Snow storm

Alright we just had a big snow storm in my area - got about a foot of snow that later turned into a few solid inches of ice on the roads and has been lingering for a week until today it looks like it is finally melting away.

I drive a '16 RAM 1500 5.7 Hemi that I bought in August and still have 100% stock including the Goodyear SRA tires. I see a lot of discussion around these tires on the forums so wanted to share my thoughts after a week of driving on nothing but snow and ice... they are solid. Not great, but solid.

In the heavy snow I'd switch over to 4lock and have zero issues whatsoever. Truck was a beast and I never lost traction. Sure, I could get some slide if I cornered quick, but overall I just plowed through a foot of snow on the roads like it was nothing the first couple days. Once things turned to ice it was a bit of a different story, especially when it came to braking. I had to be very careful and gradual with my braking or I would get slide, sometimes even when I was already at very low speeds. Accelerating still wasn't an issue in 4lock but slowing down was tough and I'd break traction often. 2wd accelerating was out of the question - major fishtail on the ice. Turning was solid regardless of which drive I was in.

Ultimately these stock tires have impressed me enough to not run out and drop $1k on a new set of winters for the final few months of cold weather coming up, but I think I will may invest in a winter set next year and keep these SRA's for spring/summer only.

So, I am thinking KO2's for the winters... thoughts? Obviously opening up a can of worms here but those seem to be pretty popular on these forums. I've never owned a set in the past. Best winter tires I've owned were Blizzak's but that wasn't on a truck and I don't really want them on my RAM.

I'm running the KO2's and I have been impressed with their traction on snow, ice, slush and muck here.

We are just starting to see an end to our snow storm here and during the icy phase I was pleasantly surprised at how well they gripped.

In snow they are just awesome and a lot of fun besides. Picture snow rooster tails and you'll get the drift. Pun intended.

if i were getting a second set for winter use, i would get a designated snow tire. k02s are a good tire, but i prefer the stock ride. the KO are a HD tire with stiff sidewalls.

huntergreen said:

if i were getting a second set for winter use, i would get a designated snow tire. k02s are a good tire, but i prefer the stock ride. the KO are a HD tire with stiff sidewalls.

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Good point. Got any recommendation for a snow specific tire then? Like I said I've owned Blizzak's and liked them but I don't know why I just don't want them on my truck. They were good on my old front wheel drive car though for winter.

huntergreen said:

if i were getting a second set for winter use, i would get a designated snow tire. k02s are a good tire, but i prefer the stock ride. the KO are a HD tire with stiff sidewalls.

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I agree with this, if you were going to run them all year round then the KO2 and General Grabber AT2 are a good year round tire with winter rating. If you are looking st winter only then get a dedicated set of true winter-only tires.

KO2s are the best tires I have ever ran in snow just a great tire unless you want to go mudding..lol

Yeah they will ride alittle rougher compaared to the car tires they put on these things but they will also be less prone to flats and can haul a heavier load.

so 4 lock did it for ya eh? No issues, good tires, nice awesome all around performance. Well dang, that's good to hear.

What trim level truck do you have ?

Glad you had no issues all stock, ill be getting all terrain tires in about a week so if you decide to upgrade tires let us know. have any pics of your truck playing in the snow?

The goodyears work great. But the BFgs K02s are Night and Day difference in the snow

yillbs said:

so 4 lock did it for ya eh? No issues, good tires, nice awesome all around performance. Well dang, that's good to hear.

What trim level truck do you have ?

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Truck is an Express Quad Cab Black Edition. And yeah it was solid. I was pretty impressed considering stock tires and all. I have been up to the mountain several times to ski before this storm but the roads were never too bad so hadn't really gotten it into deep snow or ice until this past week. Pleasantly surprised but with how much I go up to the mountain I think it'll be worth investing in some better tires for off road/winter.

Devin1349 said:

Glad you had no issues all stock, ill be getting all terrain tires in about a week so if you decide to upgrade tires let us know. have any pics of your truck playing in the snow?

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I won't buy them til next fall probably right before winter and ski season. Gonna roll with the stock SRA's the rest of this winter since they did pretty well.

I didn't get any action shots but here is one the morning after it dumped on us...

I love driving in the snow, which works out well since I'm in MN. I'm going through my second winter with the stock tires. They are fine but they are low on tread. 4x4 is a must for me if it snows now. I'll have to replace this coming fall.

I'll note that tires rarely make a difference with stopping, like they do with acceleration. This is especially true when talking about ice. You need to aim to stop many car lengths before your actual target. Big trucks carry lots of momentum and will slide.

Quint said:

I love driving in the snow, which works out well since I'm in MN. I'm going through my second winter with the stock tires. They are fine but they are low on tread. 4x4 is a must for me if it snows now. I'll have to replace this coming fall.

I'll note that tires rarely make a difference with stopping, like they do with acceleration. This is especially true when talking about ice. You need to aim to stop many car lengths before your actual target. Big trucks carry lots of momentum and will slide.

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My wife lived in MN about 5 months for her job the winter of 2014 I think... whichever one recently was one of the worst winters in a long time over there. I visited her a couple times for a week and loved driving around in all the snow there. I wish we got more of it here in Portland, but I can definitely do without the ice. And I agree the SRA's do solid work in snow but I can imagine once that tread has 20k miles or so on them performance probably starts to decline significantly.

As for the stopping, I know tires don't make much of a difference but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a better set of off-road or winter tires. This is the first full size truck I've owned so quickly learned this past week that it is more prone to sliding during a stop on ice than my previous vehicles.

I honestly love the duratracs. If you don't want to go that aggressive check out the silent armors. Both are ms rated tires and do great in the wintery stuff.

KO2 are awesome. Put mine on the truck right after buying new. You think 4 lock is a good way to get around in the winter, I prefer to not have that stress constantly on the truck. The KO2 allowed that to happen. In our couple snows we have gotten I only put it in 4wd when I knew for a fact I need to hook up immediately (crossing traffic, etc). And they surprised the hell out of me. In 4wd they hook and go quick. Over the weekend we got ice and never had a real issue.

Where I live, there is snow on the ground from November-April. I found quickly that the SR-As were garbage in the snow/ice. On my '06 with 17s, I ran the Goodyear Ultra-Grip ICE. Those were awesome. However, on my '16 with 20s, there wasn't much available in a dedicated snow tire. I went with the Blizzak and they are pretty good. Still, a night and day difference from the SR-A. I am going to get some new wheels in the spring and put the SR-As on those.

Winter is cummins

Where I'm currently at.... warmer than yesterday.




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sbarron said:

Where I'm currently at.... warmer than yesterday.

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Holy ****. That's cold!! I'm enjoying the weather here


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I have used the Stock tire's on my 2015 and they seem OK BUT did get dedicated Snows because we usually get alot of snow, BUT so far this year we got very little :O