Winter Tire vs All Terrain Snow Rated Tire

[bumbobee]

Hey guys, I'm in the market for winter tires for my 2022 4Runner Limited. For spring/summer/fall Ill use my stock 20's all season, but for winter I have a set of 17 inch TRD rims that I want to slap on a 265/70/17 tire on.

I live north of Toronto in Canada and we get a lot of snow here and cold weather.

I'm debated between a dedicated winter tire like the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 vs something like a Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S.

What do you guys think? The Cooper tires are on sale now and are cheaper than a Blizzak. $ 207 per tire vs $ 250 per tire.

 

[?????]

The factory tires did surprisingly well for me here in the PNW. After the 2k ish miles of driving I swapped out to Falken Wildpeaks in the winter of 2018.

A dedicated SNOW tire will perform well in the winter. The caveat might be if you get a bunch of snow which the A/T tires might actually perform better by slinging some more snow off.

The SNOW tire is designed to be softer so braking performance will usually be better than standard tires as the compound is noticeably harder (in the standard) and will become much harder.

The major point of contention is the A/T tires are something you can just leave on all year round and should you need it, you can simply air down some and go. Granted I would limit the speeds you drive if you do such thing.

Snow tires in hot weather do not go well together as the temperature range is WAY above what it was designed for.

 

[mbm112]

Snow tires all the way. ATs have near comparable performance when accelerating but don’t compare when braking or turning.

Especially when conditions get icy or slushy. The big tread blocks, stiff compound, and lack of siping on ATs do nothing in those conditions.


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[Deuxdiesel]

I have used a set of DuraTrac's as my winter tire for the past two years. Much better performance than the AT's I've used. The caveat is that I live in SE MI, where winters are a mixed bag of snow, ice, slush and salt, so there are periods where the roads are clear and dry and the temps above freezing. Dedicated snows are always better, but they don't last very long if you use them outside of winter. I had a set of Firestone Winterforce tires on my Tacoma and they were amazing without being to expensive.

 

[scanny]

I use Duratracs for the past maybe 10 years and they were good to me so far all year round. I'm quite pleased with winter and trail performance and I don't have to change tires every winter and mess with TPMS sensors. Duratracs last about 90,000 km and become a little noisy at the end of life, but I don't mind it. Not sure though if they come in size for Limited T4R.

 

[Humble Leader]

there is no comparison between snow rated AT and a dedicated winter tire. snow rated AT are a compromise and frankly only good in light snow and slush with warmer temps. if you do any serious winter driving on hard packed frozen snow, deep snow and slush and temperatures well below freezing you will struggle with an AT tire. you're in canada, I know I don't need to tell you that. some people will vouch for AT tires saying they work fine for them in winter and I'm sure they do. but without knowing their driving habits, road surfaces traveled, how much they drive etc. you have to take that at face value.

if you like the TRD rims, sell your 20" ones and get a second set, put an AT on the first set and dedicated winters on the second set. now you have matching rims throughout the year. that's what I did except I have M+S for summers rather than AT

 

[Bossman]

I'll also encourage you (as a fellow Canadian!) to get dedicated winter tires for your second set of rims for many of the reasons already mentioned.

Traction on snowy roads- yes. Tire compound able to stay flexible at cold temperatures - yes.

I run my 20s with Michelin all-seasons from late spring to early fall, then switch to my 17s with Toyo dedicated winter tires from late fall to early spring.

I do not have TPMS sensors in my 17s so I do have to put up with the TPMS warning light being on continuously.

I have had my Toyo GSi-5 winter tires for several seasons now and they have given me good service with little wear. I believe Toyo have a newer line/model of winter tires now.

 

[Pedro367]

Snow tires are amazing. If I lived in Canada I would 1000% have an extra set of wheels and snow tires. I'm in NJ, so a good AT works fine for us in the occasional snow driving we have to do. It's not worth the investment unless I had a 2wd car or something. Roads usually aren't consistently snow covered here as they plow/salt like crazy every storm and it's melted by morning.

 

[bumbobee]

Good advice. I'm debating whether to get a premium winter tire like blizzak or go with a cheaper Firestone winter like winterforce uv2?

