Falken wild peaks WINTER PSI?

I have a new 23 Tacoma MT with 285 wildpeaks on her.

Just wondering what PSI you are running in winter snow and ice conditions?

Drive into work today was pretty sketchy with ice. Sliding around like crazy in both 2wd and 4wd

 

25-26 is as low as Id go for cold weather on any road going tire for tacoma (no load). It wont make a huge difference on E rated 285s though, its a firm tire.

Any lower and its honestly time for a dedicated winter.

 

Mine are P rated and currently at 34 all around. Might drop it to 30 and see how it handles. I can't see mileage being much worse than it already haha

 

I find people tend to over sell their winter (at3w) performance. They're good, on snow and slush, but ice and packed snow is a different animal.

Putting some weight over the rear axle helps too.Tacomas are super light in the rear.

 

For sure, I feel the same way. I think snow is fine but once ice is in the mix it's a whole different ball game.

Before this truck I had a ram rebel and it had wrangler duratrac ATs on it. They weren't bad on ice. But then again, the truck was heavier

 

All weather tires will never be as good as 4 winter tires on ice and hard pack snow. 4wd only gets you going better. It doesn't help with cornering or stopping. You don't say where you live but if you get a lot of ice for many months you may want good winter tires on all 4. Best advice overall is drive to the conditions which means, slow down.

 

20+ winters of driving in PA and WV and I never aired down for on-road snow/slush driving. If you're concerned, dedicated snow tires are the way to go, like @canuck guy said. I ran Blizzaks on my non-4x4s and wow what a difference they make. They will make a FWD more capable in normal 1-5" snow conditions than any 4x4 with AT/MT tires.

 

What exact size?

If they’re P285/70R17, then you should be at 26 PSI and even that is overinflated, but that’s as low as you should safely go because P-metric tires are not rated below 26 PSI. And when I say you should be at that pressure, I mean that for year round. That is where the tires should be to support the same load that the stock tires supported at the door sticker pressure. Larger tires support more load than smaller tires, so going from your stock P265/65R17 to P285/70R17 increases the load carrying capacity substantially. So you lower the pressure, but there is a minimum safe pressure which for P-metric is 26 psi. So you stop there even though technically P285/70R17 at 26 PSI carries significantly more weight than your stock tires did.

Winter or summer doesn’t change anything. You need the pressure to be the recommended pressure when the tires are cold. Add air in the winter to maintain that and assuming you aren’t slowly losing air over time, then you’ll remove air in the summer to maintain that as well.

Addressing winter conditions specifically would be using chains, studs, or winter tires. Nothing to do with pressure, the pressure should be what it is year round to maintain proper load carrying capacity.

 

Here is a tire pressure calculator This will give you the corrected pressure based on the factory pressure set by the manufacturer.

As for sliding around on ice, as mentioned by several already, these are not a winter tire. I have Toyo Open Country AT III's that are 3 peak rated and I still run a dedicated snow tire in winter. I run Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 SUV's. Best snow tire I have ever had. There is no such thing as a tire that will be great in summer and winter... you can have one or the other...


And here come the Duratrac guys... my tires are awesome in the winter

 

I personally run dedicated winters- I'm a tire guy full time currently. I've mounted and balanced just about everything around on midsized trucks- as @Speedfreak says, Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 SUV's are pretty much the top dog in snows. The Bridgestone Blizzak DM-V2 is right there with them but they tend to wear faster in dry, non snow conditions, even at low negative temperatures. Up in the Yukon and far north rural states, the Blizzaks are the preferred tires as they do better on unmaintained pure snow roads, where as in more urban/warmer areas the Hakkas do better in a mixed condition. Michelin X-ice, Toyo Observe GSI (my choice due to availability) and Yokohama IceGuard and right up there too.

My whole point to this rant that is, if you're not happy with the AT3Ws in snow, lowering pressure a few pounds isn't really gonna have a massive effect. Your next step is looking at a dedicated set of winter tires.

I briefly ran my 33 inch (255/85/16) Cooper STT MAXX S/Ts in the snow last year. All I'll say is I will be buying another set of dedicated snows after this set is done, lol.

 

I just switched from Duratracs to Wilpeak's, and I can confirm the Duratracs where slightly better. But I still love my Wildpeaks...

Anyways, I set mine to 34 psi all around, all year long. They always drop a few psi's when it's cold out.

Both tires are NOT as good as a winter tires (on the ice) only.

 

Whatever you do, just make sure to let out the summer air first to prevent cross-contamination with the winter air when you fill them back up.

Joking aside, yeah I'd drop 285s to like 30. They will suck on ice no matter what they are because 285s are big and floaty on ice versus something skinnier. If your bed is empty, load it up with 300-400lbs of sandbags and it will feel much more sure footed.

Rant/fanboi'ing for tire brands/models since it seems how this thread is going: I've run a few different tires now over the years. Duratracs were good in Nineteen-O-Jesus when they came out at the same time the wheel was invented, now overrated. BFG KO2 are overrated, I don't like them for much of anything. General Grabber ATX for the snow and ice is where it's at, and they are good in the summer too. Will be repacing the Generals with some Kendas when I move up to 33s, supposedly those are pretty good too. I ran different PSI in all of them depending on tire load range and chalk testing the patterns. No two are the same, have to experiment for yourself on pressures.

 

what the door says to

because you’re not on winter tires

 

Unless I’m running snow covered fire roads, I run the same pressures in winter as summer.
Airing down for snow doesn’t make any sense.

 

Running my 315/70R17 E load at 25psi in the winter, it's about -15C/5F at the moment so the tires are pretty hard and frozen. I've got about 350 pounds in the bed (hard shell RTT, bed rack, full sized 35" spare, steel gas tank skid plate, Hi-Lift jack etc) and I haven't had any issues with traction on ice in 4H. Waiting for the AT4W to be released in a few months to go down to C load (6 ply), the E load is overkill and way to firm for these small trucks in terms of GVWR which is why I'm running way below the 35psi which is the minimum pressure on the Falken chart with the max being 65psi.