255/80-17 KM2's 2DR JK Wrangler
05-27-2012, 08:33 AM
#11
JK Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
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05-27-2012, 08:44 AM
#12
JK Super Freak
05-27-2012, 09:42 AM
#14
JK Super Freak
Does living 17 years in Western Canada with white roads several months of each winter count as research?
When I moved to a logging town in the mountains of British Columbia I saw the loggers all ran tall skinny snow tires on their 4x4 pickups. These guys drive unplowed back roads every day. The average annual snowfall was 13 feet down on the valley floor.
I asked about the tires and their answer was straightforward: Narrow tread has proven to be the best in snow. So, I did some research and found that tires work better in snow or ice when they cut a narrow path and have more pounds per square inch of contact area.
There are other factors. The narrow tread does not help much unless the tire has big self-cleaning tread. The rubber compound makes a difference also. The best winter tires are made with hydrophillic rubber, a strange compound that is stickiest around 32 degrees where snow/ice are slickest. You don't see this rubber in truck tire much however. Its found in the best snow tires for cars.
Anyway I swapped out my wide tires for some funny looking skinny snows and never did better in the snow. However, they aren't the tires I'd want in mud or sand where some flotation helps.
When I moved to a logging town in the mountains of British Columbia I saw the loggers all ran tall skinny snow tires on their 4x4 pickups. These guys drive unplowed back roads every day. The average annual snowfall was 13 feet down on the valley floor.
I asked about the tires and their answer was straightforward: Narrow tread has proven to be the best in snow. So, I did some research and found that tires work better in snow or ice when they cut a narrow path and have more pounds per square inch of contact area.
There are other factors. The narrow tread does not help much unless the tire has big self-cleaning tread. The rubber compound makes a difference also. The best winter tires are made with hydrophillic rubber, a strange compound that is stickiest around 32 degrees where snow/ice are slickest. You don't see this rubber in truck tire much however. Its found in the best snow tires for cars.
Anyway I swapped out my wide tires for some funny looking skinny snows and never did better in the snow. However, they aren't the tires I'd want in mud or sand where some flotation helps.
05-27-2012, 10:43 AM
#16
JK Super Freak
Absolutely correct about the contact patch surface (tread and siping). People who drive where it snows deep and for months at a time find it also has a lot to do with width. Even with moderate snowfall that gets packed down on paved roads in heavily populated areas the greater PSI of a narrow contact patch helps the tread surface do its job. Its a simple truth that tends to go unnoticed except where winter is long and snow conditions are extreme.
12-03-2013, 04:09 AM
#17
JK Newbie
Join Date: Dec 2013
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Are those 3/4" spacers you mentioned spring spacers or wheel spacers?
12-03-2013, 06:08 AM
#18
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The 3/4 spacers are on the front suspension, he is running wheel spacers but mentioned they are not needed. It appears you can run these with no wheel spacers on stock suspension and be good. I like this size because I don't want new wheels and I don't want to run wheel spacers either.
