Winter tires for Tacoma 4x4

[spavel6]

I'm finally breaking the German Vehicle trend by ordering a Japanese Truck. (Well, American-made, as they make it abundantly clear in all their marketing). The truck will replace the 4Motion Passat for trips to the mountains for skiing.

When it comes to car rubber, I love my Nokian Hakkapeliittas with studs for winter driving. The Passat handles like it's on rails in the snow with that setup.

What do you guys use for dedicated winter tires on trucks? Skinny? Studded? Something I'm missing?

I have the ability to ad-hoc swap wheels and tires for non-snow driving, so this would be a dedicated bad-weather setup. Mostly snowed-in unplowed highway and on-road use. Not looking to go mudding or 4-wheeling with a brand new truck.

 

[dadto2]

I have Nokian Rotiiva A/T on my Sierra year round. Does just fine in the snow. If I had two sets of rims, I would stick with Hakkapeliittas in the winter.

 

[Astro14]

Hakkapelliittas- hands down.

And pickups have terrible weight distribution- throw some weight in the bed.

I've got Nokians on my Tundra, for the record.

 

[spavel6]

Any thoughts on how narrow to go?

The stock rubber will be the Dunlop GrandTrek AT20 P265/65R17 110S SL

I was debating either getting a 16" wheel and tire combo or 17". I'd love to get steelies for the winter, as I think the look would be pretty awesome, but there are so many take-off Tacoma alloys on CL..

 

[typ901]

I have Blizzak DM-V2 on my '06 Lexus GX-470. It did well according to my son when he had it for a year in Houghton, MI (Upper Peninsula).

I have Michelin's and Continental's on our other cars (VW family). They all work well-the common denominators are all vehicles are AWD and the tires and 'studless ice & snow.'

In Chicago area, I only have them for the ice. Snow doesnt typically phase me in the amounts we get.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Skinnier and studded would be helpful.

 

[ZebRuaj]

I run snowflake stamped AT's + common sense + 4x4 when needed. Not as good as dedicated snow tires but I've survived MN winters over and over. Knock on wood.

 

[CARJ]

If we're talking about a Tacoma, you can easily run a 245/75-17. You can also pick up a set of FJ Cruiser black steel wheels fairly cheaply too. I run this combo year round on my 4Runner with Michelin LTX MS2's.

 

[spavel6]

The sizes I am currently debating are:
245/75R16 -0.3% Diameter
235/85R16 +3.8% DIameter
245/75R17 +3% Diameter
or 245/70R17 -0.3% Diameter

Any thoughts on LT vs P tires? Will I notice a harsher ride with the LTs?

 

[dlundblad]

I'm a fan of Goodyear Duratracs.

I'm on my second set. My brother has set on his Jeep and my mom's 'Yoda is getting them this weekend.

 

[skyactiv]

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by spavel6
I'm finally breaking the German Vehicle trend by ordering a Japanese Truck. (Well, American-made, as they make it abundantly clear in all their marketing). The truck will replace the 4Motion Passat for trips to the mountains for skiing.

When it comes to car rubber, I love my Nokian Hakkapeliittas with studs for winter driving. The Passat handles like it's on rails in the snow with that setup.

What do you guys use for dedicated winter tires on trucks? Skinny? Studded? Something I'm missing?

I have the ability to ad-hoc swap wheels and tires for non-snow driving, so this would be a dedicated bad-weather setup. Mostly snowed-in unplowed highway and on-road use. Not looking to go mudding or 4-wheeling with a brand new truck.


It won't do as good as Passat in snow, regardless of tires.
I would stick with Michelin or Bridgestone. Personally, I would go with Xi2.
Nokian's do good in snow and ice, IMO third class in everything else.

 

[benjy]

skinny is better for sure + using the minus formula where smaller diameter rims + taller sidewalls works. i usually downside a little + have no issues as long as all 4 are the same. rubber compounds are better than ever unless you go cheap + as noted pickups lite rears are not a plus, weight helps plant the tires + heavier vehicles ever older RWDS were always better with REAL snow tyres, always a smart choice.

 

[Oro_O]

Quote
I'd love to get steelies for the winter, as I think the look would be pretty awesome, but there are so many take-off Tacoma alloys on CL.


Yes, and if you are up there that much, the steel will start to rust before long. I'd get alloys for the winter set - I did in the past.

I'd find alloy take-offs you like in EITHER 16 or 17, whatever you find you like, then get the 245/75-16 or 245/70-17. It won't make a ton of difference between them. The odo/speedo always annoyed me slightly when I ran 265/70-16 on my originally-equipped 245/70-16 SUV. I went back to 245 for the last set. I'm shopping for tires for it again now and will likely go w/255/70-16 to fill the wheel well a little better since its lifted, and split the difference. An LT rating would indeed be stiffer and unless you need it for towing/loading (camper, 5th wheel, serious hauling), I wouldn't rush to go that way.

