Snow tires for winter? A/T for year round?

[BBob]

your wrong on that. BC and Quebec requite tires with 3 peak rating or M&S.
So literally a vast selection of AT tire or any mud terrain

Okay I'm wrong. On the other hand I did not know a single family or person that ran AT tires during the winter in Quebec. They all chose a real snow tire. If you've ever driven each back to back you'd know why.

 

[5MilesBack]

I've never put snow tires on any of my trucks, but have put them on my wife's car and my daughter's car for the winter. I'm much more comfortable in my trucks with AT's in 4wd than the cars with snow tires. The cars will still slide all over the place even with snow tires, including my wife's AWD Subaru. And in a general sense, we don't get enough snow through the winter for me to justify putting snow tires on my trucks.

 

[RCB]

Thanks folks. Considering everything I’ll probably go for the A/T with a decent winter rating and call it a day.

Did find this video re A/T v snow tire which I found fairly informative. Long story short snow tires are better for snow, but for my purposes I don’t think it’s necessary.

 

[2buffalo]

AT tires year round is fine. Snow tires with studs are great on icy roads but suck on dry paved roads.

 

[Blurry1]

Considering how quickly snow disappears off of roads in Colorado’s and the fact you’re on the front range I would have a hard time justifying snow tires. Maybe if you lived in summit county. Between a 1998 Tacoma and a 2014 F150 in colorado I have only slid off the road once in 20 years. That was because I was going downhill much like you and didn’t slow down gently. I also think chains are largely a waste of time in CO having used mine only once in CO outside of trailblazing into elk camp. But that’s me.

 

[Poser]

Plenty of data on studded tires that show that, when compared to modern studless winter tires, that studs are only advantageous in a narrow range of conditions: purce ice. And, in fact, reduce your traction in other conditions since they reduce the contact of the rubber compounds.

 

[Swamppirate]

I have been using the Michelin LTX AT2 tires. A few snows here in VA with no issue.

 

[Dr.Spaniel]

I live in a city (Denver); the vast majority of my driving is on paved roads. Here and there I head up to the mountains to hunt, fish, ski, etc. Up to now I have driven standard all-weather tires exclusively. I drive a 4WD 2006 1500 Ram.

One thing I’ve learned is that all-weather tires (the kind that virtually everyone on the road drives) plus chains does everything I need for hunting season. In fact, last year we got a dump of snow prior to 3rd season (I’m sure many of you remember), and with chains on 4 tires I had no trouble going miles on decently rough trails in all that snow. I feel pretty bullet proof when I throw on chains; no problem there.

BUT - the trouble is when I’m driving in mountain roads and it’s snowy enough to be dangerous, but not snowy enough to get me to put on chains. This year, driving to a ski trip, I lost traction while heading down-hill on a standard highway for a few seconds. Got control and nothing bad happened, but still it makes me rethink my tire situation. Of course I might have avoided it by just driving slower, but I already knew that, and got into the situation anyway. Snowy conditions come up often enough that I want to be proactive about this.

So two thoughts come into my mind:
1. Always drive in All-Terrain (A/T) tires, year round.
2. Get a set of winter tires (aka snow tires) that are particularly good in winter, and switch between those and the summer tires seasonally.

Seems to me that the advantage of the former is simplicity and probably a lower cost, with the downside of perhaps lower fuel efficiency for the vast majority of my driving on the highway. The advantage of the latter, I think, is greater performance all around (good summer tires for the city, and probably superior performance in the snow as compared to A/T), with the downside being the hassle and cost of having to change them out every six months as well as storing them in the meantime.

What do y’all do? How do you arrive at your decision? Am I thinking about any of this the wrong way?

Lived in Loveland for the last three years and spent a bunch of time up the Saint Vrain running Falken Wildpeak A/T 3, 285/75/r17 on my GX470. We liked Pole Hill and any other little trail we could find on the MVU. I like them. I wouldn't put snow tires on any car unless I was much further north and never had to use chains even when heading up high. When I lived in Silverthorne and Frisco I drove a 1991 Buick Century and never slid off the road. The GX slays in the snow, particularly with the nannies turned off. Driving slow and knowing your vehicle usually makes all the difference. If I lived in Denver I’d be driving a Prius.

 

[stephane]

I’ve used Falken Wildpeaks AT3W on my Tundra all over western Canada through mountain passes in the winter and never had any issues. I’m due to replace them soon but I see the newer version is the AT4W and I’ve heard they’re heavier and my fuel economy is already pretty poor…not sure which tire I’ll get next but the wildpeaks are great in compact snow and ice that’s for sure.