Got to start doing some homework to get ready for the upcomming snow. Living in the Colorado rockies at nearly 8000 feet snow starts in September.

Driving an 05 v10 EX LTD 4x4. Currently have Micky Thompson MTZ's with added siping. 285 75 16. Gonna pick up a second set of whells for the winter tires.

With nearly 18 feet of snow here last season I need a dedicated set of snow tires. I have the option of running studs but my driveway is tight and would prefer not to tear it up although I am open to the studded tire option.

Lot s of folks run the new Cooper Discoverer M+S and certainly the Michelain LTX M+S is well represented.

Looking for suggestions from EX drivers that deal with big snow and what you use and your impressions.

We have some serious mountain roads here and my driveway even has a section with nearly 20% pitch.

I would like to keep the same ride height as current tires at 285 75 16 but can go narrower if necessary for better snow traction.

Thanks in advance!

 

I was thinking that snow is a lot like loose beach sand or mud, and goodyear MTRs are the best I have played with for both sand and mud. My Mickey Baja belteds were good in sand, but sucked in mud.

I looked over at good years website and the MTR says 8/10 for snow. However, Fortera TripleTred has 10/10 for dry, wet and snow traction.

 

I have a home in the UP of Michigan. We average nearly 20 feet of snowfall a year. We went the dedicated snowtire route when we bought our 2005 PSD Excursion. They are on the Truck from October 1 till April 15th. We live in Ohio, so they are legal to run in Michigan with Ohio Tags. We run studded tires on all our vehicles, and have found most any brand of good studded tire will work in the Midwest, but preferr those with more open lugs for the truck in the UP. The E rating limited me on tire options, but I did go with a narrower open lugged snow tire and had it studded. I believe they were a bit taller too. I don't know the tire name, but they we under the Dayton tire label. I had originally run a normal M/S rated wider studded tire but found it wandered too much in the frozen ruts. The narrower ones are head and shoulders better than a little wider tire. On my wife's Volvo XC70 I run the Nokia Hakkapelitta studded tires, and they are the best I have ever found, but not available in the E rated Truck tire. I will look at the name of the Excursion tires when I go to the barn later in the week. Since we have owned this truck for the past two winters, we have only had to use chains once in the Moutains of Tennessee. On flat land the tires do just fine and have allowed us to push snow over the hood last Christmas.

Good luck in your decision,

Scott

 

Ask any plow truck driver, skinny tires are better for getting traction in snow. You want to dig down and get to the ground, not try to float on the snow.

I was a very big fan of my goodyear wrangler silent armours. Tirerack.com gives them excellent numbers across the board. I live in chicago and we only had a couple good storms this last season but i was very confident with these tires. I work right by the lake and had snow upto the middle of my bumper i had to go through and had no problems. Getting going from a standstill in that deep snow you just felt the truck sink as the tires dug through the snow down to pavement, kinda scary the first time i sunk a few inches after rolling to a stop in a deep section lol. You can not stud them though, and with you being in the mountains id be looking for studs! I was in idaho springs just outside of denver to buy a car last spring and i couldnt imagine some of those roads in the winter!

Id stay away from the tripletred stuff as it has comprimises for rain driving also. You are buying tires dedicated to snow and slush, accept no comprimises. Get something studded and skinny. That would be my best advice.

 

For snow I really have to say the best I have ever ran were the BFG All Terrains. They are not as good on wet roads, (rain) but in snow, I have all the faith in the world in them. I got sucked in the ditch last winter in one of the big snowfalls we had. Don't ask how I did it, but I just kept my foot in the gas and drove right out. Granted this was on my F150 that I traded in on my Ex, but those tires are great in snow and they wear awesome.

 

I'm running Cooper Discoverer ATR M+S, E rated 10 ply. I live in WNY, it snows daily from October to April15th. These are good, never got stuck even bulling through 3 feet of wet April snow. Get the 10 ply tires, they ride so much better than D rated.

 

Greetings,

I did a ton of research for my '05 PSD 4x4 Excursion regarding "Hardcore Snow Tires" and have traditionally used Nokian Hakkapeliitta, usually the "10" which is now the "LT". Problem is that the Nokian "LT" does not come in a E-Range 265-75-17 but rather a D-Range. They do however make a 235-85-16 E-Range "LT" (31.8" tall) that's the same height as a 265-75-16 at 31.7" tall. The 235 might be the "ultimate traction" if you drive a Snow Plow but it just looks too skinny for my tastes.

The only "Hardcore" E-Range Snow Tires I could find was the "Bridgestone Blizzak W965" in a 265-75-16. It was designed to keep commercial light trucks and vans on the move in winter weather and is considered a work or commercial tire. It has a tube multicell rubber compound and cannot be studded. The tire is fantastic, almost unstoppable in the snow/ice and far quieter than a typical AT tire... even quieter than stock tires! The only complaint is that the treads "hold" pebbles and small stones between the treads.

Please note that both the Nokian and Bridgestone are dedicated "Hardcore" snow tires and NOT designed to be used during the summer. As the rubber is so soft, these tires feel "mushy" when the weather gets warm. Hot weather driving will quickly wear off the tube multicell (tiny bubbles in the tread compound) layer of the Bridgestone and wear down the Nokian as well. These are NOT an AT or MT Tire.

Just my $.02.

Cheers,