Winter tires for PNW winters

I live in Beaverton, OR and travel over Santiam Pass to Bend and/or Willamette Pass to Klamath Falls about twice a week. I also ski Mt. Bachelor a lot so I am driving somewhere in the snow weekly if not daily through the ski season.

In the past I have run studded tires, usually Toyo or Hankook from Les Schwab on a range of rigs from an F350 to my wife's Prius. They have worked well except the noise and wear and tear on my shop floor and steep driveway. They also don't have the best non-snow performance because the studs tend to lengthen stopping distances on non-snowy roads.

I am considering going to studless winter tires for my new to me 2018 Tacoma TRD Offroad 4x4 and would like to hear from PNW Taco drivers to learn what has worked for you in our road conditions. I did a search here for winter tires and most of what I found was from several years ago and/or not really discussing our PNW winter road conditions. The technology has improved a bit so I thought it might be good to get some up to date local feedback.

Consumer Reports published some tests fairly recently and rated Michelin, Nokian Hakkapelitta and Blizzak as top 3 non-studded light truck winter tires. I am always a bit leary of CR's ratings on winter stuff since our winters a very different then the east coast where they do their testing. They tend to salt the heck out of the roads and we don't as much. They tend to have colder conditions than we do and we have lots of right at freezing wet slush or rain over packed ice conditions.

What non-studded winter tires work best in the real world PNW winters on Tacos?

Should I just stick with studs for those not so uncommon ice days?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and recommendations.

 

Can’t wait to see what people say myself.

 

I just replaced my wildpeak at3s with another set. I drive about 30k a year all around the Northwest... I don't want to mess with having a winter tire set, and these have served me right in all conditions. I got over 70k on my last set, with still a decent amount of tread. Last year I skied from Baker to Tahoe.

 

BFG Commercial T/A Traction tires have been superb and they’re able to be studded

 

Nothing will beat a dedicated winter tire. I had Blizzaks(not studded) at one point on my old 4Runner and those things were unbelievable.

 

Someone from Buffalo NY is someone to listen too when it comes to snow

 

They’ll climb walls

 

I have 255/85/R16 Cooper Discoverer on a set of steelies and they have done alright.

I have the stock rims still and Im thinking about putting a winter only tire on them.

 

Can I just say driving to kfalls twice a week from Beaverton is straight STUPID!! I mean I understand when you gotta do what you gotta do for work but damn....

Sorry I have no other insight

 

I just looked it up and that’s a far drive holy crap

 

I highly recommend the Blizzak DM's, especially for travelling up the mountain passes. I've lived in the PNW (Seattle and Portland) off and on for the past 7 years. I also spent 2 years in Boston where the snow was intense.

The thing about the PNW is that our streets get icy when temps are sub 32 degrees. This is when the dedicated winter tires are worth their weight in gold. I ran both studded tires on a previous Tacoma and also ran Blizzak WS80's on a 2wd BMW and I attest to their performance. The technology in the studless tires are so good that it's outperforming studded tires and is much quieter.

My suggestion is to keep your AT's on and have a dedicated set of Blizzaks to swap out as needed. You can run it all winter, but your tires will wear faster if temps are higher than 32 degrees.

 

I dont like Hakkas due to availability and they have shit wear. Rock hard after 3 years. I'm a tech in Canada.

The big 3 for light trucks is

Bridgestone Blizzak. Best performer, way better than studs. They tend to get loud, and wear out around 50%
Michelin XIce- Best long term performer, they last forever and perform well even at 5/32nds.
Toyo Oberserve GSi5/6. Aggressive tread, good for snow, walnuts in the tread.

If tread life is important with winters, the Xice is always the answer.

Avoid studdable tires as they have a tougher compound and perform poorly without the studs. Hankook Ipike were terrible for me even with studs.

My favorite budget winter is the Yokohama Ice Guards. Good studless performance for the money and decent tread life.

 

To clarify, I cross one of the mountain passes twice a week...once down and once back sometimes stopping near Bend for a few days. It may be stupid but its worth doing and will end eventually. My wife is taking care of her aging and not well mom in K Falls. I am back and and forth to provide support and doing some renovations to her house so it is safer and more accessible for her. For now its a lot of miles but I get some skiing in when I can as soon as the season gets going.

I need good snow tires. I'm leaning towards Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 which are available either with or without studs or R3 non-studded. The other option I like are the Blizzak DMV2 non studded. There is one comment so far in support of the Blizzaks. Anybody used the Nokians in PNW conditions?

Thanks
Buckstopper

 

Sorry - missed this one. Good info - I appreciate it. I had to laugh when I saw Toyo talking up the new "walnut shell" compound in their documentation. I learned how to drive in the snow in the 1970's on walnut shell tires. What's old is now new.

 

We have Toyo's GSI5 on my wife's Rav4. They are 3 years old and still very soft, 9-10/32nd left. Just installed them tonight, we got a nasty ice storm last night.

 

Distances are relative. I live in Spokane WA and used to live in Beaverton OR about 357 miles away. I drove up every week from Beaverton (ok I worked in McMinnville) to visit my girlfriend in Spokane who became my wife 27 years ago. Now you know why I moved. If you drive east from Spokane about 400 miles, you are still a long ways away from anywhere. We have big states out West.

If you have the cash dedicated snow tires are the way to go.

 

I agree with keeping the AT's on. I typically mount whatever winter tires I get on separate wheels so I can swap as needed. Blizzaks are moving up on my list given the previous post plus your comment.

Thanks

 

Made that run plenty of times last year with KO2s, out to hoodoo and back, or just playing in the woods.

 

Amazing what guys will do to see a gal. We've been married for 37 years and I did the trip for 4 years before we were married. In our case she moved up to Beaverton but I'm still making the trip.

 

I used the Wildpeaks last winter here in Seattle, regularly up in the Pass area, and we did have a couple snow storms, drove them in some deep snow and they were great!
My son has the Blizzaks and they were awesome!! So probably a real winter tire!!!