jadmt

I am a Montana native and have been driving on winter roads since the early 70's and have run many different tires and right now I am loving my KO2's in 34/10.5-17's.. they do excellent on snow and snow covered ice roads. Nothing beats studs but these come close. I like to snow shoe and cross country ski so usually get my share of driving in white stuff.

spicoli

For ice, blizzaks. I'm not a fan of studded tires because on dry pavement they can handle like your driving on ice. For snow, there are many good options but the best thing you can do is let air out of your tires (this is true for ice too)... but low psi means you need slow speeds and a way to fill them up after your done because you don't want to drive on pavement with low psi. If your area is plagued with black ice, etc there is no substitute for rubber compounds designed to perform in low temps. Blizzaks are soft rubber and function very well at low temps. Most car tires are designed to last many miles and operate at higher temps, which those measures directly hurt their ice traction.

I run Nitto Trail Grappler MTs in 37s, and they are in no way a great choice for ice. I have not siped them or anything and I do excellent on ice roads, deep snow and dry conditions because I drive smart. I slow down, I will drop my psi to 24 (from normal 28) for icy highway travel, and if really bad will go down to 20psi. For deep snow wheeling I will run 8psi and plow thru 4+ ft of snow. Tire psi is all dependent on your vehicle weight and tire/size, when I ran 35s I was running 30psi and I believe factory stock recommend is 37psi (IIRC).

Rednroll

KO2's are a great A/T that do well in most road conditions, I have a set. However, just for ice applications blizzaks win in that category. They have much more sipping than the KO2's which is important for ice.

I have lived in Michigan my entire life so I get to experience a little bit of everything including have driven on frozen lakes and lived on back roads that eventually turn into being iced covered that my friends and I used to ice skate and play hockey on. I've not had my KO2's for very long, but have recently driven on ice covered roads and as long as you leave traction control on, put it in 4WD-Hi and drive at slower speeds and stop prior to reaching an intersection they have worked good enough for me. If you lock them up on ice, like most any tire they will slide and if you're heavy on the skinny pedal taking off they will spin.

I'm not a fan of chains unless you're using them far from public roads such as on frozen lakes or climbing ice covered mountain roads. I've seen many of them snap their straps and fly towards the vehicle traveling behind. When the roads get bad enough, which would require chains, then that's when I pull out the snowmobiles and drive those on the roads or just stay home.

Mr.T

Mine has the GY A/T Adventure's, severe snow rated (mountain snowflake on sidewall). Of course, dedicated winter tires like Blizacks are still better, but I run these year round. The BFG K02 is also a severe snow rated tire that can be used year round.

Just replaced them after 42K miles, and ice/slush traction is so much better with fresh tires even though the old tires still had ~5/32" tread left. We get a lot of ice/slush, but not a lot of snow. Every winter the tires are a little worse. The rubber seems softer than non snow rated tires, and the lugs do get worn and chipped off road. It's all a compromise...

lloydsmale

plus in MI studs and chains are not legal. They don't allow them because our winters are so long that there would be to much damage to the road surface. Studs were legal when I was a teenage but that was MANY years ago!

casamtb

If you're a DIYer like i am, check out the Ideal Tire Groover. I am a huge fan of dedicated winter tires. Once I ran them on my previous FWD hatch i never looked back. I have a second set of winter tires and rims for both my wife's and daughter's car. That being said... for some reason i didn't want to do that for the Jeep. Most ATs are good when they are new because of the siping, however that wears down and they become useless as a snow tire. Save the few exceptions like the KO2 which has full depth sipes and is advertised as a pseudo-dedicated snow tire. From what I have read most people love them in snow, though ice is ice and only a dedicated heavily-siped and soft compound winter tire is going to give any advantage on ice. So... knowing that I started looking onto a way to sipe my own tires. You can get them done at most tire shops but the problem with the siping machines is that they just cut sipes into the tire with a screw and don't take into consideration the tread block design. And with siping ATs, the problem is that sand and rocks get impacted into the tread block sipes and dimples and it just eats through the blades on the cutters. That's why MTs like the BFG MTs you have on your Rubi are a great candidate for a tire groover. I run a pseudo MT tire on mine and before each winter I'll head out to the garage and cut 4mm grooves and 2mm sipes in the tread block. The 2mm sipes give me the winter ice traction i need in the midwest winters and wear down naturally back to a solid lug in the spring. I got the idea watching some video on the Tube where I saw a winter trophy truck race and one of the racers used the Tire Groover to cut and sipe a set of Copper STTs. I was all like "Wwhaaaaaat? I'm doing that!" Google it. A little trial and error and I got my technique down, I don't be tickling or nothing (yes that was a Pulp Fiction reference) and I leave the outer lugs untouched.

Rednroll

That's what I remember is that I thought they had outlawed chains awhile back due to tearing up the roads and safety reasons. However, I was in a recent similar discussion and found this website.

https://www.thebalance.com/chain-laws-by-state-1361486

So it seems that chains are legal, as long they don't come in contact with the road surface.

lloydsmale

bottom line is theres no tire that works well on ice. especially the large ones we run on jeeps. driving on ice is more technique then anything. Slowing down and having experience doing it. Up here where we have icy roads for 4 months a year people get a lot of experience before there even 18 years old. I once told my wife that if they had one nascar race up here a year on an icy surface that she would hand Jimmy Johnson his title in a hand basket. He would be getting wooped by 75 year old grandmas. We had an air base that closed down about 10 years ago. Used to be good for a laugh the first snow storm of the year when all the guys from the south would try to drive there muscle cars with big back tires down the road. We used to make a lot of spending money running up and down the main two lane road up here pulling them out of the ditch for 10 bucks a crack using dads 4x4 pickup. Got a good laugh one day when one of the guys that worked in central heating on the base with my dad asked him where the hell he got those tractor tires on his truck!! Nope big tires and short wheelbases will never be good on ice with ANY tire. Its just that some are worse then others.

WineCountryWheeler

My vote is for GY Duratrac. Great siping for snowy/icy conditions.

16FW

Georgia finally got ice this weekend. The problem is I still had my worn out KMs, so I took desync0's advice, and stayed home