Snow tire recommendation

tpuorro · Jun 16, 2025

Hello All,

I'm looking for a recommendation for 18" snow tires. But before that, let me give you the scenario I will be using them for and get your thoughts. I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and every year my wife and I drive/fly to the mountains of Colorado for some skiing. Sometimes we fly and sometimes we drive. This year, we plan on spending a month between January and February. We don't just stay in one spot; we drive all over the state, hitting a lot of mountains. Our LC came with 20" all-season tires. I'm buying some 18" tires that I think I'll put snow tires on.

Two questions;

1. Can I drive in the middle of January from Arkansas to Colorado, "1000 miles" on snow tires in cold temps and back? Or will that much driving on highways kill them? I'm ok with only getting a couple of seasons out of them. What's the noise level going to be like on Snow tires on the highway? Should I be looking at All Terrain instead?

2. What tires do you recommend for this journey, Snow or AT?

Thank you in advance,

Tom

chris_in_phx · Jun 16, 2025

I live in phoenix now but in Oregon I drove all winter (~Nov to ~Mar) on Blizzaks and went up skiing on weekends and commuted on the blizzaks during the week. I got 4-5 years off them. my recommendation/choice would be blizzaks. AT’s arent as good in snow as true dedicated snow tires - and I dont like using AT’s unless i plan to do offroad driving as well. Lots of posts on here about these topics.

chris_in_phx · Jun 16, 2025

Also folks are liking the brand new Bridgestone Dueler Ascents as an AT tire that drives really well in the snow. I think I’m going to buy these when my crappy oem tires wear out

tpuorro · Jun 16, 2025

Thanks Chris.

Markarian421 · Jun 16, 2025

We drove from California to Kansas and back through the Sierras and the Rockies on a set of Michelin X-Ice Snow tires in December and January, so 3k+ miles. And we'll probably do that every year, I have these for winter trips. They were great on ice and snow -- we went over Loveland Pass, I pulled over onto what turned out to be packed ice (to get the photo below) and didn't even notice until I stepped out and almost fell down. And they were perfectly fine on normal pavement in dry to heavy rain conditions. What I've been told is don't leave them on for long when it's regularly over 50 degF.

Edit to add: Mine also came with 20" wheels and I put the snow tires on those, I got a set of 18" wheels for AT tires that are on it the rest of the year. Off-road more sidewall on the 18" helps, on road it can provide more comfort depending on the tire, and depending on the wheels possibly better MPGs given how heavy the 20" wheels are. My snow tires are 275/60R20 size, way more winter tire options in that size than the stock 265/60R20.

And yes go with snow tires instead of AT's for spending time in the mountains in the winter. I kept hearing "the worst snow tires are far better than the best AT's in snow" and it's true. We've done the same drive many times on really good ATs and a few different AWD/full time 4WD vehicles, and there's just no comparison.

NoMe cruiser · Jun 16, 2025

I’ve run blizzaks DMV-2 in the winter on all my vehicles for years so I’m kind of biased. I’ve heard good things about the Michelin ice X as well but never tried them. Short of going studded the blizzaks are the best winter tires I’ve had. I’m running 255/70/18, I’ve always preferred a narrow tire rather than wider. They do wear quicker when temperatures are warmer so I only run them from November to April. They are not significantly louder than a highway tire. When critics claim a certain A/T tire is good in the snow/ice they are comparing them to other A/T. There is no A/T that will compare to any dedicated winter tire on snow/ice.
Edit: I’ll throw in a pic of me on the ice as well after seeing markians beautiful photo.

Markarian421 · Jun 16, 2025

NoMe cruiser said:
I’ve run blizzaks DMV-2 in the winter on all my vehicles for years so I’m kind of biased. I’ve heard good things about the Michelin ice X as well but never tried them. Short of going studded the blizzaks are the best winter tires I’ve had. I’m running 255/70/18, I’ve always preferred a narrow tire rather than wider. They do wear quicker when temperatures are warmer so I only run them from November to April. They are not significantly louder than a highway tire. When critics claim a certain A/T tire is good in the snow/ice they are comparing them to other A/T. There is no A/T that will compare to any dedicated winter tire on snow/ice.

Locally X-Ice Snow tires were the only available option that got good reviews, so I can't claim to have chosen them over other good options like Blizzaks or Nokian Hakkapeliittas. Any of those three are probably going to be great? My uncle lives in Colorado, they have a house in Denver now but lived near Silverthorne for many years, going up and down I-70 from Denver to there regularly, and he swears by the Hakkapeliittas.

NoMe cruiser · Jun 16, 2025

Markarian421 said:
Locally X-Ice Snow tires were the only available option that got good reviews, so I can't claim to have chosen them over other good options like Blizzaks or Nokian Hakkapeliittas. Any of those three are probably going to be great? My uncle lives in Colorado, they have a house in Denver now but lived near Silverthorne for many years, going up and down I-70 from Denver to there regularly, and he swears by the Hakkapeliittas.

My brother tried the Hekka once and didn’t like them he went back to blizzaks fwiw.

dbookman · Jun 16, 2025

tpuorro said:
Hello All,

I'm looking for a recommendation for 18" snow tires. But before that, let me give you the scenario I will be using them for and get your thoughts. I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and every year my wife and I drive/fly to the mountains of Colorado for some skiing. Sometimes we fly and sometimes we drive. This year, we plan on spending a month between January and February. We don't just stay in one spot; we drive all over the state, hitting a lot of mountains. Our LC came with 20" all-season tires. I'm buying some 18" tires that I think I'll put snow tires on.

Two questions;

1. Can I drive in the middle of January from Arkansas to Colorado, "1000 miles" on snow tires in cold temps and back? Or will that much driving on highways kill them? I'm ok with only getting a couple of seasons out of them. What's the noise level going to be like on Snow tires on the highway? Should I be looking at All Terrain instead?

2. What tires do you recommend for this journey, Snow or AT?

Thank you in advance,

Tom

I would suggest going with real winter tires on your 20" wheels instead of AT. All-terrain tires would serve you better with 18" wheels by providing more cushion and way more capability on unimproved roads and trails. It can be a little confusing, but many brands will claim they have an All-Weather w/Severe Snow Service Rating

, but for optimal traction on snow and ice I'd recommend studdable ice and snow tires (without studs mounted), like Bridgestone Blizzaks or Nokian Hakkapeliittas. They have a different silica formulation and siping that is optimized for these conditions. The drawback is that they're designed for temps below 45 degrees and will start to wear more rapidly above that temp.

I'm running Hakkas with the OEM wheels on my rig and they are pretty quiet. I do have noise cancelling in my audio system though, so I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes. I also have a wider set of JAOS rims with off-road tires for when ski season is over.

rjmh · Jun 16, 2025

Our LC has blizzak DMV 2 for the winter, but we also have x-ice on my cayman and Happas on my sprinter. The blizzard and x-ice are both excellent tire choices for winter driving. The nokians with the studs are exceptional for ice but I wouldn’t use them in the LC as they are noisy and the blizzaks are very sure footed on their own. You will get several years out of them if it’s just 2-3 month a year.