 

[BearBio]

Here in the PNW, I use an A/T tire but really don't need it nor do I need a full snow tire. All Season would likely work well but I like the looks of the A/T better (I know, stupid reason). All Seasons work well on the wife's RAV4 except when we got 20+ inches overnight this winter=then she took the 4Runner to work.

 

[Mike Beyers]

I have been running studded Firestone Winterforce every winter for close to 20 years on my front wheel drive cars. Last year I got a set for my 5th gen (V8 4th gen never really needed them with full time) and they make a HUGE difference. Reasonably cheap insurance!

 

[bumbobee]

Which one? Winterforce UV or UV2?

 

[ttcody]

When I picked up my winter set of tires blizzaks were cheaper than winter force 2s. Everything I read was compared to the blizzaks so I went with the gold standard.

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[Too Stroked]

I live just a bit south of you in Rochester, NY where we average 100" of snow each winter. I have a separate set of 17" wheels with Blizzak DM-V2's on them and wouldn't trade them for the world in the snow. As others have already said, there simply is no comparison with an AT type tire - especially on hard pack and ice.

 

[jdm-v35]

I run KO2's on my daily wheels and have run them in winter for a couple years. I now have Hakkapellita LT3 studded tires on my OEM wheels and the grip difference is night and day. The KO2's weren't bad, but the nokians are just way better.

 

[Buba1]

Being near the GTA myself, just west of it, I highly recommend a dedicated winter tire. I went with the Bridgestone Blizzaks DM-V2, which handles amazing, very impressed with it, and with a set of steel rims, from pmctire.com They ship out of Quebec, free shipping anywhere in Canada and free tire installation and balance if you get the whole set, but sounds like you already have a set of rims so won't apply to you. You can also check out Costco, they usually have good sales too once it gets closer to that season.

 

[WildSockets]

Calgary, Canada here with weekly trips to the Rockies in the winter. I’ve driven with a few tires throughout the years. In the winter TerraGrapplers were crap and scary, Grabber AT2 were decent, and KO2 were decent the first winter and crap the second.

I now use winter tires. I’ve had Blizzak DMV2 on my previous vehicle and now Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV on my 4R. Completely superior than any all weather AT. Both tires serve(d) me well with the Nokians having a slight edge with braking.

 

[Mike Beyers]

Which one? Winterforce UV or UV2?

They are 2 UV.

 

[Grug556]

Hey guys, I'm in the market for winter tires for my 2022 4Runner Limited. For spring/summer/fall Ill use my stock 20's all season, but for winter I have a set of 17 inch TRD rims that I want to slap on a 265/70/17 tire on.

I live north of Toronto in Canada and we get a lot of snow here and cold weather.

I'm debated between a dedicated winter tire like the Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 vs something like a Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S.

What do you guys think? The Cooper tires are on sale now and are cheaper than a Blizzak. $ 207 per tire vs $ 250 per tire.

Guy i live near you. I run dedicated P rated DM-V2s in 265-70-17. I also have MT and AT tires and the stock limited tires. I only run snows in the winter, the AT and MT cant cut it on deep snow and heavy ice. Wear to date on the DMs has been average. No issues otherwise.

 

[Todd308]

The best AT snow rated tire, won't even come close to the performance of a mediocre winter tire on road. Now if you end up off-road in deep muddy snow that can become a different story, but at that point an MT is probably still the best option. However, on hard pack snow and ice, winter tires destroy AT's even 3 peak rated ones.

Not to say that a good 3 peak rated AT tire is bad on ice and snow, but the performance is no where near a dedicated snow tire. Tire Rack did a winter test on some popular AT tires vs a winter tire awhile ago. The best AT tire took twice as long (distance) to stop, and twice as long (time) to get going up to speed on the same surfaces. I lived in ND for 30 years and never ran a dedicated winter tire, and the majority of people there don't, however that doesn't change the superior performance of a dedicated winter tire.

Honestly, I think the people that should have winter tires the most are those that don't drive in the snow that much. They usually have the worst winter driving skills, so they need all the tire help they can get. As you get further north people's winter driving experience is vastly greater and they likely can "get away" with normal tires in winter. Heck in ND they used to ice down an unused runway at the airport and let folks go practice ice driving. I can remember living in Reno and going to Tahoe for snowboarding a lot in grad school and I remember NV saying they'd only put chain restrictions on the roads to slow the CA folks down because they had no idea how to drive in the snow.