Winter Tires.

245/75p16 is stock on SR and SR5. Thats the stock spec. Tacoma.

 

Got it, thank you. My TRD came with the 265/70s but yes those 245s obviously will work. Thanks much!

 

Whether you should look at a big fluffy canoe paddle style winter tire or a small pizza cutter winter tire really depends on the road conditions you face. There has been some really good discussion about that in the last 24 months or so, only the last 3-4 pages of this thread. Good luck.

 

Just a placeholder check in. I am at 91,200 miles on the truck, and entering wintry conditions on my Geolandar tires. I am seeing overnight lows around +25dF, daytime highs around +35dF, the bridges (shocking I know) did freeze before the roads again this year. Pavement is bare, I do have some snow accumulation in the yard, but the tops of the grass are sticking out of what snow accumulation I have. I am at the weather point I would switch out my OE factory Dunlops for the Hakkas, but for now the Geolandar's are doing just fine. I will post up when I switch over to the Hakkas deeper into the snow season.

 

So that was a timely placeholder. I have about 2300 summertime miles on my Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015 s.

We had about 12 hours of freezing fog in Fairbanks today, it was pretty darn thick. Basically all the paved road now have a coat of black ice. I left my office around 8PM, no wagon ruts on even the main surface streets. I stayed off the freeway because visibility is also poor. Tonight is the night I would be taking off my factory Dunlops and putting on my other rims with the Hakkas mounted. But I am going to run the Geolandar a little bit longer with, at least for now, good confidence.

 

I've been running Nokians Hakka 8 studded on my 2012 Tacoma. On 1st gen Taco black stock steelies (they look better).

They are mostly overkill in eastern MA (now southern NH), but I got them because this used to be my wife's primary vehicle (mostly driven short distances) and an empty bed truck can get iffy in slippery conditions. Overkill because they plow and salt like there's no tomorrow around here, so sadly most of the miles the tires have seen were bare pavement. The studs are not really that much worn with only about 13k miles on them over 5 seasons. 6 season ahead and they are still lookin good.

Really great in pretty much all conditions, snow, slush, ice. But getting bit long in the tooth though and, it needs to be admitted, they are noisy as fuck in Tacoma. I use the truck now more for highway driving, and like 1h drive on studs gets really tiresome. The noise is also function of pavement type and sometimes can get deafeningly loud. In comparison to it, our 200-series Land Cruiser rolling on Hakka 9 in winter is much, much less noisy. Just a minor hum that's not really objectionable.

I've been thinking about switching to studless but haven't had pulled the trigger. R3 had unfavorable reviews re wet handling. I actually got a set but sent it back because it was an old stock (2018 tire, not paying new prices for 4 year old tire!). Now there is R5 and it does not look like that has improved much, though dry handling allegedly did. I will think I'll go with those.

My only experience with studless winter tires are with WRGR/WRG2 (way inferior to studded Hakkas) and X-Ice Xi3. X-ice are actually pretty great all around tire, and surprisingly decent on ice, though not as great in deep snow and particularly slush (understandable). But these are also on cars, not trucks. Oh, also Blizzak LM500 on an the electric i3. Pretty piss poor winter tire, but then the RWD i3 sucked in winter big time.

 

My local tire shop put the Toyo Observe GSIs (https://www.toyotires.com/product/observe-gsi-6/) on their winter tire recommend list, good price, get good reviews, and are available both 265-70-16 and 245-75-16. Is this tire stout enough for a DCLB with a topper? Thanks again

 

Observe have always been a great winter tire, regularly ranks close behind the Blizzaks in most reviews. The two are almost interchangable.

 

^^^ Thx much. I actually just searched via google (vs TW search) and found a decent number of pos mentions on the Toyos as well. Thx again

 

I have been rolling on Toyo Observe winters for 20+ years and wore out my GSi6 and just got a set of four GSi6 in 265-75-16 SL casings last week!
No worries on DCLB with the topper, I have that with sliders, etc.

 

Bingo! And sweet Monarch Pass pic

 

What was the dig on the R3? Was it the R3 SUV or the R3 LT? I have had the R3 SUV for two seasons now (two separate sets, long story) and didn't find any issues with wet handling, but I suppose compared to a KO2 anything is better than that. However, since you've got the break your teeth on the steering wheel 2G OR electric brake booster it may be more of an issue for you. I could make my ABS engage on that truck like nothing I'd ever experienced. I had a set of Hankook I-Pikes that were pretty solid too. The Hankooks were loud on dry roads though in terms of tire noise. Much, much louder than the Nokians.

 

Anyone have any experience running the Cooper Snow Claw tires? Looks like it’s the only winter/snow tire that’s not back ordered at my local tire shop…

 

Not directional, so when its wet and slushy, its less than ideal. Cooper truck winters have always been like this and its odd.

I've owned many winter tires and work and drive many variants. The non-directionals usually perform the worst overall.

If you do go that route, get them studded.

If you are really struggling to find a decent brand try switching sizes, like 245/75R16 to 265/70R16 etc.

I ended up settling with Yokohamas in 245 but kinda wished I went with Blizzaks in 265.

 

I have them right now and I would say they're ok. Not great. I've had generals and blizzaks and would say both are better. Still better than ko2s though

 

Thanks! I don’t have any experience with KO2’s, better than your average AT? I’ve been running The Cooper AT3/4S and they were great the first couple of years, but tread getting pretty low these days. Looks similar to the 4S, but a lot more siping. I’d imagine they would be better?

 

Those 4S coopers have a lower glass-transition rubber that’ll play better in low temps than the KO2s. If TW is any reference, all tires are going to be best in the first half of their tread life

 

Blizzaks 3rd season - clear the snow and drive away. Zero worries with 14" of fresh snow and no plows until tomorrow.
I'm the only bored driver out there today.

 

I have a question re: LT vs SL rated tires for my truck. I currently have Blizzak DM-V2 265/75r16 tires for the winter. At the end of last season I put holes in the shoulders of two of them offroading at low pressure . As a stopgap, I threw in some plugs which are holding on ok, but one keeps backing itself out slowly so for peace of mind I want to replace them.

I'd like to keep the 265/75r16 tire size, the DM-V2's aren't available in that size anymore. The two best options I've found in my budget are the Toyo Observe GSi-6 and the Nokian Hakkapeliitta LT3. I'm in a 1st gen taco, not super heavy save for a sleeping platform and ARB bumper. I don't do any towing and will throw my Falken Wildpeaks back on for any offroading trips this winter. If possible I'd like to save $200 and some weight (only about 2.1lbs/tire) and go with the Observe GSi-6's over the Hakkapeliitta. They both have a load rating of 116. I'm wondering if I can get away with the less beefy Toyo and not regret it or if I should suck it up, pay more, and be happier in the long run.

Here's my truck at the moment, for reference:

 

I get my Duratracs siped and run them year round because I'm in the bush so much. If I was on pavement, I'd run those Blizzaks.

At work this morning.