Are winter tires necessary?

[Old Jeeper]

When the Territory MTs wear out on my Bronco, I am leaning hard to the Duratracs. I had a set of Kanati Trail Hogs (essentially a Duratrac knock-off) in 315/70/17 and they were great.

Do the Duratrac whine more as they wear? The Kanati's did to a degree.

Have not noticed any whining at all.

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[Discount Tire]

@Joe that's an awesome pic! Thanks for sharing. Did anything break that day 4 wheelin?

 

[BRuby]

That massive of a tire can float on the right snow and in the right conditions, but once you start to climb, you just have a bigger sky. Taller is always better, you don't want to push snow. But 44's and chains fully aired up will run circles around 2 PSI boggers on real off road stuff. Go to any ranch in MT, WY, UT and what do they use to get to the cattle, tall skinny tires and 4 chains.

We talked about the snow wheeling he did in Canada, near the arctic circle.

That's far different snow than you'll find in the lower 48. In dry snow, anything works. The wetter the snow, the more you need to get to the earth.

Ditto for the guys in Iceland with monster tires a 4 PSI. They're mostly flatlanders

Several times we became stuck when our Hilux broke through the glacial ice and lost traction. Stefan explained that driving on a glacier was much different than in regular snow. The key is to go very slowly and to not break through the top layer. We found that it was easier said than done, and it seemed like we spent more time winching than glacial driving

I spent 30+ years doing deep snow recovery and the first folks I pulled out were the aired down mall crawlers. Years ago had to use a kinetic chain to do recoveries, many years before kinetic ropes were available. (chain-tire-chain-tire-chain).

I've seen the 44x18 at 4 PSI do pretty good in deep dry snow, but a 46 pizza cutter does far better in actual hills and difficult offroad conditions.

My LJR on 42.8x14.5R 17 at 7 PSI is crap in snow.

Yep spot on.

Many in this forum, but not necessarily in this thread, simply have no clue how to drive in different difficult winter conditions. They hear or read or see something on the web and parrot it without testing firsthand themselves. Their ineptitude is so plainly obvious by their lack of comprehension and way off base comments regarding winter driving.

Buffoons or simply misinformed. Those that have actual practical hands on experience know the truth. But then that goes for many different topics posted. It is what it is. Makes the world go round. Haha!

When conditions warrant - definitely go with chains. Otherwise drive prudently within the traction parameters you are dealt with.

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