Help a guy from Indiana

[mac53]

I am planning a hunting trip to either Montana or Wyoming for next year, It will be for Antelope and Mule deer. Thinking mid October.

I would like to ask what are some things that I should have for my truck weather wise?

I have seen where guys have said that the weather can go from nice and sunny to wet and crummy in the matter of minutes and me never being there and going by my self I want to be as prepared as possible.

I plan setting up camp at the truck and hiking from there so I am thinking back country things.

So I need tires for my truck what would you that live out there recommend? A all terrain or full blown mud tire? right now I have all season tires on it. I don't want to look at a road and be scared to drive it?
Chains? Hi Lift jack? winch? Or am I overthinking this part?

If you guys and gals could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.

Thanks
Jon

 

[go_deep]

I drive all over this state for work and some of these roads are not fit for a tractor, all I use for tires is a 10 ply highway tire, and keep chains in the truck.
Snow shovel, flat metal shovel, spade shovel, couple pieces of 2x6 a foot long (put under a jack in the mud), monkey plugs to fix a tire, manual air pump, 5 gallons of gas, and a random assortment of tools.
Check your spare before you leave.

Good luck, and have fun!

 

[137buck]

A good 10 ply all terrain is a good start, I keep a shovel, chains and maxtrax traction boards in my truck at all times. Plus tow straps, A winch is helpful, only if you have something to winch too. I buried my Cummins two years ago and had nothing to winch too, luckily I had the maxtrax with, it took me about an hour between shoveling and placing the boards to get out. Back to the tires, I run the Nitto ridge grapplers, and so far, I'm liking them, pretty good traction in mud, rocks, on rainy roads, and I've had them in some snow, and they did pretty good. As for life of the tires, I have about 9k on them and they're hardly showing any wear, and thats with towing my travel trailer, which is about 8k pounds.

 

[Sheepeater]

I been running siped 10 ply truck tires for years no problem. I don’t use use chains and never have. Roads in the mountains will be mostly rock and usually pretty solid. If you on dirt roads in a valley or on flat ground 2 tracks some of them can get pretty slick when wet. If it snows in mid October it will likely be one of the first snows of the season so there will be solid ground to drive on underneath if in the mountains. Lastly, there are some places you just can’t go in a truck and risk getting stranded alone. I park my truck all the time and walk when I hit an impass I deem too risky. Here are the tires I run. They are at the end of their life at 2 years of hard use in the mud snow and rocks. These were a great tire by the way..

 

[huntdoc]

I learned that when the locals are leaving then I should too, even if the sky is still blue. Something is changing and they are leaving for good reason.