Tested: Best All-Terrain A/T Tires in Snow & Ice

[TrailAdventurer]

...I'm not racing them around a track as this YTer is testing them as so lots of good choices.

Yep . Glad someone else does it for me. Its an interesting, entertaining source of input while shopping/researching.

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[coldtaco]

its not about how fast you can go around a track, it's what kind of confidence to they give you when encountering snowy/icy/rainy conditions. I drove from Seattle area to Anchorage last February and before I left I switched to the KO3's. On the drive they did good, but I never really encountered any difficult road conditions until crossing the border into AK. Lot's of hard parked/icy road conditions for the next 120mi or so. These tires where crap on the hard pack/icy roads. I replaced them with the Nokian nAT's but they didn't balance very well, some where out of round so replaced them with the Toyo AT3, which I had used before on my HJ75 for a few years and they did pretty good for the roads in the winter here, of course drive for conditions.
When I put winter tires on the wife's Rav4 I had bought a used set of wheels with good condition Bridgestone snow tires. I wanted to switch them to the Nokian Haka so I did a good drive around first with the Bridgestones and then drove around with the Nokian. The Nokian felt just that much more confident anytime you turned. When the Nokian broke tracktion they felt more sure footed, if that makes sense. Yes probably was not a very good apple to apple comparison due to the Bridgestones where used, but I get what that tire tester was trying to describe the driving experiences between the tires he compared.
Some of the employees I know that work at a 4x4 shop have good things to say about the Mickey tires for year round. The employees where part of the KO3 roll out that they did here last year and they all had these on their personal rigs. When winter hit they all got rid of them and put other tires on for the winter. I believe they still used the KO3's for the non-winter months as they are a good off road tire.
Just for fun info, I ended up putting mud tires on the HJ75 and they do surprisingly well in the winter, as long as I drive according to conditions. They are the Falcon Wildpeak MT

 

[Glizzy]

Yes I know and that’s what prompted me to post it.
This reviewer is full of crap.

But you're just a random dude on the internet that admitted you only read Tire Rack reviews from other randos on the internet.

The AT4W has worse snow performance than the AT3W. The Nokian nAT is better in the snow than the AT3W based on my experience driving both.

 

[Taco Ji]

But you're just a random dude on the internet that admitted you only read Tire Rack reviews from other randos on the internet.

The AT4W has worse snow performance than the AT3W. The Nokian nAT is better in the snow than the AT3W based on my experience driving both.

Okay. You win!

 

[Tacolorado]

Following here. I am leaning towards the Falkens, Toyo, Bridgestone and Nokians based on my random research. Only down to 4 brands, yikes.

 

[bitflogger]

But you're just a random dude on the internet that admitted you only read Tire Rack reviews from other randos on the internet.

The AT4W has worse snow performance than the AT3W. The Nokian nAT is better in the snow than the AT3W based on my experience driving both.

The Tire Rack crowd sourced reviews for popular tires often reflect thousands of owners millions of miles. For some tires 20+ million miles. That's valuable information but I also understand not everyone has had to take or pass a stats class.

Just looking, I see popular tires all with 10+ to 20+ million miles in the reporting. Seeing 10 million miles and consistently 5.5 vs 9 out of 10 for snow tells me the lesser rated tire is not great for winter better than one or a few dudes testing 1 time.

 

[Airborne]

Very happy with my “ Toyo Open Country,s. ” They will throw, mud, so when you detail truck enjoy it lol….its a truck, ready for offroad use i agree…….but these tires are a really good tire , ive had in snow on other trucks and was very pleased
David

 

[Yotota]

Been meaning to jump in here...

Tires are EXTREMELY subjective. So many factors affect how a tire performs and it's rarely apples to apples between different people and reviewers. A tire that is perfect for one person will suck for another person, even on the same truck.

• Truck type and weight - lighter trucks have less traction with the same tire, versus a heavier truck. Different traction control tech changes everything. Suspension affects traction. Pickup VS SUV changes front/rear weight balance.
• Region and weather - temperature makes a huge difference, especially for the type of snow and ice. PNW wet pack snow is way different compared to Colorado powder.
• Driving style and type - throttle heavy VS light, aggressive turning, towing, load carrying, commuting, driving fast for fun, wheeling, etc...
• Driving surface - old asphalt VS new asphalt VS chip seal VS concrete VS gravel, especially once they have a layer of snow over them. Hard dirt VS soft dirt VS mud.
• I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.

My examples off the top of my head, specifically pertaining to AT/RT/MT tires, in the PNW with wet terrain 50% of the time, under Toyota compact/midsize trucks:

• Toyo flat out doesn't work in the PNW for me, and everyone else I know. The rubber compound is dangerous in wet freezing conditions. But Toyo seems to work really well in drier and warmer climates.
• BFG starts off good, but their rubber compound hardens quickly (hence the long lifespan) and traction degrades along with it. The KO2/3 is good when new, the KM2 sucked, the KM3 was okay.
• Falken is consistently good, and still my favorite AT. I'll run AT3W and now AT4W until something better comes on the market.
• Yokohama is all around good.
• Cooper is all around good.

 

[Will721]

Frankly I'm surprised how popular the BFGs are in the Taco community. Just about everywhere else they are slowly falling out of favor. Mostly due to soaring prices, but also more and more are complaining about QC issues with tires requiring gross amounts of weight to balance.

Personally I ran them for years and loved them, but had a set that wouldn't balance out myself and switched. Been trying out a bunch of the cheaper brands, will probably go Falken or Toyo when it's time to upgrade the Tacoma.

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