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Old 09-10-2013, 02:45 PM
JB_AOL JB_AOL is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 3,880
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What kind of driving do you do?

Your location says calgary, so I assume you would be commuting in the city..

In the city you want something that will grab the ice (ie lots of sipes or studs). If you drive lots in the country with uncleared roads you want something that'll clear the snow better and be able to grip the ice..

Basically.. If you do occasional highway, with lots of commuting you are better off with something like a blizzak.

But if you do lots of secondary roads/highway/mountain driving, there's more of a possibility of deep snow, and you want something that will clear the snow from the tires (like the duratrac or some all terrains..

As far as one tire year round.. with tires there is always a compromise. I'll use the extremes, if you use a blizzak style tire (soft rubber winter tire) year round, on the 20+ days like today, your truck will have a "squishy" feel to it. True winter tires are designed with softer compounds and side walls, this will also cause your winter tires to wear ALOT faster. And vice versa, if you use an all season tire in the winter, the compound is optimized for tread life (ie. hard), so you won't have as good ice traction.

Some people say, just drive slower (ie use allseasons year round), that's fine, but it's the evasive manuevers when you are reacting to what other people are doing.. That is when you want traction , not matter how fast you are going.

I personally am a firm believer in the right tires for the job.. I've got two sets (winter/summer) for my family mover, and my commuter I've got three sets (winter/summer/gravel). I've located what I thought to be the best tire for each season (summer/winter), as I've felt black ice/reg ice is a bigger danger than deep snow. So my winter tires have alot of sipes, I should've studded them, but I didn't.

The only downside to having dedicated winter tires, is the initial cost. Basically double as you are buying two sets of tires/rims, but that also means you won't have to buy tires for ALONG time (twice as long than if you only have one set).

Do yourself a favour and find some 17" or 18" rims on kijiji that fit your truck, you will save alot of money by purchasing 17/18" vs 20" winter tires. I made that mistake once.. Bought 19" blizzaks for my Acadia, $1800 later, I had 19" tires, I could've bought 17" blizzaks and rims for about $1200..

I'm planning on getting some grabber AT2 for my truck this winter, but my truck really only does towing duties, with the odd commute in the city..

Leeaspell, how do you like the Grabbers?
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