Whats the best choice for winter tires?

[darkspork]

From my experience, adsm08 is correct about it being more about the driver than anything. For the last year and a half including one and a half full winters I ran the cheap Wilderness XTX tires that came on my Ranger. They were fine in the winter, they just wore out very quickly. I never got the Ranger stuck, haven't put it in a ditch (yet) and have been happy with the Ranger's winter traction. That being said research the tires you buy before you get them, read the reviews (see tirerack.com), the Michelin Pilot Exaltos on my wife's car grip a lot better than the cheap tires that were on my Ranger especially in the winter.

Last month I bought a set of goodyear wrangler silent armor tires for the Ranger (Came out to about $700 at Sears). I bought them for a few reasons. First they have

this symbol, second they rated very high on tirerack.com, and third they were a lot cheaper than the michelins I wanted. I haven't driven them in the snow in a Ranger but I've driven on Goodyear Wranglers in the snow in some F-150s, some Excursions, a Tahoe and several HMMWVs. They are fine, a hell of a lot better than the POS Bridgestones they put on the new Suburbans.

A friend of mine has a B3000 (2wd) and I think he has BFGs on it. He puts sandbags in the back during the winter and it does pretty well.

Sorry for the long post, I hope some of it was useful.

 

[strvger]

i have also been running the treadwright at's with the traction enhancers. used to be called Green Diamond, now it's Kedgegrip i believe. they do very well in deep snow, slush, and springtime mud. they also do pretty darn good on icy roads as well. not allowed to use chains or studs here so they are much better than nothing on your tires.

 

[ajmiller]

personally i have ran BFG all terrains and even BFG mud terrains in the snow. But the best tire in the snow is hands down the Goodyear Duratrac. I was very impressed with how they did for me in the snow. with 235 75 r15 tire size they got me everywhere. And it is an in between mud terrain and all terrain tire with a good sidewall. Atleast check out this tire before you buy anything else.