J0E
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- J0e
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- Sep 1, 2018
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- Hawaii, MT, SLC, NYC
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- bt39.com
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- 2021 JLR, 05 LJR on 43s
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- Drywall construction - reel estate
Congratulations. You're the only other person on the entire internet that knows that. I did snow recovery in Montana, UT, WA for 30 years. Tall skinny tires fully aired up do best in snow. Studded tires on ice. I did ice racing for years before wised up. Everyone measures footprint vs. traction on sand, rock, etc. It's easy to prove a bigger footprint works better. But I seem to be the only one who's measured that in snow. Because you want to air down everywhere else, everyone assumes you do the same in snow. Search the internet on snow and tires. Guys have a lot of money invested in their big tires. Thousands of comments like "My big xxx tires did great in snow". Compared to what? Have they ever tested different width tires?
Snow compresses into ice. You need to get down to the ground for traction. 38"x18" MT aired down to 5 PSI will not snowmobile on snow. They will compress the snow, spin, and start bucking.
My Dad and best friend farmer taught me this when in the 1960's. When I got wide 35's on my F-250, they were a blast in super dry snow, but vastly inferior to my 7.50 wide tires.
Go to any ranch in MT or other states that get a lot of snow. They use skinny tires, fully aired up, and often chained up to get feed to the cattle.
For recovery in deep snow, I'd have 4 studded tires on the pavement. When I got to the trailhead, I grab my floor jack, 4 studded tires, and cordless impact. The cordless impact was a big savings, before that I carried my 5 HP Honda gas generator. All this in a F-250.
You can't push much snow (none if it's wet snow like in the PNW). Airing down only makes you push snow sooner.
When it comes to wet snow, all this goes more than double. Except you can't push any wet snow.
If you do chain up all 4, make sure you go with a buddy and have good recovery gear. If you're going up a logging road and the snow is getting deeper, make sure you have someplace to turn around.
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