SST tires are LOUD on the street and the rubber compound that composes them is very hard and rigid for digging into mud and ruts off-road. This makes them ok in deep snow, but horrible if there is any ice. They are not a good choice for a winter tire. Nokian Hakkas are the best you can get but pricey.
The Cooper SST tires are LOUD on the street and the rubber compound that composes them is very hard and rigid for digging into mud and ruts off-road. This makes them ok in deep snow, but horrible if there is any ice. They are not a good choice for a winter tire. Nokian Hakkas are the best you can get but pricey.
Has anyone used Green Diamond tires in the winter? They seem to be an excellent tire for the conditions you guys are talking about.
http://greendiamondtire.com/
http://greendiamondtire.com/
