My truck is in the ditch!

[Egon]

Those big wide tire's look good and do work well for the rock climbers in dry conditions.

 

[square1]

Here's 40 years of driving in Michigan winters yakking. If you want to see how well a tire does in snow put them on a SRWD pickup. You'll find out real fast where to spend your tire money!

 

[MossRoad]

Those big wide tire's look good and do work well for the rock climbers in dry conditions.

Back in the early 80's quite a few of my friends had monster mud bog trucks. I can't count the number of times they'd attempt deep snow and get stuck. Almost always, what would happen, is they'd drive out in deep snow, float right up on top, slow down, then spin their tires and bury all 4 so the truck was sitting on the frame. Then they'd have to get towed out, snatched out, etc...

If wide agressive lug tires were good for snow plowing, you'd see them on every plow truck, which we don't, so that means something..... they aren't good for traction when plowing snow.

 

[Todd727]

I don't know what the heck you guys are talking about, but it works like this: on any surface capable of supporting high ground pressure the more weight you can put on the smallest contact patch results in the most traction (that's why corks are put on tracked equipment- to reduce contact patch area). Duallys are used to carry more load, not to get more traction. Duallys are inferior in mud and snow, not only because of contact patch, but also because of the wider track in the back having to re-clear the trail created by the front. They also turn into big slicks in sticky mud, becoming completely useless. There is no reason to have a dually unless you are hauling heavy loads. They are a pita unless used as intended, IMO. When used for hauling near rated capacity, duallys are superior to singles. When used for pushing, duallys are inferior more often than not. They also ride rough and drive like crap unless heavily loaded. But they look tough.

wide tires on off-road vehicles are usefull only for flotation, not traction.


flotation is an entirely different subject. And so is side loading. And I don't know the math. I just know the facts.

that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Exactly. Pretty funny to watch a dually get stuck on wet grass, until it's your dually. I'm amazed at the number of times I have to put it in 4WD.

 

[jack707]

Dually cost more for tire!.

 

[Deadman]

The reason many pickups are useless in 2wd is simply because they are so nose heavy with the Diesel engines and large transmissions hanging over the front.

I know my 3/4 ton diesel needs weight in the box just to get GOOD traction on almost anything.

 

[jack707]

Or a ranger 4x4 it's to light in the back need bags of sand.

 

[two_bit_score]

The reason many pickups are useless in 2wd is simply because they are so nose heavy with the Diesel engines and large transmissions hanging over the front.

I know my 3/4 ton diesel needs weight in the box just to get GOOD traction on almost anything.

Especially driving in pastures.


TBS

 

[arizona98tj]

I don't know what the heck you guys are talking about, but it works like this: on any surface capable of supporting high ground pressure the more weight you can put on the smallest contact patch results in the most traction (that's why corks are put on tracked equipment- to reduce contact patch area). Duallys are used to carry more load, not to get more traction. Duallys are inferior in mud and snow, not only because of contact patch, but also because of the wider track in the back having to re-clear the trail created by the front. They also turn into big slicks in sticky mud, becoming completely useless. There is no reason to have a dually unless you are hauling heavy loads. They are a pita unless used as intended, IMO. When used for hauling near rated capacity, duallys are superior to singles. When used for pushing, duallys are inferior more often than not. They also ride rough and drive like crap unless heavily loaded. But they look tough.

wide tires on off-road vehicles are usefull only for flotation, not traction.


flotation is an entirely different subject. And so is side loading. And I don't know the math. I just know the facts.

that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I won't agree with your statement regarding wide tire only being useful for flotation, not traction.

I ran offroad trails in the desert southwest for 20 years. The latter years saw most of our trail time running through desert washes. While I typically ran about 26 PSI on the highway, I would air my tires down to 6~8 PSI while offroad. In doing so, the footprint would double or triple in size, depending how low the tire pressure was. We all did this to maximize the footprint of the tire on the rocks, giving us much better traction. When rock crawling, floation had nothing to do with it....we weren't going to sink on rocks.

