Air tires down for snow?

[Corvette427]

Is airing tires down for snow helpful or needed for more traction? PSI?

 

[tjfdesmo]

The thinking used to be air down to float on sand, but you don't want to float on snow, you want to cut through it to find traction on the surface below. I never aired down for snow, even on plow trucks.

 

[stimpy433]

No, just keep it at the normal air pressure.....

 

[turkeybird56]

Keep at suggested PSI.,. in snow,.,

 

[Corvette427]

Thanks everyone! Makes sense.

 

[olyelr]

On the street, keep it at normal pressure. Out wheeling, air down for sure. I dont go much below 20 psi on the factory tire and wheel setup.

 

[Low_Sky]

Depends on the snow and the driving surface.

A driving surface you would normally air down for (sand, mud, etc), air down.

Deep, crusty late season snow, air down.

Fresh powder on a hard driving surface, normal street pressure.


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[Grand Mesa]

Full pressure, checked when they're cold at the ambient daily temperature.

For fresh deep snow run the tallest and narrowest tire, with the deepest siped tread that one can get onto the truck. The goal is to not ride on the top of it, but to slice right through it. Rubber compounds designed not to hardened in extreme cold are what is best. If a 35", 285 80R17 studdable tire size were available, I would be running it right now.

I would prefer to run studded tires on plowed, packed roads at full pressure due to these types of road conditions tend to have black ice. Can even run the widest siped tires with good traction results.

 

[JohnnyMac]

23+ years in Alaska and I never touched the air pressure....ice, snow, slush, crusty, deep, packed, groomed, fresh...didn't matter.

 

[Rbohno]

23+ years in Alaska and I never touched the air pressure....ice, snow, slush, crusty, deep, packed, groomed, fresh...didn't matter.

Your quote on gun control is great, never heard that one but have passed it on. Sorry OP not meant to derail thread just had to say something

 

[Tumbleweed]

I've never aired down when on the road. Offroad in my Jeep, of course.

Your quote on gun control is great, never heard that one but have passed it on. Sorry OP not meant to derail thread just had to say something

I like that quote. And the one from President Reagan.

 

[Low_Sky]

Just for a fun anecdote, I was trying to go snow wheeling a few weeks ago. All the trails I had intended to run were groomed for snow machines, so my buddy and I decided to stay off. We ended up at a reclaimed mine to play around in the powder.
Conditions were about a foot of fresh, dry powder on top of (probably?) a few inches of old, hard packed and refrozen snow. Just for giggles I decided to give it a try at street pressure. 35/30 psi F/R on 35” Hankook MTs. There was a lot of tire spin, a little bit of axle hop, and not a lot of go. Quite a poor performance.
Dropped the tires to 18 psi, and we were off to the races, hooning around like a teenager, up and down hills, smashing through snow drifts, etc.
Not suggesting that airing down is the right approach all the time, but there are conditions where it’s the only thing that will do.

Photo by Tim Wilson.

At the mine at the same time was a group of Jeepers trying to get around on tires at street pressure, going slow, getting stuck, smoking clutches and generally not having much fun. Not sure why they were bothering.


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