Snow tires

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dodo41

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Hey Everyone -

I just bought a 2017 Dodge Ram Express, 4WD, Hemi 5.7. It has 20 x 8 wheels and the current tire is a Goodyear Wrangler SR-A (picture attached).

How well/bad will my current tires hold up in the snow? I assume that they will not hold up well. I live in Nampa, ID (about 40 minutes SW of Boise, ID). We get about 9 inches of snow per year.

I'm thinking I'll need snow tires. Any thoughts?tire.JPG Looking at the Back Country AT 115T tire: https://www.lesschwab.com/back-country-all-terrain-5955478.html
 

Treburkulosis

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Mine did not like the ice/snow storm we got in February.
 

BWL

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1st year on them they're OK. I've done it without any issues. I run designated snows most winters though and it is a big difference. Had trouble finding the tires I wanted this time around though so I'm trying some Korean ones. I don't have high hopes for them, but time will tell. I'll mount them before the end of the month when the roads start to get nasty.
 

Mbrigh3

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falken wildpeak at3w has the highest snow rating and is a AT tire.. The tires you currently have are terrible ditch them asap ( my experience ).
 

bm02tj

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Tires are cheeper and rims easer to find
Also wider range to choose from
 
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ADWarlock20

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The SRAs did terrible in snow. After the first snowfall I swapped them out for a set of 285/70R17 Multimile Arctic Claws on stock wheels I pulled off a junkyard 3rd gen. Cheapest set of tires I could find, they work great and are load E as a bonus.
 

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huntergreen

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I found the stock Goodyear wranglers to be downright dangerous in rain and on wet roads. Adequate on dry roads and strangely enough, the did well in our north Jersey snow. Also did very well on hard pack snow and ice.
 

jws123

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As a few others have said the Goodyear wranglers are flat out scary/dangerous horrible in rain wet roads ect mine had tons of tread on them worst tires ive ever had. I got cooper discover at3 and out of all of the tires I have had on my trucks/jeeps over the years these by far are the best tires I have ever had It feels like different truck handles great in rain/snow ect.
Resized_20210601_115135_33866596089058.jpeg
 

Jeepwalker

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If your tread looks like this, they probably will be a great road and light rain tire, but not very good in the snow and slush. Esp hard-packed snowy roads like you might see in rural ID. The tread blocks are pretty close together. But if you drive real slow and take it easy, you can probably get by. I've driven on worse ..lol.

Is this what your tires looks like?:
2.jpg
 
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Jeepwalker

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There are a lot of good winter tires out there. Something with a lot of treadblocks (spaced apart), sipes, depth do well in snow, slush and hard roads. If you can run your hand over a tire and it feels 'smooth' it's not going to be a good winter tire.

This should do well:


Below are actual (real) pics of tires I bought for my plow Jeep (Cherokee) 2 yrs ago. I've had a lot of different tires, some good, some not so good. After a LOT of looking around I settled on these (below). Yeah they're kind of a no-name tire, but work great for my purposes. I really love them. There were a lot I looked at but they didn't meet my needs. I wasn't shopping on price. I needed a good all around but esp winter tread, and something that would 'bite' in the snow for plowing and driving in pretty deep snow. The tread is fantastic for snow & slush, and will push a lot of snow. We had a LOT of snow last year and get some pretty big drifts on our looong driveway. They run smooth on the road, and seem good in the summer too. The compound is a touch softer, which is great for the winter, but a guy could drive this tire year round, unlike most dedicated snow tires. Search Walmart.com.

Tires that will be good in snow, I mean good traction on packed winter snow like you see in ID and we get here ...need to 'hold' some snow between the tread blocks. The science is that snow crystals bind together (snow on snow) and produce traction on packed snow (like plowing on a hard-pack snow driveway. Seems counter-intuitive. Therefore you want reasonable space between tread blocks to hold enough snow to get traction, but not too much space that snow kicks out. That's what I like about these tires. Also sipes and square'd-off edges (like Blizaks) flex under braking/torque to expose edges for traction and braking as they flex. If Blizaks or the above Coopers (in the link) came in OWL and 15" I'd have bought them. But they're not so much an all-yr tire either like the ones below.

The must-have specifics I needed for my plow Jeep for plowing snow were:
- Good winter tread
(spaced out/deep/sipes)
- Deep tread, and tread blocks somewhat odd-shaped and staggered (not in a straight line). These aren't as staggered as I'd like but traction is nonetheless great.
- OWL (white letter). Yep ...gotta look good. I don't buy anything that's not OWL. None of the normal winter tires (e.g. Blizzaks) have OWL ...so I had to cross them off my list. Yep, I'm shallow ...lol.
- 15" for my plow Jeep are harder to find these days (but they have other sizes, same tire - Walmart.com)
- Tread blocks that go ALL the way to the carcass ..and on the edge too. Some tire designs are of such that much of the tread on the edges doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the carcass. They seem 'out-of-tread' even when they still have 30% left. I don't buy tires like that anymore!

Wild Country 4SX Tires.jpg

20210212_130005.jpg
 
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Princeton_Man

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Wranglers don't have a great reputation, snow or rain.

What else do you use your truck for? If you don't tow, go off road, or haul. There are a lot of decent tires out there. I'm prefer tires that are 100% made in America by American companies. (our lives are compromised by enough foreign made stuff) I've been running Cooper STT Pro in the Winter (we get a bit more snow than you do) and Cooper Discoverer AT3 XLT during the rest of the year. If you want a tire that will get you through just about anything, the STT Pro will do it but, I've about decided to run the AT3 XLT year round. They are much quieter than the STT Pro, get great mileage, and do great towing my boat and camper.
 

LugsLeadOut84

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I would get rid of them even without talking about snow. I hated them.
But aside from that, I'm not sure 9" of snow a year should be the dictator of tire type. Interesting, I would think ID gets more.
Anyway, I had great luck with BFG KO2's E-rated on my previous Ram (but pricey and heavy). On my current Ram I decided to try Falken Wildpeak AT3W (275/55R20 6 ply, XL load rated) and am pleased. We get a decent amount of snow and ice here (anywhere from 24"+ per year with some storms dropping 16" at a time) and I also make a few trips up to Vermont for snow mobiling each winter. I've been happy with them.

They're not too expensive, are snow rated and carry the 3PMSF symbol. They ride nice and are not loud at all.
 

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dodo41

dodo41

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Hey Everyone -

I just bought a 2017 Dodge Ram Express, 4WD, Hemi 5.7. It has 20 x 8 wheels and the current tire is a Goodyear Wrangler SR-A (picture attached).

How well/bad will my current tires hold up in the snow? I assume that they will not hold up well. I live in Nampa, ID (about 40 minutes SW of Boise, ID). We get about 9 inches of snow per year.

I'm thinking I'll need snow tires. Any thoughts?View attachment 473960 Looking at the Back Country AT 115T tire: https://www.lesschwab.com/back-country-all-terrain-5955478.html
I ended up going with all terrain tires. I got the Back Country A/T2's. I wanted the Open Road ATs but Les Schwab is having supply issues like everyone else. They couldn't get them.
 

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Elvira

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Good Year SRA's are a nice quiet hwy tire, but still only a summer tire. I bought an all terrain tire to run 12 months of the year. No switching rims or tires, great in the rain or snow depending on the season. The very small difference in fuel mileage was well worth having a good tire....which is the only thing between you and the road surface. I installed a set of Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S, 275x60x20, the price was amazing on sale. Everyone has their own preference for tires, pick something that works for you.
 
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