……...for snow.
"I maintained a small fleet of OshKosh and Kenworth and Ford 350's plow trucks for twenty seasons, ski lodge contract. My take away on tires is, sales talk is just talk. If at all possible, observe tires on packed snow at relatively low speed, 20-35 mph, if you see a 'roostertail' of snow cleaning off the tread right behind the rolling tire...you have an effective snow tire. Faster speeds don't count, as centrifugal force cleans the tread. Tread pattern has little to do with actual effective traction. Under inflation can help a marginal tire's effectiveness. Unfortunately, squishy sidewalls and relatively soft tread layer rubber often make the best tire, for snow but not for longevity. In the plowing business, it ain't so much about going as it is stopping. About the first time you take off the top of somebody's speeding little suv with a wing plow that won't go up fast enough, you got yourself a lawsuit. Lesson, tires are cheap."

So what ya think?

 

Makes perfect sense to me.
I owned a towing business for 12 years in an area that gets snow.

 

Couldn't agree more. Living in upstate New York, I'm a full-on snow tire convert. All seasons are straight up dangerous - even with AWD systems as robust as my Subaru. I've also noticed the little low speed roostertails with my snow tires, so I'm glad I know how to pick tires!

 

It does seem to make sense doesn't it. The guy who posted the info doesn't mention which tire brand and style he preferred though. I'm guessing one of the dedicated winter tires would be a top choice for the conditions he describes?

 

I have to chuckle because I drove for years on bias ply truck tires (sometimes highway treads, sometimes snow/mud treads) high in the mountains of Colorado.

Any old radial tire - except for these stupid low-profile things that are so common now - is at least 2x better on snow than what we had back then. But the radials are much more easily damaged on rocks and stuff.

 

I'm sure you were a much better driver back then than half of the morons driving around on all seasons I see sliding around in Rochester during the winter. These people NEED snow tires so they stop sliding into the curb outside of my house. I'm getting tired of getting these plastic pod-people pod-cars unstuck.

Different generations I reckon. I told my dad how upstate Maine was trying to pass legislation that would make all-seasons illegal from Oct through March and he got PISSED and said if you're smart enough to prepare yourself to drive on terrible tires, you should be allowed to. I don't think the majority of drivers today are that prepared.

 

We had to be better drivers back then.

I remember when I bought a new pickup with some lousy passenger car highway radials all around. That thing stuck to the road so well even with the box mostly empty that I wondered why anyone would ever need 4wd, except for going on back roads and no roads which I was doing since I was logging at the time. I had to sell that pickup to afford to buy my Truck, and then we later got ahold of an older K-10 with 6 ply bias "Transport 110" tires. We got around great with that up in the mountains although I did chain it up once or twice for bumper deep snow. In between I took off the inside duals and got around in the winter with the Truck, sometimes with chains (8.25-20 truck tires).

Then we had kids and sold the K-10 and bought a 2wd 4-speed Suburban. I finally bought my first set of LT radial tires for it. We were in town by then and got around all winter including trips over the Divide without any problem. Only time I remember putting chains on was to get into an field of maybe 18" of old snow to retrieve a heavy trailer. For a while there I also had a short stepside C-10 with some old narrow mud tires on the back and went everywhere I needed to go. I sold that and later bought a C-20 squarebody and put some A/S radials on that and used it to go to the woods again. I did like the log truck drivers did and just chained it up before it was needed; I stayed in a camper in the woods all week and never took off the chains until Friday night headed back to town.

It wasn't until after we moved to Montana that we got another 4wd, and that because of the muddy county roads. It's no fun to put on chains in the mud. Also, we needed to replace the Suburban and couldn't find a newer one with a 4 speed manual, and I sure wasn't going to just own a slush-o-matic without low range!

These days we are running A/S radials on our Cherokee and getting around in the mud and snow drifts in Full time 4wd. Amazing vehicle!