I leave them on all year so no dedicated Winter tires. The local shop here in Bozeman suggests Nitto Terra Grappler or Toyo Open Country. Thoughts would be appreciated.
Time for Tires---KO'2s Currently - Stock Size
- Thread starter Bendcruiser
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There are literally thousands of threads on this forum about tire choices - especially KO2 which is a common choice for aftermarket and some OEMs. Do you have specific questions?
I wish you have been with us this past Saturday with a mix of 17 Toyota (one 200LC) and 1 Isuzu on a winter run with our local club, 406cruisers. Not a lot of snow on the pass we drove up and over at 8500 feet for this time of year but you could get a lot of feed back from other drivers. We left town at 9 and went looking for Big Foot around a frozen lake with rare salamanders, had lunch in Virginia City and were back in town at 6.
I run the KO2 for the summer of road trips and snow tires for the winter around town for the ice and for road trips across ID were Look Out Pass will surprise the *@#% out of you on an a big blue sky day on the MT side.
This winter here in BZN is the warmest in 27 years that we have been here. Almost no snow or even temps below freezing so not a great winter to test AT tires.
I run the KO2 for the summer of road trips and snow tires for the winter around town for the ice and for road trips across ID were Look Out Pass will surprise the *@#% out of you on an a big blue sky day on the MT side.
This winter here in BZN is the warmest in 27 years that we have been here. Almost no snow or even temps below freezing so not a great winter to test AT tires.
bloc
SILVER Star
Seconded.
How do people come to this section and assume they are the first with questions about tires? Or even the tenth?
Normally I dislike popup banners but we need a ****ing huge one that says simply "SEARCH"
Disagree with the sentiment that this question has been (1) answered well, (2) answered recently, (3) easy to find with the worst search function ever
this guy is asking about stock size tires to run all year in Bozeman.
There will be literally 100s of threads about stuffing the largest e rated tire, but discussion about current market all terrains and streetish leaning ATs with good snow traction is slight.
this guy is asking about stock size tires to run all year in Bozeman.
There will be literally 100s of threads about stuffing the largest e rated tire, but discussion about current market all terrains and streetish leaning ATs with good snow traction is slight.
What’s your driving mix? How much off-road to pavement? Gravel? Mud?
bloc
SILVER Star
go to google and type in "site:ih8mud.com (whatever you want to search for)" and solve the worst search function ever problem forever. With the sizes discussed here you don't even need to worry about many other j-series section threads clogging the results.
Tires haven't changed that much in the last couple years, and there are a lot of threads asking about stock size all terrains. Winter driving does narrow it down a bit, but tire size doesn't matter for that info, tread design and compound does. Not to mention actually doing some digging will give a much broader range of opinions and experiences than the people that happen to see this thread and bother to respond.
As it turns out, 83 threads on the exact same subject is a primary reason the search function is the worst ever. Chicken & egg much?
Real world experience with just about every iteration of BFG AT, including latest KO2, tells me that the KO2 is okay for driving snow at slow speed. Highway speeds with mixed snow, ice, and dry pavement? Terrifying. Cant tell you how many high speed spins i have had on those tires. I love the Blizzaks in the winter but if I had to go with just a single tire for all year I would run an all season.
CharlieS
GOLD Star
You may have inadvertently helped me understand why I've had such great luck year round on my KO2s - I drive true highway speeds about once every three months or so, and even less frequently in the winter. On secondary paved and dirt roads, they've been great, all seasons, all road conditions.
Huh. I’ve had great experience with KO2s in snow and ice in the PNW. It’s the only reason I stick to KO2s over Ridge Grapplers or something else.
Yeah i have a place in Island Park, Idaho so get to drive in all sorts of winter conditions, often on the same day. If I stayed on the west side of the Cascades i wouldn’t have a problem. But real winter east of the Cascades, black ice, high speeds, and wind are a bad combination. Throw in some iced over bridge decks for excitement.
TheGrrrrr
GOLD Star
Duratracs seem to be a good option for an AT with winter driving chops. I liked mine and they seem to have the best reviews of all the A/Ts in the snow. Some sizes are also studable if that matters. My only gripe with the ones I had, was that they didn't wear as evenly as I would have liked, but that may have been due to a variety of factors unrelated to the tires themselves.
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Yes
TheGrrrrr
GOLD Star
One note is that the Nitro Terra Grapplers felt very slippery in wet conditions on my Range Rover. I didn't use them in snow, but I don't think they would have been good at all. I believe Nitto recommends the Exo Grappler for your use case and reviews seems to be positive particularly in winter driving. In your situation, I would likely be deciding between the Duratrac (more aggressive for off-road and looks, but still good for winter) or the Exo Grappler (less aggressive for off-road but better on pavement performance with good capability in both wet and wintery conditions). I think I'd be leaning towards the Exo Grappler.
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Brings to mind an old Yogi Berra line when his friend asked him about a restaurant " Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded".
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I was thinking of joining, just not sure my rig is set up properly for unknown terrain?
Funny, I was up at the axolotl lakes a few weeks ago on my LX450, zero snow. Practically got blown up to Canada though.