Black Friday tire deals should drop this weekend or next week, so I'm waiting for that to pull the trigger - keep that in mind. Like Benji said - rubber compounds these days are really, really good. I drove around for fun in all that deep snow we had last winter on 2/16" Toyo Open Country ATs and they were amazingly good (I used to live in Vermont so I do really know snow). Oh, and you really need to plan to weight that bed as mentioned.

 

[littlehulkster]

Originally Posted by spavel6
I'm finally breaking the German Vehicle trend by ordering a Japanese Truck. (Well, American-made, as they make it abundantly clear in all their marketing). The truck will replace the 4Motion Passat for trips to the mountains for skiing.

When it comes to car rubber, I love my Nokian Hakkapeliittas with studs for winter driving. The Passat handles like it's on rails in the snow with that setup.

What do you guys use for dedicated winter tires on trucks? Skinny? Studded? Something I'm missing?

I have the ability to ad-hoc swap wheels and tires for non-snow driving, so this would be a dedicated bad-weather setup. Mostly snowed-in unplowed highway and on-road use. Not looking to go mudding or 4-wheeling with a brand new truck.



Literally any tire with the 3 peak mountain snowflake symbol will outperform an all season by a large margin.

I wouldn't bother with studs in Seattle, honestly. I don't even run them up here anymore, and our winters can be best described as apocalyptic. They ride and handle badly, tear up the roads and the only real benefit they give you is on solid ice.

Just get what you can afford and don't worry about it too much. Trust me, people run way cheaper tires than what you're considering up here through weather that would shut down Seattle for a month and there's no problem.

 

[supton]

I run Hankook iPikes, they seem ok. Non-studded. My truck is the double cab Tundra, so it might have different weight distribution than yours.

I usually stay home if the roads are actually that bad. The truck can go through deep snow but it's an awful handling beast in general. I leave it in RWD as 4WD can't be used on bare pavement; even on snow or dirt the driveline binding can be awful. I only use 4WD if the going is truly bad (and sometimes I should probably leave it there as I've gotten sideways unintentionally doing that--but one tends to get overconfident if they leave it in 4Hi, so I try not to).

If this is your first truck then look into what jack you need. I've had to use two bottle jacks to get enough lift range on my truck, one was never enough.

 

[spavel6]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

The fact that the truck won't be as good in the snow as the Passat is sad. But on the bright side, I'll have a towing, winter, dirty stuff rig instead of two wagons that basically do the same thing..

The truck will never see a Seattle street. Partially because we have beater cars that we drive into Seattle, and partially because it's manual and who wants to do hill-starts all day in traffic. I'm also not terribly concerned about ripping up the pavement - the semis do a good enough job on that.

I am leaning towards getting a 245/75R16 on some take-off Tacoma alloys. The only studded tires I would get is the Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3 or LT2 Studded since it comes studded from the factory (less likely to loose it's studs).

In the non-studded, I like the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 or the Michelin Defender LTX.

A third possibility is the Nokian Rotiiva AT Plus. I like the way they look, but it's not a dedicated winter tire..

 

[littlehulkster]

Even if you're not worried about the pavement, studs will always be loud, rough riding and bad handling. Given the winters where you live, it's really not necessary. Studless tires have come a long way, I run Toyo Observe GSI-5s on my FWD Mazda and I've never had a single problem. I've had instances where the front bumper was pushing snow and my traction control light didn't even come on.

The truck will be just fine in the winter, by the way. Over there you probably never get enough snow to find the sort of conditions where a big 4WD is better (snow too deep for your Passat, essentially), but it will be fine none the less. Your winters are really quite mild, there's no need to worry too much. We get more up here in single storms than Seattle gets in an entire year.

 

[edyvw]

Originally Posted by spavel6
Thanks for all the suggestions!

The fact that the truck won't be as good in the snow as the Passat is sad. But on the bright side, I'll have a towing, winter, dirty stuff rig instead of two wagons that basically do the same thing..

The truck will never see a Seattle street. Partially because we have beater cars that we drive into Seattle, and partially because it's manual and who wants to do hill-starts all day in traffic. I'm also not terribly concerned about ripping up the pavement - the semis do a good enough job on that.

I am leaning towards getting a 245/75R16 on some take-off Tacoma alloys. The only studded tires I would get is the Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3 or LT2 Studded since it comes studded from the factory (less likely to loose it's studs).

In the non-studded, I like the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 or the Michelin Defender LTX.

A third possibility is the Nokian Rotiiva AT Plus. I like the way they look, but it's not a dedicated winter tire..

LTX is not dedicated snow tire. I had DM-V2 and while really good in snow, in ice is mixed picture. It has really nasty habit to break away with no progressive loss of traction. I found Michelin Xi2 to be much more rounded tire than DM-V2.

 

[spavel6]

Originally Posted by edyvw


LTX is not dedicated snow tire. I had DM-V2 and while really good in snow, in ice is mixed picture. It has really nasty habit to break away with no progressive loss of traction. I found Michelin Xi2 to be much more rounded tire than DM-V2.


Great feedback! Exactly the type of info I am looking for! Thank you!