Advice on winter tires for JL Rubicon

[Chris_Maine]

I think some confusion can occur unless we consider where lives and drives. For example, it sounds like New England winter road conditions are mild enough to not require high performing tires to maintain ultimate traction on their particular average road conditions. And New England temperstures are warm enough to not have to worry about your tires turning into hard, frozen slippery hockey pucks in the snow. (Which KOs will do at -40) And finally if your Jeep doesn’t need winter tires.. then ya.. neither does any other vehicle on the road. So your all good.

Agree, but OP was in northern NE (Vt, NH, and ME), which is definitely colder than southern NE, particularly if one’s up near the Quebec border, so OP may need to concern themselves when it’s well below 0F. It’s something I’m trying to figure out this winter myself.

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[Frostbit]

Waiting for the diesel wrangler so we don't have specific wrangler experience but we run Blizzaks on our three vehicles for the winter and KO2's on my two Dodge Cummins from May to September. The KO2's do well in the snow but aren't as good as Blizzaks. Those tires are like Gecko Feet.

 

[Vedder]

Got the Blizzaks on this weekend. Bring on another northern Canadian Winter!!!

 

[palmor]

Got the Blizzaks on this weekend. Bring on another northern Canadain Winter!!!

You’ll be happy with them. I run these DM-V2’s on our 2011 GC and they are great, driven through quite a few major winter storms and they were great. Probably going to pick them up for the Wrangle because once you get used to dedicated snow tires it’s hard to go back (I’ve run them on my cars for the last 14 years).

 

[Vedder]

You’ll be happy with them. I run these DM-V2’s on our 2011 GC and they are great, driven through quite a few major winter storms and they were great. Probably going to pick them up for the Wrangle because once you get used to dedicated snow tires it’s hard to go back (I’ve run them on my cars for the last 14 years).

This are my first DM-V2 but I’ve been driving on WS80’s for years so I do have high expectations. I actually really wanted to try the Nokian Hakka SUV3 but I would have had to special order my size and winter is already here. No time to wait.

But ya man, agree 100% on there’s no going back once you experience high performing winters. It’s been 15 years now and I guess I just didn’t know any better for the first 15 years lol

 

[threeve]

This are my first DM-V2 but I’ve been driving on WS80’s for year so I do have high expectations. I actually really wanted to try the Nokian Hakka SUV3 but I would have had to special order my size and winter is already here. No time to wait.

But ya man, agree 100% on there’s no going back once you experience high performing winters. It’s been 15 years now and I guess I just didn’t know any better for the first 15 years lol

What size Blizzaks did you get? My Sport S has 245/75r17 tires but the dm-v2 does not offer that as an option. I'm looking at 265/70r17 which is very close in diameter but slightly wider. Firestone won't let me order this size online since it's not an exact match to the stock tires, so I'll have to call them to make sure they'll mount them on my wheels.

 

[Vedder]

What size Blizzaks did you get? My Sport S has 245/75r17 tires but the dm-v2 does not offer that as an option. I'm looking at 265/70r17 which is very close in diameter but slightly wider. Firestone won't let me order this size online since it's not an exact match to the stock tires, so I'll have to call them to make sure they'll mount them on my wheels.

DM-V2. My stock tire is a 255/70/18 and went with 265/70/18 DM-V2. You can easily go with a 265/70/17 on your stock wheel. No issue at all there.

 

[palmor]

What size Blizzaks did you get? My Sport S has 245/75r17 tires but the dm-v2 does not offer that as an option. I'm looking at 265/70r17 which is very close in diameter but slightly wider. Firestone won't let me order this size online since it's not an exact match to the stock tires, so I'll have to call them to make sure they'll mount them on my wheels.

No problem with the 265/70. It’s plus .3% larger diameter and a bit wider according to
https://tiresize.com/comparison/

I have 255/75 as stock and I’m going to 265/70 which is -1.6%.

 

[Vedder]

No problem with the 265/70. It’s plus .3% larger diameter and a bit wider according to
https://tiresize.com/comparison/

I have 255/75 as stock and I’m going to 265/70 which is -1.6%.

Why is that a problem? I wen

No problem with the 265/70. It’s plus .3% larger diameter and a bit wider according to
https://tiresize.com/comparison/

I have 255/75 as stock and I’m going to 265/70 which is -1.6%.

Get them. You won’t regret it

 

[palmor]

Why is that a problem?

It’s not, I said “no problem”.

 

[Vedder]

It’s not, I said “no problem”.

Ah yes.. I misread. My first coffee is kicking in so my brain should follow along anytime now lol.

 

[palmor]

Ah yes.. I misread. My first coffee is kicking in so my brain should follow along anytime now lol.

No worries, I figured that is what happened.

 

[Vedder]

I tested these out on ice a few days ago but this is the first time the DM-V2’s have a chance to play in the snow. Only about 4 inches on the ground but should be 10 inches out there by the morning. I’ll wait to see how they fair out over the next 5 months of winter but very very impressed so far. Excellent acceleration and decelerations traction. Great cornering grip.

 

[ebelp]

Blizzaks are faaantastic in the winter. If I had a Sahara, I'd 100% run them in that size. With the Rubicon, I think the K02's are more than capable of handling deep snow. I had them on some snow covered trails recently and they were amazing...and on snow covered streets, they were perfect for me too.

Now that I have my 37" STT Pros mounted and it's been snowing, there's a HUGE difference. The Coopers are definitely not cut out for harsh winter conditions...they do okay, but nowhere near as good as the stock K02's. That's my 2 cents. Here's a pic I took yesterday....the STT Pros were sliding all over the place in 2wd. There was a mild incline getting to where i took this picture, and I had to pop it in 4wd so the back end would stop fishtailing all over the place.

 

[palmor]

Just took off the Mud Terrains and put on Blizzak DM-V2's for the winter. It's funny that going to a winter tire makes things quieter (I'm used to going from a high perf dedicated summer tire to winters, now that is a huge difference).

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