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.