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Question on Snow Tire Size

lebeanyard

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Hey Everyone,

I have a 2018 JLUR. I am an avid snow skier and am trying to decide the best option for snow tires on the Rubicon. I know that the BFG KO2’s are decent snow tires, but I want a dedicated, studded winter tire for getting up to Timberline Lodge consistently throughout the winter. I honed in on the Nokian Hakka LT3 tire and initially planned to get the 285/70R17 size to match the stock size KO2’s. However, I will get better performance in the snow from a narrower tire, Nokian offers a 235/80R17 in this tire, the only issue is that comes out to a 32 inch tire rather than 33. My question is whether you guys think a 32 inch tire on the higher Rubicon fender flares will look bad? I don’t want the space between the tire and fenders to be excessive. Any pictures of people running this would be much appreciated, but I doubt anyone has examples of a 32 on a JLU Rubicon. Thanks for any input!
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Turchman

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My .02 is who cares how it looks in the winter, as long as you can get where you are going. I agree a narrower tire is better in the winter. Ran Cooper winter tires on my old Grand Cherokee and it was a beast in the snow. Just walked around pickups that were spinning their tires on the hills. They were 70 series tires and did well, but I always thought a narrow tire would have been even better.

Will you give us some feedback this winter, I might do the same thing eventually.
 

JP18

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Narrower tires in the winter for on-road driving will dig to the bottom and find pavement. Wider tires will float on top, which may be good for off-roading but won't be that good for on-road driving.

JP18
 

Myron

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I'm in Michigan and run snow tires on all my cars. I'm a big fan of Nokians and will be making this decision soon, too. For your application, I'd just put as skinny tire as was still safe (handling characteristics, etc) and not worry about how it looked.

If you are concerned about appearance (and who among us isn't, at least a little bit), mount them on steel rims. I bet you'd find they look a little bigger on black steel wheels.

Let us know what snow tire you end up with and good luck.

Myron
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