Hey guys, wonder if any of you could give me some advice on trying to pick out a snow tire.

Main use would be for to drive through unplowed paved roads and such during storms, and the occasional snow drifts. (Let's say 8-12" of snow and the 24" drifts, guesstimate)

I've read the whole riding on top of snow with wide tires and low psi debate and narrow tall tires to cut through.

I think my best type would fit the whole narrow, taller tires to cut through the snow since I don't do any offroading.

Basically this would be for a 89 1500 4x4, and so far I was wondering what you guys would think of the 235/85 R16. Would this be an ideal size to chose from?

And for tires, well I was wondering what you guys would think about this: Firestone Winterforce LT

Would this be ideal tread type for my description? Is the winter tread too small and close to each other, do they need to be wider apart for removal of the snow?

Please feel free to critique me. Thank you all.

 

Also, I heard that it's even best to overinflate the tires by 5psi or so? Any truth to that

 

Years ago I had an old 1960 Caddie,, being young and cheap I put narrower tires on it. It was the best thing I ever did the narrow tires were great at cutting through snow and gripping and they also were much less likely to airplane on wet pavement.

Your only issue will be snow that is high enough to scrape your rear end on crusty snow. Then breaking though is a pain in the butt because you will be high centered. I've done this and it isn't all that bad. Snow is easy to move and get the rig going again, plus like you already mention dumping some air out helps. But if you are going to dump air I think you need to let a lot out bringing your pressure down below 20 lbs.

I'd say you main issue revolves around the rims you have and how narrow of a tire they will take or how much you want to spend on new rims and tires. The secondary issue will be load rating and how much weight you will be carrying.

 

Where do you live? There are different types of snow.

When I lived in the mid-south, when we got snow it was a wet snow and soon iced over, a good all-terrain works well for ice over, I like Michelin LTX A/T, BFG A/T, Firestone Destination A/T and the Wrangler A/T equally for traction, though the BFG and Michelin seem to last and wear better. This situation calls for reducing tire pressure below 20psi.

When I lived in an area with a dryer and deeper snow and no icing over, I prefered a tall skinny M/T same three brands as above are good. I would air down slightly on the M/T maybe to around 20-25 psi

 

Since the advent of radial tires I dont bother with aggresive treads. One spin and they are full of snow anyhow.Stay as narrow as is practical,dont over inflate,and a little weight in the bed helps. Just dont put so much in that you lose road clearence.And when all else fails you go to tire chains. Yes I know they are a pain but they will get you thru, or get you stuck so bad it will take a bulldozer to get you out.If you dont haul much weight stay away from LT (light truck) go with a P (passenger) tire.