Snow tires sparingly in the summer?

[DanoT]

I ONLY use snow tires on my truck: Hankook iPikes.

I am looking for winter tires and had the Hankook iPikes on my radar but with a 350' goat trail dirt driveway in winter, I am now considering Cooper Discoverer M+S on/off road snow tires for my truck camper which will be my daily driver this winter. The tires will stay on in summer as I will only use the truck camper to attend a blues festival or two.

 

[David Chaus]

I've had good luck with Cooper tires, both the Discoverer True North snow tires, and the CS Touring tires for the rest of the year.

 

[Sibhusky]

^^^ Wow, nice to out here in the wild wild west. I (legally) left my studs on my truck this summer. Between COVID and it being an extra vehicle I hardly drove it.

I only drove my truck in the mornings when it's cooler to preserve the tires. It was mostly for truck stuff so better for me too since it was such a hot summer.

A few years back (so could be out of date) I looked up the rules for some of the states I could conceivably be driving to. These are the dates studs are allowed.

* Montana: Oct. 1 - May 31
* Nevada: Oct. 1 - April 30
* Utah: Oct. 15 - March 31
* Oregon: Nov. 1 - March 31
* Washington: Nov. 1 - March 31
* Wyoming: Legal all year
* Colorado: Legal all year
* Idaho: Oct. 1 - April 15

 

[snwbrdr]

Blizzaks WS and DM series uses their Multicell compound for about the first half of the tread depth. I wouldn't purposely try to wear them out in the summer, and hope that you're still good in the winter.

The multicell compound is what gives Blizzak WS/DM series their good magazine performance tests, underneath is just a high-silica winter compound that doesn't have the tech of the Multicell compound, so performance is reduced in the white stuff.

 

[sparty]

I am looking for winter tires and had the Hankook iPikes on my radar but with a 350' goat trail dirt driveway in winter, I am now considering Cooper Discoverer M+S on/off road snow tires for my truck camper which will be my daily driver this winter. The tires will stay on in summer as I will only use the truck camper to attend a blues festival or two.

FWIW, I ran unstudded Cooper M+S on my XTerra year-round when I lived in Red Lodge. The only time I got properly stuck was in the spring, trying to recover a Jeep Wrangler on highway tires from an unplowed Forest Service road, and I did a fair bit of stuff that a better-equipped vehicle would've probably been a good idea. They felt a bit squishy in the summer, but I put so few miles on the rig, Overall, I felt like the tradeoff for those tires was worth it (a bit less so the XTerra, which seized up, but that's another thread).

 

[Uncle-A]

I have been thinking about putting snow tires on my GMC. I have been looking at a few different brands, Bridgestone Blizzak, Cooper True North, and Falken Eurowinter 449. Consumer Report gives very good rating to the Falken Eurowinter 449 and they even give them a better rating than the R 3's. Does anyone have any history with the Falken Eurowinter tires?

 

[snwbrdr]

I have been thinking about putting snow tires on my GMC. I have been looking at a few different brands, Bridgestone Blizzak, Cooper True North, and Falken Eurowinter 449. Consumer Report gives very good rating to the Falken Eurowinter 449 and they even give them a better rating than the R 3's. Does anyone have any history with the Falken Eurowinter tires?

Eurowinter is a "performance" winter tire. And I doubt they have GMC truck sizes, but they may have sizes for the Terrain.

 

[Uncle-A]

Eurowinter is a "performance" winter tire. And I doubt they have GMC truck sizes, but they may have sizes for the Terrain.

I checked the Falken web page and they do have the size but they are not rated for the weight of my vehicle. Looks like I will go back to looking at the Cooper Tires. Thanks.