If I had a dollar for everytime I told a noobie driver, who couldn't make it over an obstacle on the trail, to stop and let more air out of his tires, I probably could have retired a few years earlier than I did.

Here is a photo of my Jeep TJ running low tire pressure on the trail. Instead of having an aired up tire contact patch of one or two square inches on that rock, the increased contact patch allows the tire to conform to the rock and increase traction.

 

[MossRoad]

I think we're talking about traction in snow, when plowing snow with a pickup truck. Off road is a whole nuther subject.... looks like fun! :thumbsup:

 

[airbiscuit]

If I had a dollar for every time I saw someone snowplowing in the rock laden desert ...

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

 

[Garandman]

Point was that everyone keeps saying that a wide mud tire dont do well in the snow. And my 16" wide mud tires did just fine in the snow.

Not exactly a controlled experiment.

Mud tires usually have a much harder compound than winter tires. They tend to do OK in deep snow due to the tread pattern, but are absolutely useless on ice, or snow on top of ice.

The "M+S" designation is not a performance standard: it just means there is at least 25% Open tread. Real winter tires have the Mountain/Snowflake icon, which is a performance standard developed by the Canadians and NIST.

There are a small number of "All Season" truck tires that carry this rating. To my knowledge there is only one passenger car all-season that meets it: the Nokian WRG3. Otherwise, winter tires do not have tread wear ratings or warranties and don't have the UTQG ratings on the sidewall.

There's good reason why "All Season" tires are also called "No Seasons" or "No Reasons." Truck tires do a little better in snow because there's a lot of weight on them, and their new tread depth is as much as 15/32nd compared to as little as 10/32nd for new passenger tires, but every storm the ditches are full of 4WD pickups and SUV's....

 

[jack707]

On my plow truck I have copper AT3 and they do a good job.

 

[LD1]

I plowed snow for alot of years with that old dodge that had boggers. Didnt do alot of in town stuff, rather rural driveways. The thing was almost like a tractor. I cannot even begin to count the number of times that someone was stuck in their driveway in their 4wd pickup or suv, and I'd drive around them, pull them up to their house, then plow the drive.

My truck before that was a 79 dodge 3/4 ton also with 35" tires, but those were 12.5" wide BFG all terrains.

Nothing does well on ice other than true winter tires and/or studs. And many people dont use them any more because winters arent as bad as they used to be.

Alot of the plow guys I run with have mastercraft courser C/T's. So the notion that an all terrain or mud tires dont do well in the snow has NOT been my experience. They do just fine. As good as a actual softer compound snow tire or a studded tire....no. But I have never had any issues moving a full blade of wet and heavy snow in whatever truck I was in.

 

[Deadman]

Anyone that thinks wide tires do well in snow needs a lesson in "Real Snow" in the Northern most states!

Skinnys is for snow, wides are for mud.

 

[k0ua]

I am no tire expert, but I can tell you all this: When I put my Firestone Blizzak's on the Chrysler minivan it is like day and night difference between them and the Michelin highway tires that they replace. They offer much more traction to get going and to stop in both ice and snow conditions. Of course they are not worth a darn in hot weather, and need to come off in April at the latest around here. And of course they wear much faster than the Michelins also as they are much softer. Believe it or not, they offer better traction going up my steep gravel covered hill in dry conditions at low speeds also. I can go up it without tire spin going very slowly, which I cannot do with the Michelin's. With the Michelin's on, I must alway hit the hill with some speed or risk spinout. So that is my 2 cents, that winter tires with the little mountain/snowflake on them make a huge difference. That's all I know.

 

[Garandman]

Anyone that thinks wide tires do well in snow needs a lesson in "Real Snow" in the Northern most states!

Skinnys is for snow, wides are for mud.

These are the four trucks Toyota sent across Antarctica. They were accompanied by tracked vehicles.

 

[Cougsfan]

:confused3:Someone could resolve this argument my taking a tire off one side of their dually truck and see what side gets stuck first! :cool2: