Today was the first time I drove in the snow with the new tires on the truck. Over the summer I purchased the tires after an event in which my right side tires were punctured by road debris. I had Goodyear tires on the truck prior. They were wearing well and seemed to handle what I tossed at it. These are also Goodyear Wranglers but man the difference is unbelievable. It feels like I am on ice skates. No traction or grip in the snow. In other words, garbage traction. I usually run the tires around 60 PSI. I am wondering if those with similar tires run them with less PSI to get better traction in the winter months. Any thoughts?

I am wondering if I should pull these off. Sell them and get something else. We just started real winter weather. There is going to be a few more months. Honestly, I would say I could deal with it but I never had such a poor performing tire on a truck before. When I was speaking with my wife, she even commented that it was odd that I had that much trouble with the truck in the weather like that.

The truck is a 2016 F350 Crew Cab Short Bed

 

You can see how your tires are racked in snow on the Tire Rack website.

 

What size tire and is that the same as the previous set? Better winter traction is achieved with a narrower tire as it puts more pressure on the contact patch, after that it comes down to rubber compound and tread pattern. But even winter tires can be ineffective with just the right combination of weather conditions... just below freezing with a couple inches of snow and lighter traffic produces a super slick mess that nothing short of studs or chains will grip.

 

Yea I'm looking at reviews now. Quite frankly, I had pretty much a slew of different brands on each of my Super Duties. The Black F250 had a set of BFGs which came off when I got new rims for the truck. I rode on the set of Michelins on those rims, the replaced those with Cooper AT3s. No bad but wore out pretty quick in my book. I want to say around 35,000 miles they were shot. Had Firestone ATs on that truck until the wreck.

The F350 came with Michelins which I rode on for awhile. I had a set of Nittos installed. Those were nice tires but wore out within 18 months. I might have gotten 25,000 miles on them before they were shot. However they were like the Coopers. Great in the snow and everywhere else. At the time, I was getting work done at the Ford Dealer on the truck. The timing was right before the Winter of 2020, they said the tires should be replaced soon and gave me a few quotes. I chose the Goodyears since there was 2 financing offers at the time. One for the Ford Service charge. The other was a rebate program. Being it was right before the holidays it was a no brainer. The tires actually were no issue in the snow and wet conditions. Over this past summer, I clipped some what appeared to be sheet metal that felt out of the a truck. I got the tires replaced with another set of Goodyears. This set even though were suppose to be a better Wrangler were garbage in today's driving conditions. The previous set I had on the truck were pretty darn good in the snow. I don't think they were 3 peak either. The new set was 3 peak. When I got to my parent's, I was talking to dad about how horrible the drive was. He looked and basically said they are Wranglers and I am not shocked. Then he went into his rant about how horrible Wranglers were back in the 90s on his Ranger. The only reason why he got them was due to my mother working at Goodyear dealer. So the price was right for the family growing up.

Right now, I am kicking around the idea of getting another set of Cooper Discoverer AT3s installed. I saw the local Firestone dealer has the Bridgestone Revo 3 AT on hand. They seem to be a pretty good tire. I don't know. As for the Nitto tires, I don't know if I want to spend the money again for tires that wore out pretty fast in my book. This is with regular maintenance and rotation no less. I might check out BFGs again.

 

Stock tire sizes. Nothing special or over kill. 275/70R18 I know both were Goodyear Wrangler A/T branded. The current tire is All Terrain Adventurer model. Which looking into those more they were not well liked in winter driving conditions. They were poorly rated on tire rack.

 

I just run Michelins consistently. Probably not the best, but never the worst either.

 

Been running Michelins for a long time... (mud & snow). I am getting good traction with them..and they last a long.time. I have long steep driveway, compact snow and ice right now, about 400 feet long.. No problem getting to the top. I agree with previous poster, a narrow tire is better in the snow and ice..

 

Cooper Discovery STT's on previous SRW trucks, really good in mud and snow. About a 45K mile tire. Excellent for towing.
AT3's were really good too.

 

BF Goodrich All Terrain were very good to me. Put some additional weight in the bed especially during the snowy season. I lived in NY for 53 years, and believe me it helped. I have a 2002 F 250 XLT CC 4WD. It's the big one.....

 

Running Michelin XPS tractions on my 03 dually. I will have to replace them this spring as they are approaching the wear bars but they still work in the snow and I have 85K miles on them. For some reason they are now very hard to find, possibly discontinued and any NOS are very pricey.

 

The brand of tire doesn't seem to matter as much as the tread design. I had Michelin Defenders on my 01 and loved everything about them except driving in the snow. Replaced them with Cooper RTX tires--they are great in snow. They are supposedly very similar to their ATX tires, only branded for sale exclusively at Big O Tires. I have almost 60,000 miles on them now and won't have to replace them until next fall.

My truck has always been good on tires: 65K on the factory Firestone Steeltex tires, 70K on Michelin LTX 4's, 75K on the Defenders and now it looks like 70K on the Coopers. I buy all season tires, although snow tires will do better in snow, they are generally noisier. I don't want that.

 

I’m curious how you wore a set of cooper AT3’s out at 35k, especially since they’ve got a 60k warranty. You’re truck is eating tires.

 

Hi Everyone!

I too live on a hill. My street is pitched from the point of leaving the main road to the top with a cross road. The street is about a 1/4 mile long. As for gradient, IDK. I would say at least 175 feet of elevation change from the main road to my house. I have lived here for over 15 years. We have had our fair share of snow over those years. This was the only time my truck felt like it was RWD only with the snow yet I knew it was in 4 WD. Heck I needed 4WD Low to get out of my driveway on to the street which is never the case. This was with weight in the back.

Weight is a huge point that I try to keep in the truck when I know it's going to snow. Years ago I worked for a utility company. We had Chevy Express vans. RWD with a V6. In the winter, I would have 250 pounds of sand on the axles to help get around. Unfortunately, I had to pay for the 5 bags since according to the company it was our fault if thier equipment got stuck. Techs were evaluated if a tow service had to come out. So we would carry sand and a snow shovel to dig out. Grit drive lane. Pray you got out. Yesterday, I had a heavy 28 inch snow blower and 150 pounds of salt going to my folks incase they needed salt. So there was a descent amount of weight in the truck.

Don't know. Regular rotations at 5,000 miles. Always aired up correctly. I'm not into burn outs. I actually avoid smoking the tires. They were just worn out at 35,000 miles. As for warranty, I really didn't know if I had any against them. From my understanding, LT rated tires don't have mileage ratings. You get what you get from the tire. When I did see a rating, it was usually for the P based not Lt based tires.

 

Thinking of a combination of towing and winter driving tire, does it matter much between an 18" or 20" wheel size?
Thanks

 

1 inch will be better, more sidewall.